A rotary variable admittance device and its application in vehicle seat suspension vibration control. Issue 14 (September 2019)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Ning, Donghong; Sun, Shuaishuai; Yu, Jianqiang; Zheng, Minyi; Du, Haiping; Zhang, Nong; Li, Weihua
• Is Part Of: Journal of the Franklin Institute. Volume 356:Issue 14(2019)
• Page Start: 7873
• Page End: 7895
• Publication Date: 2019-09
• Subjects: Science -- Periodicals; Technology -- Periodicals; Patents -- United States -- Periodicals; 505
• DOI: 10.1016/j.jfranklin.2019.04.015
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 0016-0032

Abstract

Abstract: In this paper, a novel semi-active variable admittance (VA) concept is proposed, and a seat suspension prototype with a magnetorheological fluid damper based rotary VA device is designed, manufactured, and experimentally validated. The conventional inerter with a single flywheel has a constant inertance, which can effectively improve the suspension performance by being integrated into a mechanical network with springs and dampers. The proposed rotary VA device comprises a gear reducer, two flywheels and a variable damping (VD) device which is used to connect the two flywheels. With carefully designing, the rotary VA device is compacted and is similar with a VD device in size. The rotary VA device is installed in the centre of a seat suspension's scissors structure to form a VA seat suspension. According to the test results, the equivalent inertance of the seat suspension can vary from 11.3 Kg–76.6 Kg with a 3 Hz frequency and 5 mm amplitude sinusoidal movement by changing the current from 0 A–1 A. By analysing the system characteristics, a hybrid controller with two acceleration feedbacks is proposed. Thereafter, the seat suspension and controller are validated in experiments by comparing the performance with a conventional passive seat suspension. The random vibration test shows the excellent performance of the proposed seat suspension; the frequency weighted root mean square acceleration of the seat is reduced by 43.6%, which indicates a great improvement of the ride comfort. The VA device shows great prospect in the suspension application.