Measurements were made at Mercantec on a Citroen C5 with a hydro pneumatic suspension.

It has
somewhat the same principle of operation as the air suspension present on the VW Phaeton, Tuareg,
Audi A8, Mercedes etc.

Specifically everything is based on a hydraulic circuit whose main effect of maintaining the vehicle at
the same height and weight regardless of the quality of the roads, speed or the extra weight of the
car.

The camshaft is linked to the high pressure pump through a pulley and will pump the pressure to all
of the circuit. A connective distributor regulates the pressure to a certain value discharging when the
desired value is exceeded. The pressure then comes to the telescopes, the breaking pump and the
power steering.

The most important aspect is what is happening to the telescopes.

In their end areas are loaded spheres with hydraulic fluid that have a rubber septum in the middle.
The membrane has on one side a pre-set pressure on the sphere and on the other hand the pressure
that is coming from the telescope. Thus, when it passes over a bump, it pushes the membrane, but
by balancing the pressures it will return immediately so that the car will have a smooth passing by.

It has also the advantage of when running with speed, will keep the telescope permanent pressure
in order for the car to have a good grip on the ground, which matters a lot for the driver’s
experience.

I remain at the idea that C5 Hydractive suspension makes this car the most comfortable mid-size
sedan in the world. Meanwhile, there is another mid-range model that provides a similar suspension
system.

Typically, air suspensions are very comfortable but noisy on the bumps, Citroen having no problems
like this. The suspension will produce the annoying noises inside the cockpit only if you forget to
deactivated the Sport shock absorber when you enter on roads with problems (with a many bumps).
Otherwise, you can run a C5 with Hydractive suspension with a very low noise level, comparing to
other cars that have standard suspension, which are much loader and at some points are bringing a
big discomfort to the passengers.
http://www.promotor.ro/teste-auto/teste-anduranta/anduranta-citroen-c5-4944591

First of all it's about the flawless air suspension (Hydractive) that provides a great comfort to
passengers, that brings a lot of customers for the French manufacturer. Even I was very
impressed by the filtration efficiency from road shocks and how this is emposing a relaxing
driving style when you are in a Citroen C5.

I have tested at Mercantec a Citroen C5 2.0 HDi, with automatic gearbox, in normal driving
conditions. With the help of Bosch 2.0 Esitronic tester, there were taken as a reference
points of the normal level of suspensions in certain stages of the road. I took instantaneous
values, namely the suspension values and I entered into a table. It made as well a graph to
observe the oscillations of the vehicle in normal driving conditions.
 Reference Moment in time
level 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12
Vehicle
level at 154 141 163 141 140 156 135 141 134 152 157 164 158
front
Vehicle
level at 112 121 103 122 116 107 127 119 127 112 109 110 109
rear

Movement Oscilati on
140

120

100

80

60

40

20

0
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13
Rea r Level Front Level

I made other simulations and measurements on an Audi A8 3.0 TDI equipped with an air suspension
system. The first simulation was to test the weight. The trunk was filled with about 150 kg and I read
the amount of deviation from sensors placed in the rear suspension and the front. The values can be
found in the table below.

Front suspension Back suspension

Left Right Left Right
Trunk empty -6 mm -2 mm 1 mm 6 mm
Trunk full -4 mm 2 mm -28 mm -22 mm

The next step was with the raised suspensions, simulating an emergency braking on a wet terrain,
when, due to inertia, all the weight was pressing on the front axle of vehicl. In this regard, I raised the
back axle of the vehicle, by checking the front and rear suspension oscillations. The values can be
found in the table below.

Front suspension Back suspension

Left Right Left Right
 Normal driving 117 mm 118 mm 115 mm 119 mm
Braking hard 119 mm 121 mm 92 mm 95 mm

After I took the measurements from the Audi A8, a car with an air suspension system and the
measurement I took from the Citroen C5, which has a hydraulic suspension system, it was time to
make a simulation with a car that has a conventional suspension system. I chose a car that is roughly
the same class as the other two. This was an Audi A6 2.5 TDI 2003.

Because the cars with conventional suspension don’t come with a plan to test directly the
oscillations from their on-board computer, we used an infrared device that measures distance. I've
put that device to the front bumper of the car and I did the same simulations as the Audi A8, namely
I raised the rear axle to simulate an emergency brake, I pushed on the front, and then I filled the
trunk and did the same measurements. But this time we measured at a fixed distance from the body
to the ground and I pulled the differences between the two oscillations.

