Semi-active Sliding Mode Control of Vehicle Suspension with Magneto-rheological Damper

The vehicle semi-active suspension with magneto-theological damper（MRD） has been a hot topic since this decade, in which the robust control synthesis considering load variation is a challenging task. In this paper, a new semi-active controller based upon the inverse model and sliding mode control （SMC） strategies is proposed for the quarter-vehicle suspension with the magneto-rheological （MR） damper, wherein an ideal skyhook suspension is employed as the control reference model and the vehicle sprung mass is considered as an uncertain parameter. According to the asymptotical stability of SMC, the dynamic errors between the plant and reference systems are used to derive the control damping force acquired by the MR quarter-vehicle suspension system. The proposed modified Bouc-wen hysteretic force-velocity （F-v） model and its inverse model of MR damper, as well as the proposed continuous modulation （CM） filtering algorithm without phase shift are employed to convert the control damping force into the direct drive current of the MR damper. Moreover, the proposed semi-active sliding mode controller （SSMC）-based MR quarter-vehicle suspension is systematically evaluated through comparing the time and frequency domain responses of the sprung and unsprung mass displacement accelerations, suspension travel and the tire dynamic force with those of the passive quarter-vehicle suspension, under three kinds of varied amplitude harmonic, rounded pulse and real-road measured random excitations. The evaluation results illustrate that the proposed SSMC can greatly suppress the vehicle suspension vibration due to uncertainty of the load, and thus improve the ride comfort and handling safety. The study establishes a solid theoretical foundation as the universal control scheme for the adaptive semi-active control of the MR full-vehicle suspension decoupled into four MR quarter-vehicle sub-suspension systems.

SEMI-ACTIVE CONTROL OF VEHICLE SUSPENSION WITH MAGNETO-RHEOLOGICAL DAMPERS:PART Ⅰ——CONTROLLER SYNTHESIS AND EVALUATION

A modified skyhook-based semi-active controller is proposed for implementing an asymmetric control suspension design with symmetric magneto-rheological （MR） dampers. The controller is formulated in current form, which is modulated by integrating a continuous modulation and an asymmetric damping force generation algorithms, so as to effectively minimize switching and hysteretic effects from the MR-damper. The proposed controller is implemented with a quarter-vehicle MR-suspension model, and its relative response characteristics are thus evaluated in terms of defined performance measures under varying amplitude harmonic, rounded pulse and random excitations. The sensitivity of the semi-active suspension performance to variations in controller parameters is thoroughly evaluated. The results illustrate that the proposed skyhook-based asymmetric semi-active MR-suspension controller has superior robustness on the system parameter variations, and can achieve desirable multi-objective suspension performance.

Skyhook-based Semi-active Control of Full-vehicle Suspension with Magneto-rheological Dampers

The control study of vehicle semi-active suspension with magneto-rheological (MR) dampers has been attracted much attention internationally. However, a simple, real time and easy implementing semi-active controller has not been proposed for the MR full-vehicle suspension system, and a systematic analysis method has not been established for evaluating the multi-objective suspension performances of MR full-vehicle vertical, pitch and roll motions. For this purpose, according to the 7-degree of freedom (DOF) fullvehicle dynamic system, a generalized 7-DOF MR and passive full-vehicle dynamic model is set up by employing the modified Boucwen hysteretic force-velocity (F-v) model of the MR damper. A semi-active controller is synthesized to realize independent control of the four MR quarter-vehicle sub-suspension systems in the full-vehicle, which is on the basis of the proposed modified skyhook damping scheme of MR quarter-vehicle sub-suspension system. The proposed controller can greatly simplify the controller design complexity of MR full-vehicle suspension and has merits of easy implementation in real application, wherein only absolute velocities of sprung and unsprung masses with reference to the road surface are required to measure in real time when the vehicle is moving. Furthermore, a systematic analysis method is established for evaluating the vertical, pitch and roll motion properties of both MR and passive full-vehicle suspensions in a more realistic road excitation manner, in which the harmonic, rounded pulse and real road measured random signals with delay time are employed as different road excitations inserted on the front and rear two wheels, by considering the distance between front and rear wheels in full-vehicle. The above excitations with different amplitudes are further employed as the road excitations inserted on left and right two wheels for evaluating the roll motion property. The multi-objective suspension performances of ride comfort and handling safety of the proposed MR full-vehicle suspension are thus thoroughly evaluated by comparing with those of the passive full-vehicle suspension. The results show that the proposed controller can ideally improve multiobjective suspension performances of the ride comfort and handling safety. The proposed harmonic, rounded pulse and real road measured random signals with delay time and asymmetric amplitudes are suitable for accurately analyzing the vertical, pitch and roll motion properties of MR full-vehicle suspension system in a more realistic road excitation manner. This research has important theoretical significance for improving application study on the intelligent MR semi-active suspension.

