Control of steering wheel idle jitter based on optimization of engine suspension system with verifications using multi-sensor measurement

Abstract

Strong steering wheel jitter during idling states of the engine can seriously deteriorate the driving comfort as well as the driving safety. The powertrain suspension system can be considered as the only essential path for the transmission of vibrations from the engine to the vehicle cab. Its vibration isolation performance directly affects the severity of vibrations on the steering wheel. In this article, aiming at solving the problem of a certain type of commercial vehicle’s steering wheel with strong idle jitter at the idle state, the intrinsic characteristics and vibration isolation performances of the powertrain suspension system were studied in detail. A multi-sensor-based measurement strategy was utilized to evaluate the idle jitter severity of the steering wheel. In order to improve the indicators of the decoupling degree, the vibration transmissibility, and the resonant frequency distributions of the engine suspension system, an optimization model of engine suspension system was established. Parameters of the optimized suspension system were obtained by multi-objective particle swarm optimization. Finally, the effectiveness and feasibility of the optimization algorithm to solve the problem of the vehicle’s steering wheel jitter at idle states were verified through a test using multiple acceleration sensors, which has practical values in the engineering field.