Authors: X. Carrera Akutain (1), J.Vinolas(2) and J.

Savall(2)
(1)

Manuel de Lardizabal 13, 20018 Donostia-San Sebastian (Spain)

Tel.: +34 943219877. Fax.: +34 943311442
URL: www.tecnun.es, www.tecnun.es/automocion
E-mail: xcarrera@tecnun.es
(2)

Manuel de Lardizabal 15, 20018 Donostia-San Sebastian (Spain)

Tel.:+34 943212800. Fax: +34 943213076
URL: www.ceit.es
E-mail: jvinolas@ceit.es & jsavall@ceit.es

IMPROVEMENTS ON SAFETY AND DRIVING DYNAMICS WITH

A SEMI-ACTIVE SUSPENSION EQUIPPED SPORTS CAR

The interest produced by the advantages of controllable suspensions

has flourished in the last decades among the automotive researchers.
Premium and popular car manufacturers are also increasingly introducing
semi-active suspensions, as well as other active elements into the market,
trying to integrate these systems on an active chassis network. Fully active
suspension systems are the most powerful tool to control the vibration modes,
modify the vehicle attitude and improve the overall suspension performance.
Nevertheless, its implementation in high-class commercial cars is restricted to
handle relatively low frequency body movements, due to excessive cost,
weight and power consumption of the externally powered actuators. An
example of that is the ABC system of the Mercedes SL. Semi-active dampers
could appear to be even more limited, as they present a different control input
generation mechanism. In this case no energy can be supplied to the system,
contrary to the more freedom of the fully active systems. The semi-active
suspensions require meaningfully less power but it should be remarked that
instead provide high bandwidth control over the passively generated damping
forces, exhibiting a performance approaching that of a fully active systems [1-
3]. Several car manufacturers are increasingly introducing this type of
suspensions, initially in luxury and super-sport cars, but at the same time
trying to offer the system as a standard feature. The most valid example is
that of the Opel Astra [4], which can be supplied with the CDC ‘skyhook’
system developed by ZF Sachs. Monroe and Öhlins have made a similar
effort, developing a continuously variable damper (CVD) system, called
CES/Four C in the Volvo top series.
 The dynamics of dampers are known to strongly influence vehicle ride
comfort, handling and the level of noise, vibration and harshness (NVH). On
one hand, if the aim is to get a good handling of the car, the tire-road forces
need to be stable. A main target is to minimise the variation of vertical load on
the tyre in order to improve safety and look for better lap times. On the other
hand, vibrations induced by road profiles should provoke minimal discomfort
to the passengers, if a good ride comfort is intended. These two features are
often antagonistic and dampers are one of the most critical points to reach a
satisfactory compromise. In this manner, conflict diagrams between dynamic
tyre load (DTL) and vertical body acceleration become an interesting feature
to tune semi-active suspension controllers.
Initially, the majority of theoretical studies focused its efforts on control
policies applied to ideal systems. Later studies demonstrated that taking into
consideration the practical constraints of the system does have a significant
importance in the final results. In reality, as controlled dampers cannot track
perfectly the force demand of an idealized model, a practical system should
be based on the following premises:

