Ride quality control of a full vehicle suspension system featuring magnetorheological dampers with multiple orifice holes

Abstract

This study proposes a relationship between the ride comfort of passenger vehicles and two different types of magnetorheological (MR) dampers, with and without orifice holes in the piston. To achieve superior ride comfort, two cylindrical-type MR dampers with identical dimensions (piston radius, pole lengths, and the distance between two poles) are proposed. One of the MR dampers adds the orifice holes in the piston bobbin to obtain a relatively low damping force slope in the low piston velocity region. To enhance the ride quality of a passenger vehicle, the damping force slope of the rear damper should be more gradual than that of the front damper. Thus, it can be inferred that identical semi-active vehicle systems require normal MR dampers in the front and MR dampers with orifice holes in the rear, with proper control strategies. To evaluate ride performance, a robust sliding mode controller was designed. It is demonstrated through simulation that the proposed vehicle system produces better ride comfort than vehicle systems equipped with only one type of MR damper.