In this chapter, a hybrid active and semi-active seat suspension for heavy-duty vehicles is experimentally investigated to fill the performance gap between the two kinds of seat suspensions. An active actuator with low continuous force output, which is insufficient for an active seat suspension system, is applied together with a semi-active MRF damper. It has several advantages. First, the energy consumption will be less than a merely active seat suspension. Second, the benefits of active and semi-active seat suspension in vibration control will be integrated. The MRF damper can assist the active actuator to suppress the high resonance vibration with low energy consumption, and at the higher frequency (2-4 Hz) vibration, the semiactive seat suspension cannot further improve the seat suspension performance, but the active actuator further reduces the vibration with small force output. Third, it is a fail-safe system because of the semi-active actuator; the failure of the active actuator will have less influence on the system security. Additionally, the low-power active actuator has a small size and a low current requirement which can benefit the installation and application of the hybrid system in an existing semiactive seat suspension. In this study, the proposed hybrid controller only applies measurable variables in practical application.

Chapter Contents:

• 7.1 Hybrid active and semi-active seat suspension design and prototype
• 7.1.1 Motivation
• 7.1.2 Prototype
• 7.2 The seat suspension prototype test and model identification
• 7.2.1 Testing method
• 7.2.2 Test results
• 7.2.3 Model identification
• 7.3 Control algorithm
• 7.3.1 Hybrid seat suspension model
• 7.3.2 Controller design
• 7.4 Evaluation
• 7.4.1 Numerical simulation
• 7.4.2 Experimental setup
• 7.4.3 Experimental results
• 7.5 Conclusion
• References

Inspec keywords: energy consumption; seats; suspensions (mechanical components); magnetic actuators; magnetic fluids; vibration control; shock absorbers; automotive components; road vehicles; magnetorheology

Other keywords: fail-safe system; measurable variables; hybrid controller; frequency 2 Hz to 4 Hz; semiactive MRF damper; heavy-duty vehicles; low current requirement; high resonance vibration suppression; energy consumption; hybrid active/semiactive seat suspension; low continuous force output; vibration control; low-power active actuator; system security

Subjects: Intelligent materials; Vibrations and shock waves (mechanical engineering); Road-traffic system control; Products and commodities; Mechanical variables control; Mechanical components; Other final control equipment; Automotive transportation (energy utilisation)