Design and vibration control of military vehicle suspension system using magnetorheological damper and disc spring

This paper proposes a new type of magnetorheological (MR) fluid based suspension system and applies it to military vehicles for vibration control. The suspension system consists of a gas spring, a MR damper and a safety passive damper (disc spring). Firstly, a dynamic model of the MR damper is derived by considering the pressure drop due to the viscosity and the yield stress of the MR fluid. A dynamic model of the disc spring is then established for its evaluation as a safety damper with respect to load and pressure. Secondly, a full military vehicle is adopted for the integration of the MR suspension system. A skyhook controller associated with a semi-active actuating condition is then designed to reduce the imposed vibration. In order to demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed MR suspension system, a computer simulation is undertaken showing the vibration control performance of such properties as vertical displacement and pitch angle, evaluated for a bumpy road profile.