Front suspension Back suspension

Normal driving 650 mm 730 mm
Braking hard 720 mm 680 mm

In the chart below is a simulation in real road conditions with Audi A8 at an average speed of 25km /
h. I simulated a serpentine road to see what is the deviation of the suspensions and rocking the car
when the road is not straight. We created a graphic in which we can observe the deviation on each
wheel depending on the steering angle of the steering wheel.

Another kind of suspension that is not yet standard or optional on the conventional cars
is the magnetic suspension. We hope that this type of suspension will be in the near
future at least as an option for the future cars. From the market perspective demands
and sales will be a road opening for next generation of comfort, handling and car safety.
First I will explain how it works and some ideas on how it can be used and what other
components of the car, except suspension can replace.
The porpose of magnetic ride suspension is to be able to actually control the damping
force of your suspension. So how it can do that? Most of the action happens in the shock
absorber. Inside the magnetic suspension is a shock absorber that looks like a regular
one with a piston and as long as piston compresses, the fluid that is inside will move
through piston channels up and down. And as the hydraulic fluid is restricted to the
small holes into piston (piston channels) it dampens down the force and it tries to stop
moving. At first look magnetic shock absorber is doing absolutely the same thing like a
regular shock absorber, but with a very important differences.
First thing, instead of the regular hydraulic oil in the piston there is a special oil with
tiny metal particles mixed with the oil that can be magnetically attracted. The piston
that is connected with the shock absorber and actually the piston itself is an
electromagnet that is basically a coil of copper wires. When a current goes throw that
coil, it creates a magnetic field that is passing throw piston channels where is present
the fluid with metal oil. When the current is not passing throw coil, the shock absorber
acts basically like normal shock absorber, with the fluid passing through the small holes
in the piston and reduces the force of the road exerted to the car. But when a current is
passing throw the coil, a magnetic field is created, and what it does, it will align all the
tiny metal particles from the fluid in all the suspension and will make the fluid much
more thick. And when it happens, the fluid it will have much tougher time to move
through layers of align metal particles that is holded in place by the electromagnetic
piston. So basically it stiffens the suspension quite a bit . So if you go to a corner and you
do not want the body to roll the system is activating the help by some sensors and a
current will pass by electromagnet, you will not going roll at all because the suspension
is much more stiff .
Basically you can change the act of your suspension only by changing the voltage in
the electromagnet. This one can be done manually with a controller, or it will be a
computer that does this for you and with help of a lot of sensors, will automatically
adjust the suspension depending of the road and handling of the car.
Advantages of a system like this is that you can have variable damping, active and fully
adjustable. With the conventional shock absorber, the coil has only one stiffness setting.
Because there are no moving parts and everything is depending on electricity, all the
settings can be changed up to 1000 times per second. And it has independent control of
each wheel. All that do is changing the voltage independent for each wheel. And because
there are fewer moving parts, you have less parts to fail and to replace. And that makes
it more reliable then the conventional, air or hydraulic suspension systems. And it
reduce very efficient the body roll, it absorbs very well bumps in the road. If there is a
bump, from being very stiff, it can instantly go to be very soft, and after stiff again and
make your ride as smooth as possible.
The only disadvantage is that is very expensive like every technology in the beginning,
and in most of the cases, when a new and better technology comes on the market,
because of cost of developing and because of its complexity, it will be expensive.
For the moment, the magnetic suspension can be found on sport or exclusive cars, like
Chevrolet Corvette, Cadillac, Ferrari, Acura, Range Rover Evoque , Audi R8, etc.
 A very big advantage that electromagnetic shock absorber has, is that is not only
consuming a very little energy, but can produce one. Imagine an electric car that it
charges its batteries while drive normally because of the bumps in the road. And in
theory as flat as a car drive, as much the shock absorber moves up and down and as
much the energy is produced. We will wait and see, I hope ass soon as possible, I will
drive an electric car that will feel that smooth like I am standing still, and have minimum
3 times driving range and half of weight than our days. And of corse affordable. And all
this because a component that we used for hundreds of years: suspension.