Compromising vehicle handling and passenger ride comfort using ER-damper

Abstract

This paper presents the superiority of electrorheological damper in controlling the unwanted vibration caused by road surface irregularities. First, a mathematical model to describe the flow behavior on the damper is developed based on parallel plates approach. After determining the load condition and the damping level of the damper, the suspension then is simulated in several road conditions, which are simplified as sine waves. The ride comfort is evaluated by the force transmitted from the road to the passenger, while the road handling is evaluated by amplification ratio. The result shows that electrorheological damper can achieve the best compromise between vehicle road handling and passenger ride comfort by adjusting its damping level due to the road condition. For the nominal damper design, the electric field strength needed to achieved the best compromise at the excitations frequency as high as 2, 3 and 5 Hz is 1.3, 4.7 and 6 kV/ mm respectively.