The Knee Joint Design and Control of Above-knee Intelligent Bionic Leg Based on Magneto-rheological Damper

The above-knee intelligent bionic leg is very helpful to amputees in the area of rehabilitation medicine. This paper first introduces the functional demand of the above-knee prosthesis design. Then, the advantages of the four-bar link mechanism and the magneto-rheological （MR） damper are analyzed in detail. The fixed position of the MR damper is optimized and a virtual prototype of knee joint is given. In the end, the system model of kinematics, dynamics, and controller are given and a control experiment is performed. The control experiment indicates that the intelligent bionic leg with multi-axis knee is able to realize gait tracking of the amputee＇s healthy leg based on semi-active control of the MR damper.

SEMI-ACTIVE CONTROL OF VEHICLE SUSPENSION WITH MAGNETO-RHEOLOGICAL DAMPERS PARTⅡ——EVALUATION OF SUSPENSION PERFORMANCE

The design and analysis of an intelligent vehicle suspension with MR dampers should address hybrid semi-active control goals, such as rejection of current-switching discontinuity and MR-damper hysteresis, asymmetric damping from the symmetric MR-damper design, robustness on the vehicle operation parameter uncertainties and consideration of essential multiple suspension goals. Following the proposed skyhook-based asymmetric semi-active controller （Part I ） for achieving the above goals, herein, a set of suspension performance measures and three kinds of varying amplitude harmonic, rounded pulse and really measured random excitations are systematically defined, and the sensitivity of quarter-vehicle MR-suspension performance to variations in operating conditions is thoroughly analyzed. The results illustrate that the proposed skyhook-based semi-active MR-suspension in the asymmetric mode yields relatively superior dynamic responses to meet the multiple suspension performances of ride, rattle space, road-holding and dynamic tire force transmitted to the pavement, and has desirable robustness on variations in operating conditions of vehicle load and speed and the road roughness.

SEMI-ACTIVE CONTROL OF VEHICLE SUSPENSION WITH MAGNETO-RHEOLOGICAL DAMPERS:PART III—EXPERIMENTAL VALIDATION

A hardware-in-the-loop （HIL） test and simulation platform is developed in the laboratory, so as to validate the performance characteristics of the proposed skyhook-based asymmetric semi-active controller in Part I, and examine the validity of the proposed MR-damper model in a system surrounding. A real-time monitor is designed to assess and monitor the responses of the quarter-vehicle model in the HIL platform, and to select the excitation, controller synthesis, and the output displays. A drive current circuit hardware employing PID feedback technique is developed to compensate for the time delays from the servo-controller and drive current circuit, in which a small resistance is integrated in the current amplifier circuit to provide the feedback signal. The experiments were performed to measure the responses of the quarter-vehicle MR-suspension models with fixed current and the proposed semi-active MR-damping variations, under harmonic, rounded pulse and random road excitations. The measured data were compared with the corresponding model results to examine the model and controller validity, and revealed generally good agreements in the model and tested results and very little sensitivity of the tested responses to variations in the sprung mass. The HIL test results validate the effectiveness of the proposed skyhook-based semi-active asymmetric controller and its high robustness against the vehicle load variations in view of the intelligent vehicle suspension design.

Structure Analysis for a New Type of Vane Hydraulic Damper Using Magneto-rheological Fluid

Over recent years the progress in actuator and microelectronics technology has made intelligent suspension systems feasible.Based on conventional vane hydraulic damper,a new vane magneto-rheological fluid(MRF) damper with fail-safe capability is designed.Firstly,the mathematical model of damping moment is deduced based on the parallel-plate model and Bingham model of MR fluids.Secondly,some influence factors of damping adjustable multiple are analyzed to provide some ways for augmenting the damping adjustable multiple under the condition of keeping initial damping moment invariable.Finally,the magnetic circuit is designed,and magnetic field distribution is simulated with the magnetic finite element analysis software-ANSOFT.The theory and simulation results confirm that the damping adjustable range of vane MRF damper can meet the requirement of heavy vehicle semi-active suspension system.