• The time response of the actuator is not immediate

• The relationship between the damper valve opening rate and the
obtained damper force is highly non-linear
• The maximum and minimum damping rates are limited
The implementation in a real vehicle of a control policy designed in an
idealized environment probably will give severe performance degradation,
respect to the idealized model. A comprehensive study of the dynamics of the
controllable dampers is therefore an unavoidable step.
The strong influence of damping constraints, threshold delay and first
order lag in vehicle ride quality in a quarter car model with on/off dampers and
CVDs was simulated by Crolla [5]. He suggested that the threshold delay and
time constant both should remain below 10ms in order not to compromise in
excess the performance achievable with skyhook control. Heo et al [6]
introduced a second order lag in simulations with different control policies,
obtaining promising results in ride comfort without sacrificing driving safety.
HiL testing carried out by Kitching et al. [7] resulted in minimization of RMS
body accelerations for road data and bump inputs using modified skyhook
(MSD) control. Recently, Bae, Hwang et al [8] developed a semi-independent
discrete-stage variable damper system (DSVD) activated by a 16-step stepper
motor. This system, measuring only body vertical velocity through integration
and applying pure skyhook with FFT for frequency range identification, is
claimed to achieve better attitude control and vibration isolation in bench and
driving test than the passive system in a broad range of frequencies.
Not only ride considerations but, handling response has received also
attention, with examples like the fully active Lotus Formula1 explained by
Wright and Williams [9] and the multibody and road testing developments of
Kortüm, Valasek et al. [10, 11], including the influence of the actuator
dynamics on the overall performance of the non-linear extended ground hook
control [12].
 Utilizing DSVD shock absorbers and a new design of load cells, the
work here presented describes the design of a semi-active suspension for a
single-seater off-road sports car. The onboard network is programmed and
controlled via a standard PDA. These specifically created applications simplify
the user interface. In this manner, there is no need to compile a new program
on the laptop for each small change on parameters, control strategy,
initialisation, etc. A customized interface interprets the action of the user and
transmits it to the control unit of the vehicle. The goal function could be biased
to maximum grip and vehicle handling or to smoother ride and comfort. Safety
will lie on somewhere between, depending on driving circumstances, assisted
by adaptive discrete control actions.
Because of inherent non-linearities of the automobile suspensions, one
necessary step has been to build a suitable damper model taking into account
this feature. In a similar manner to the damper models of Reybrouck and
Duym [13, 14], the model proposed contains few easy to identify parameters in
order to provide physical insight and to make it manageable and
computationally light enough to function real-time. Advanced experimental
work is done, which makes the model match the desired results during real
driving manoeuvres. The development of the damper model, its latter
implementation in full vehicle simulations and track testing validation are
briefly explained. The model fitting has been performed in Matlab/Simulink
environment with graphical interface objects. The aim is to deepen in reliable
control strategies including real constraints, by means of a comprehensive
and detailed description of the system limits. A simple open-loop control
combined with an effective reset action is applied to move the stepper motors
to the desired position suppressing the step-error of previous works.
Subsequently, the dynamic properties of the studied stepper motors are
analysed. This study shows purpose-built experimental hardware and
software and results illustrated on the figures presented.
1. Ahmadian, Mehdi (1997) 'A Hybrid Semiactive Control for Secondary Suspension
Applications', Proceedings of the ASME Dynamic Systems and Control Division, vol.
DSC-Vol. 61, pp. 743-750.

2. Karnopp, D.C., Crosby, M.J., Harwood. R.A. (1975) 'Vibration Control Using Semi-
Active Force Generators', ASME Journal of Engineering for Industry Vol. 96, No. 2,
pp. 619-626.

3. Margolis, D. (1982) 'The Response of Active and Semi-Active Suspensions to

Realistic Feedback Signals', Vehicle System Dynamics Vol. 11, pp. 267-282.

4. Anon. (2004) '"Skyhook" Helps to Keep the Car's Feet on the Ground',
AutoTechnology Vol. 4, pp. 30-31.

5. Crolla, D.A., Firth,G.R.,Hine,P.J.,Pearce,P.T. (1989) 'The Performance of

Suspensions Fitted with Controllable Dampers', Proc. 11th IAVSD Symposium on
"Dynamics of Vehicles on Roads and Railway Tracks", Kingston, Canada, pp. 149-
165.

6. Heo, S.J., Park,K. And Hwang,S.H. (2000) 'Performance and Design

Consideration for Continuously Controlled Semi-Active Suspension Systems', Int. J.
of Vehicle Design Vol. 23, No. 3/4, pp. 376-389.

7. Kitching, K.J., Cole, D.J.,Cebon,D. (2000) 'Performance of a Semi-Active Damper

for Heavy Vehicles', ASME Journal of Dynamic Systems Measurement and Control
Vol. 122, No. 3, pp. 498-506.

8. Bae, J.Y., Hwang,S.H.,Kim,M.H. And Lee,S.R. (2003) 'Development of Semi-

Independent Type Continuously Variable Damper System by Perfomance Evaluation
of Full Vehicle Test', Int. J. of Vehicle Design Vol. 31, No. 3, pp. 269-288.

9. Wright, P.G., Williams,D.A. (1984) 'The Application of Active Suspension to High

Performance Road Vehicles', IMechE conference publications.

10. Kortüm, W., Valasek,M., Sika,Z., Schwartz,W., Steinbauer,P., Vaculin,O. (2002)

'Semi-Active Damping in Automotive Systems: Design-by-Simulation', Int. J. of
Vehicle Design Vol. 28, No. 1/2/3, pp. 103-120.

11. Valasek, M. (2004) 'X-Friendly Vehicles', EUROMECH 452. Advances in

Simulation Techniques for Applied Dynamics, Halle (Saale), Germany.

12. Valasek, M.,Novak, M.,Sika, Z. and Vaculin, O. (1997) 'Extended Ground-Hook-

New Concept of Semi-Active Control of Truck's Suspension', Vehicle System
Dynamics Vol. 27, pp. 289-303.

13. Reybrouck, K. (1994) 'A Non Linear Parametric Model of an Automotive Shock
Absorber', pp. pp.79-86.

14. Duym, S., Reybrouck,K. (1998) 'Physical Characterization of Nonlinear Shock

Absorber Dynamics', European Journal Mech. Eng. Vol. 43, No. 4, pp. 181-188.