Vibration of Air Suspension Bogies and Their Design

Abstract

In this paper, at first the authors analyze the dynamic characteristics of the self-damped air spring on the basis of the linear theory from the standpoint of the design of air suspension bogies. The equivalent mechanical model of the self-damped air spring is obtained, which is a kind of socalled elastically supported damper systems, and the relationship among the elements of the model and the design parameters of the air spring are given. Then, using the mechanical model, both natural vibration and transient response of the air suspension bogie are analyzed numerically. As the result, it is shown that the natural frequency and the damping ratio of the self-damped air suspension bogie scarcely vary with the car body weight, and the self-damped air suspension can reduce the magnitude of the transient response compared with a conventional mechanical suspension with oil-dampers.