Ride Comfort Analysis of a Full-vehicle Featuring Magnetorheological Shock Absorbers

This paper presents ride comfort analysis of a full-vehicle featuring controllable magnetorheological (MR) shock absorbers. In order to achieve this goal, two flow mode MR shock absorbers (one for front suspension; one for rear suspension) are designed using an optimization methodology based on design specifications for a commercial passenger vehicle. The optimization problem is to find optimal geometric dimensions of the magnetic parts for the front and rear MR shock absorbers in order to improve the performance such as damping force. After manufacturing the proposed MR shock absorbers, their field-dependent damping forces are experimentally evaluated. The governing equation of motion for the full-vehicle is then established and integrated with the model of the MR shock absorbers. Subsequently, skyhook controllers for the MR suspensions are formulated and implemented. Ride comfort performances of the full-vehicle installed with the proposed MR shock absorbers are evaluated under bump and random road.