Investigation on semi-active control of vehicle suspension using adaptive inerter

The analysis of passive control with inerter in suspension system has been well studied in previous work by employing different configurations and optimizing the spring stiffness, damping coefficient and inertance simultaneously. In this paper, we study the suspension performance with semi-active control under the assumption that the inertance may be adjusted in real-time. The suspension system is designed to attenuate the vertical acceleration of the sprung mass. A quarter-car model is considered, and the inerter is installed parallel to the spring and damper. First, an analysis is provided on the influence of a fixed inerter to a given suspension system. Then, a state-feedback H2 controller for active suspension system is designed. The active force is approximated by an inerter with adaptive inertance. Simulation results show that comparing with the passive suspension with a fixed inerter, the designedH2 controller realized by adaptive inerter can achieve good improvement of ride comfort at the sprung mass natural frequency at the expense of a relatively small deterioration at the unsprung mass natural frequency. Copyright © (2014) by the International Institute of Acoustics & Vibration All rights reserved.postprin