Semi-active suspension influence on comfort sensation of a vehicle occupant

This article presents an analysis of a modern-day vehicle semi-active suspension performance impact on comfort properties of its occupant. Vehicles chosen for the investigation had two different suspension-driving options, characterized as Comfort and Sport modes. These options change such vehicle parameters as suspension stiffness, algorithm of gearbox operation, and sensitivity of the steering system. Altering these two modes while driving at different speeds and on different road surfaces, vertical accelerations, affecting the occupant seat, were measured. Experiments and data processing were carried out according to ISO 2631-1 standard. After filtering the aforementioned vertical accelerations, the occupant comfort sensation was expressed as the vibration dose value (VDV) and the root mean square (RMS) of vibration acceleration value. Once the fast Fourier transform (FFT) was applied and vertical accelerations were converted to the frequency domain, spectral analysis of accumulated measurements was performed. After evaluating the comfort of an occupant, a summary of the vehicle suspension-driving mode influence is presented