Development of new air spring dynamic model

Abstract

Air springs are well known for their low transmissibility coefficients and their ability to vary load capacities easily by changing only the gas pressure within the springs. Air springs can be used for a mechatronic approach in suspension design because of their ability to provide a controlled variable spring rate and they offer simple and inexpensive automatic levelling. Air spring dynamic model with frequency dependent characteristics has been developed for the purpose of this research. The mathematical model enables application of the model in simulation without many experimentally obtained parameters. Frequency dependence of the stiffness characteristic implemented in the new model is the main difference between the classical models and the new dynamic model. The verification of the dynamic air spring model is done by an experiment. The experimental results and results obtained by simulation in Matlab/Simulink are compared.