Ride comfort performance of heavy truck with three control cases of semi-active isolation systems

Abstract

In order to evaluate the performance of heavy truck’s semi-active isolation systems, a half-vehicle dynamic model with three control cases including the seat controlled, the cab controlled, and the vehicle controlled is respectively established. Matlab/Simulink software and the fuzzy logic controller (FLC) are applied to simulate and control the semi-active isolation systems of the heavy truck under two types of step and random road surfaces. The weighted root-mean-square acceleration responses and the acceleration responses of the vertical driver’s seat and the cab’s pitch angle are chosen as the objective functions. The research results show that the vehicle’s ride comfort is significantly improved by three control cases. Especially, in two simulation studies, the vertical driver’s seat vibration and the cab shake are greatly decreased by using the cab controlled. Therefore, the cab controlled surpasses the other types of control for improving the driver’s ride comfort and controlling the cab shake.