GENERALIZED ASYMMETRIC HYSTERESIS MODEL OF CONTROLLABLE MAGNETORHEOLOGICAL DAMPER FOR VEHICLE SUSPENSION ATTENUATION

A generalized model is synthesized to characterize the asymmetric hysteresisforce-velocity (F-v) properties of the magneto-rheological (MR) fluids damper. The model isrepresented as a function of the command current, excitation frequency, and displacement amplitude,based on the symmetric and asymmetric sigmoid functions. The symmetric hysteresis damping propertiesof the controllable MR-damper and properties of the conventional passive hydraulic damper can alsobe described by the proposed model. The validity of the model is verified by experiments, which showthat the results calculated from the model are consistent with the measured data. In addition, itis shown that the model applies to a wide vibration frequency range. The proposed model haspotential application in vehicle suspension design employing the symmetry MR-damper, and also indeveloping the asymmetry MR-damper especially for the vehicle suspension attenuation.

Hysteresis-induced bifurcation and chaos in a magneto-rheological suspension system under external excitation

The magneto-rheological damper （MRD） is a promising device used in vehicle semi-active suspension systems, for its continuous adjustable damping output. However, the innate nonlinear hysteresis characteristic of MRD may cause the nonlinear behaviors. In this work, a two-degree-of-freedom （2-DOF） MR suspension system was established first, by employing the modified Bouc-Wen force-velocity （F-v） hysteretic model. The nonlinear dynamic response of the system was investigated under the external excitation of single-frequency harmonic and bandwidth-limited stochastic road surface. The largest Lyapunov exponent （LLE） was used to detect the chaotic area of the frequency and amplitude of harmonic excitation, and the bifurcation diagrams, time histories, phase portraits, and power spectrum density （PSD） diagrams were used to reveal the dynamic evolution process in detail. Moreover, the LLE and Kolmogorov entropy （K entropy） were used to identify whether the system response was random or chaotic under stochastic road surface. The results demonstrated that the complex dynamical behaviors occur under different external excitation conditions. The oscillating mechanism of alternating periodic oscillations, quasi-periodic oscillations, and chaotic oscillations was observed in detail. The chaotic regions revealed that chaotic motions may appear in conditions of mid-low frequency and large amplitude, as well as small amplitude and all frequency. The obtained parameter regions where the chaotic motions may appear are useful for design of structural parameters of the vibration isolation, and the optimization of control strategy for MR suspension system.

Group Method of Data Handling for Modeling Magnetorheological Dampers

This paper proposes the use of Group Method of Data Handling (GMDH) technique for modeling Magneto-Rheological (MR) dampers in the context of system identification. GMDH is a multilayer network of quadratic neurons that offers an effective solution to modeling non-linear systems. As such, we propose the use of GMDH to approximate the forward and inverse dynamic behaviors of MR dampers. We also introduce two enhanced GMDH-based solutions. Firstly, a two-tier architecture is proposed whereby an enhanced GMD model is generated by the aid of a feedback scheme. Secondly, stepwise regression is used as a feature selection method prior to GMDH modeling. The proposed enhancements to GMDH are found to offer improved prediction results in terms of reducing the root-mean-squared error by around 40%.

