Effect of magnetorheological damper parameters on dynamic responses of a full-vehicle suspension system

This paper investigates how magnetorheological (MR) damper parameters affect the dynamic response of a full-vehicle suspension system in much detail. The constitutive mechanical model and characteristics of MR damper are firstly obtained and analyzed, which preferably describes the physical parametric features of MR damper. To simplify the impact analysis model, a full-vehicle control model with the PID decoupling controller based on the inverse model for MR damper is established. In line with the above developed full-vehicle model, the impact analysis of input current on the suspension dynamic responses is obtained by updating the equivalent damping coefficient of MR damper. The effect of MR damper parameters on the dynamic responses is investigated based on the RMS of the percentage-based slope, and its wear effect caused by the friction loss in practical application is also discussed. The experimental results show that the piston diameter and cylinder inner diameter have greater influence on the dynamic responses than other influence parameters include the coil turns, effective piston length and piston rod diameter. In contrast, the apparent viscosity of MR fluids has little influence on the dynamic responses. In addition, the MR semi-active suspension has better stability than the passive suspension when parameter perturbation occurs in the suspension system. It is necessary to ensure that MR damper has the suitable maximum output damping force and large enough dynamic range simultaneously.