ABSTRACTA state-of-the-art discussion on the applications of magneto-rheological (MR) suspensions for improving ride comfort, handling, and stability in ground vehicles is discussed for both road and rail applications. A historical perspective on the discovery and engineering development of MR fluids is presented, followed by some of the common methods for modelling their non-Newtonian behaviour. The common modes of the MR fluids are discussed, along with the application of the fluid in valve mode for ground vehicles’ dampers (or shock absorbers). The applications span across nearly all road vehicles, including automobiles, trains, semi-trucks, motorcycles, and even bicycles. For each type of vehicle, the results of some of the past studies is presented briefly, with reference to the originating study. It is discussed that Past experimental and modelling studies have indicated that MR suspensions provide clear advantages for ground vehicles that far surpasses the performance of passive suspension. For rail vehicles, the primary advantage is in terms of increasing the speed at which the onset of hunting occurs, whereas for road vehicles – mainly automobiles – the performance improvements are in terms of a better balance between vehicle ride, handling, and stability. To further elaborate on this point, a single-suspension model is used to develop an index-based approach for studying the compromise that is offered by vehicle suspensions, using the H2 optimisation approach. Evaluating three indices based on the sprung-mass acceleration, suspension rattlespace, and tyre deflection, it is clearly demonstrated that MR suspensions significantly improve road vehicle’s ride comfort, stability, and handling in comparison with passive suspensions. For rail vehicles, the simulation results indicate that using MR suspensions with an on-off switching control can increase the speed at which the on-set of hunting occurs by as much as 50% to more than 300%. 相似文献
A new regularisation of non-elliptical contact patches has been introduced, which enables building the look-up table called by us the Kalker book of tables for non-Hertzian contact (KBTNH), which is a fast creep force generator that can be used by multibody dynamics system simulation programs. The non-elliptical contact patch is regularised by a simple double-elliptical contact region (SDEC). The SDEC region is especially suitable for regularisation of contact patches obtained with approximate non-Hertzian methods for solving the normal contact problem of wheel and rail. The new regularisation is suitable for wheels and rails with any profiles, including worn profiles.
The paper describes the new procedure of regularisation of the non-elliptical contact patch, the structure of the Kalker book of tables, and parameterisation of the independent variables of the tables and creep forces.
A moderate volume Kalker book of tables for SDEC region suitable for simulation of modern running gears has been computed in co-simulation of Matlab and program CONTACT.
To access the creep forces of the Kalker book of tables, the linear interpolation has been applied.
The creep forces obtained from KBTNH have been compared to those obtained by program CONTACT and FASTSIM algorithm. FASTSIM has been applied on both the contact ellipse and the SDEC contact patch. The comparison shows that KBTNH is in good agreement with CONTACT for a wide range of creepage condition and shapes of the contact patch, whereas the use of FASTSIM on the elliptical patch and SDEC may lead to significant deviations from the reference CONTACT solutions.
The computational cost of calling creep forces from KBTNH has been estimated by comparing CPU time of FASTSIM and KBTNH. The KBTNH is 7.8–51 times faster than FASTSIM working on 36–256 discretisation elements, respectively.
In the example of application, the KBTNH has been applied for curving simulations and results compared with those obtained with the creep force generator employing the elliptical regularisation. The results significantly differ, especially in predicted creepages, because the elliptical regularisation neglects generation of the longitudinal creep force by spin creepage. 相似文献