Finite Difference Solution of Response Time Delay of Magneto-rhelological Damper

Magneto-rhelological（MR） dampers are devices that employ rheological fluids to modify their mechanical properties. Their mechanical simplicity, high dynamic range, lower power requirements, large force capacity, robustness and safe maimer of operation in cases of failure have made them attractive devices for semi-active real-time control in civil, aerospace and automotive applications. Time response characteristic is one of the most important technical performances of MR dampers, and response time directly affects the control frequency, application range and the actual effect of MR dampers. In this study, one kind of finite difference solution for predicting the response time ofmagneto-rheological dampers from ＂off-state＂ to ＂on-state＂ is put forward. A laminar flow model is used to describe the flow in the MR valve, and a bi-viscous fluid flow model is utilized to describe the relationship of shear stress and shear rate of MR fluid. An explicit difference format is used to diseretize the Novior-Stoks equation, and stability condition of this algorithm is built by Von-Neumann stability criterion. The pressure gradient along the flow duct is solved by a dichotomy algorithm with iteration, and the changing curve of the damping force versus time of MR damper is obtained as well. According to the abovementioned numerical algorithm, the damping forces versus time curves from ＂off-state＂ to ＂on-state＂ of a cylindrical piston type MR damper are computed. Moreover, the MR damper is installed in a material test system（MTS）, the magnetic field in the wire circles of the MR damper is ＂triggered＂ when the MR damper is imposed to do a constant speed motion, and the damping force curves are recorded. The comparison between numerical results and experimental results indicates that this finite difference algorithm can be used to estimate the response time delay of MR dampers.

Semi-Active Control of Wave-Induced Vibration for Offshore Platforms by Use of MR Damper

The objective of the present research is to examine the effectiveness of the lateral vibration control of wave-excited response of offshore platforms with magneto-rheological (MR) damper. In this study, the offshore platform is simplified to be a singled degree-of-freedom (SDOF) system by extracting the first vibration mode of the structure. The external 'generalized' wave force is determined with a white noise via a designed filter. A semi-active control method based on optimal control theory is proposed considering that the yield stress of the MR damper can he varied continuously within a certain range. The dynamics of SDOF structure coupled with the MR damper is investigated. Numerical simulation demonstrates that the MR damper with this control strategy can significantly reduce the maximum responses and the root-mean-square (RMS) values.

GENERATION OF ASYMMETRIC F-v CHARACTERISTICS FOR SYMMETRIC MR DAMPERS

An asymmetric damping force generation algorithm is originally proposed to yield the asymmetric force-velocity characteristics for the symmetric magneto-rheological （MR） dampers. The command current is formulated in an asymmetric manner to excite the symmetric MR dampers by employing the “on-off” control law in response to the direction of velocity, and a smooth modulation function is developed without phase shift to suppress strong transients in the damping forces caused by the current-switching discontinuity. The effectiveness of the proposed algorithm is evaluated by analyzing the dynamic responses of a quarter-vehicle suspension system with a symmetric MR-damper by modulating the command current into the asymmetric manner. The simulation results show that the proposed algorithm could achieve a better compromise between the conflicting requirements of the asymmetric damping force ratio and the force-velocity curve smoothness, and the asymmetric damping MR-suspension design can ideally improve the road holding and ride performances of vehicle motion. The proposed algorithm can be generally incorporated with a controller synthesis to realize an intelligent vehicle suspension design with the symmetric MR dampers.

基于MRD优化布置的水轮发电机组碰摩系统振动抑制

针对水轮发电机组转子-转轮系统碰摩故障问题,采用磁流变液阻尼器(magneto-rheological damper,MRD)对轴系振动进行抑制,旨在探究MRD对机组轴系振动的影响规律及其对系统碰摩故障的抑制效果。首先,将机组轴向位置函数引入MRD非线性动力学模型,推导了碰摩故障下含轴向分布参数的MRD-转子-转轮系统动力学方程。其次,基于数值模拟方法,以机组转速为控制参数对比分析了是否考虑MRD的转子-转轮系统非线性动力学行为。最后,研究了不同MRD轴向布置参数对碰摩转子-转轮系统动力学行为的影响。研究结果表明:MRD的加入对转子、转轮非稳态运动具有良好约束作用,能够显著减小转子、转轮振动幅值,有效避免了机组轴系碰摩故障的发生;当阻尼器位置参数s_(1)、s_(2)分别取0.25与0.95时,MRD对系统的减振效果最佳。通过在机组轴系合理布置MRD,可有效改善系统振动情况,从而为水轮发电机组振动控制提供有益指导。

