Controllable Electrically Interconnected Suspension System for Improving Vehicle Vibration Performance

In this article, we propose a novel controllable electrically interconnected suspension (EIS) for improving vehicle ride comfort, which is systematically studied and experimentally validated. Different to the mechanical or hydraulic energy in the traditional interconnected suspensions, the EIS system is interconnected with the electrical energy that is transformed from vibration energy by independent electromagnetic suspensions. We introduce a two-degree-of-freedom (two-DOF) EIS system comprising a controllable electrical network (EN) and two independent electromagnetic suspensions to present the system design and analysis method. The electromagnetic suspension's mechanical characteristics are related to the applied electrical elements. Similarly, the EN of the EIS can determine the heave and roll dynamics. Experiments are implemented to validate the system model. The EIS system is then applied in a half-car model with one kind of EN topology. The frequency and time domains simulations show that the vehicle performance at heave and roll are both improved by controlling resistors in the EN. The proposed EIS system can determine the suspension characteristics (damping, stiffness, and inertance) in different DOFs with electrical elements, and the EN is easy to embed into the vehicle system. Besides, the system only requires energy for controlling the electrical elements, which is very low. The EIS system shows great potential in the practical applications.