Improvement on ride and handling performance in HMMWV suspension control using dual acting semi-active suspension system

In suspension controller design, the ride comfort and handling characteristic of a vehicle reveal conflicting compromises. Due to the difference in working frequencies between the body and the wheel of the vehicle, the controller parameters are constrained by the performance of either ride or handling dynamic performance. In this paper, a newly proposed dual acting semi-active suspension system is presented to overcome the conflict in the suspension control design. A pair of concentrically arranged piston-cylinder in the dual acting semi-active suspension system can be controlled by individual damping values respectively for dissipating the unwanted body and wheel motion. The results from this study proves that the proposed dual acting semi-active suspension system shows better improvement in the vehicle body performance compared to single acting semi-active suspension system. Also, the performance of the proposed system in improving the performance of wheel dynamics is also significantly better than single acting semi-active suspension system.