A Comparison of Ride Performance of Hydro-Pneumatic Suspension System with Those of Rubber and Leaf Suspension Systems

Abstract

Abstract The objectives of this study is to compare the performance of the hydro-pneumatic suspension system of heavy truck on cab ride comfort with rubber and leaf springs of suspension systems. To compare the three types of suspension systems, a three-dimensional dynamic model of heavy truck with 15 degrees of freedom (DOF) is established based on Zhou Changfeng model under random excitation of road surface for simulation and analysis. The root mean square (r. m. s) acceleration of the vertical cabin, pitch angle, and roll angle of cabin is chosen as objective functions. Matlab/Simulink software is used to simulate and calculate the values of objective functions. The ride performance of the hydro-pneumatic suspension system on vehicle is analyze and compared to two other supension systems when vehicle operates under different operating conditions. The results show that the values of objective functions with the hydro-pneumatic suspension system are significantly reduced in comparison with the rubber and leaf suspension system. The ride performance of Hydro-pneumatic suspension system is much better than that of the rubber and leaf suspension systems.