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A new pneumatic suspension system with independent stiffness and ride height tuning capabilities

Research output: Contribution to Journal/MagazineJournal articlepeer-review

Published
  • Zhihong Yin
  • Amir Khajepour
  • Dongpu Cao
  • Babak Ebrahimi
  • Konghui Guo
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<mark>Journal publication date</mark>2012
<mark>Journal</mark>Vehicle System Dynamics
Issue number12
Volume50
Number of pages12
Pages (from-to)1735-1746
Publication StatusPublished
<mark>Original language</mark>English

Abstract

This paper introduces a new pneumatic spring for vehicle suspension systems, allowing independent tuning of stiffness and ride height according to different vehicle operating conditions and driver preferences. The proposed pneumatic spring comprises a double-acting pneumatic cylinder, two accumulators and a tuning subsystem. This paper presents a detailed description of the pneumatic spring and its working principle. The mathematical model is established based on principles of thermo and fluid dynamics. An experimental setup has been designed and fabricated for testing and evaluating the proposed pneumatic spring. The analytical and experimental results confirm the capability of the new pneumatic spring system for independent tuning of stiffness and ride height. The mathematical model is verified and the capabilities of the pneumatic spring are further proved. It is concluded that this new pneumatic spring provides a more flexible suspension design alternative for meeting various conflicting suspension requirements for ride comfort and performance.