磁流变减振器滞回特性的改进Bouc-Wen模型

由于现有的磁流变减振器数学模型不能准确描述其特性,因此对大行程磁流变阻尼器进行了动态特性试验。根据测试结果分析激励位移、激励频率和电流变化时,磁流变减振器的弹性、阻尼、电流饱和等基本特征的动态非线性特性。已有的Bouc-Wen模型在低速下滞回环描述不准确,在高速下缺少滞回特性,并且无法表述单出杆减振器中蓄能器造成阻尼力偏置的现象,因此根据试验结果提出一种改进的Bouc-Wen模型,通过试验数据对改进的Bouc-Wen模型进行参数辨识,并重点分析速度-力特性曲线在低速与高速情况下所形成滞环的斜率及宽度,试验数据验证了改进Bouc-Wen模型的正确性。

基于天棚On-Off控制的磁流变半主动悬架研究

以平行平板流动模型和Bingham模型为理论基础,推导了磁流变减振器的阻尼力计算公式.在车辆悬架动态性能模拟试验台上对磁流变减振器的示功特性和速度特性进行了试验验证.最后基于天棚on-off控制,利用dSPACE搭建了实车试验平台,并进行了实际越野路面的道路试验.试验结果表明:与传统被动悬架对比,磁流变半主动悬架能够很好地抑制车身以及驾驶员座椅的低频共振峰值,降低车身垂向振动幅值,提高车辆行驶平顺性和乘坐舒适性.

磁流变液阻尼器-转子-滑动轴承系统稳定性实验研究

通过实验研究了支承在磁流变液阻尼器和滑动轴承上的转子系统在振动主动控制过程中的运动稳定性问题。实验发现 ,当转子升速、控制电流稳定时 ,随着控制电流的增大 ,在一定转速范围内会出现由滑动轴承引起的油膜涡动和油膜振荡 ;而当转速稳定、突然施加或撤除控制电流时 ,转子的振动可在短时间内达到新的稳态 ,不会发生失稳 ,此后 ,在一定转速和控制电流条件下转子系统仍会发生失稳 ;但采用开关控制抑制转子临界振动时系统能稳定运转。研究表明 。

斜拉索-磁流变阻尼器系统半主动控制的神经网络法

磁流变阻尼器具有良好的可变阻尼特性 ,能用于结构的半主动控制。针对斜拉桥拉索 -磁流变阻尼器系统 ,本文提出了利用神经控制器进行半主动控制的神经网络法 ,该神经控制器根据过去时刻的加速度响应和控制信号预测下一时间步的控制信号 ,并给出了训练方法及开展了数值仿真研究。仿真结果显示 ,采用神经网络半主动控制能取得很好的减振效果 。

MR阻尼器控制与滞环特性相分离的F-v模型

提出了一种基于对称和不对称Sigmoid函数,描述半主动可控磁流变液(MR)阻尼器阻尼力一相对速度(F-v)数学模型。该模型准确地描述了MR阻尼器非线性饱和的直流电流控制和对称滞环F-v的工作特性,以及激励频率和幅度对阻尼力的强影响特性,具有精度高和电流控制增益与滞环算子相分离的特点。将该模型与车辆悬架动力学模型结合分析,仿真结果表明MR阻尼器对实现新一代智能车辆悬架系统设计有潜在的意义,所提出的模型对进一步推动车辆悬架减振控制器设计研究有重要作用。

螺杆挤压-旋转式磁流变阻尼器力学特性研究

传统的磁流变阻尼器所产生的阻尼力通常与驱动速度相关,呈现出黏性阻尼特征。为获得具有库伦阻尼特征的磁流变阻尼器,提出一种具有大尺寸的螺杆挤压的旋转式磁流变阻尼器(screw-rotary magneto-rheological damper,简称SR-MRD)并对其进行力学特性研究。首先,通过分析SR-MRD的结构原理,并基于平板模型来建立各个流体通道的速度分布;其次,基于Herschel-Bulkley模型建立SR-MRD流体力学模型,计算SR-MRD内部压力差以及扭转剪切力;然后,根据SR-MRD流体力学模型计算阻尼力矩,并分析各项关键参数对阻尼力矩的影响;最后,通过加工制作原理样机完成振动试验,验证力学模型的有效性以及阻尼器的实际输出阻尼力矩性能。研究结果表明:SR-MRD试验阻尼力矩与理论计算值基本符合;与传统的旋转式阻尼器相比,不仅能够产生较大的阻尼力矩,而且还具备明显的库伦阻尼特征。