• Journal of the Korean Society for Precision Engineering
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• v.20 no.7
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• pp.128-137
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• 2003

Continuously variable damper can yield diverse damping forces for a single damping velocity. It is widely used in the semi-active suspension system since, with right control logics, it can enhance ride comfort compared to the passive damper while not degrading driving safety. A key to the successful design of the continuously variable damper is the knowledge of its complex and nonlinear characteristics. In this paper, research has been done for analyzing characteristics of the continuously variable damper. Various damper components have been investigated and their effects upon the force-velocity characteristics of the damper have been examined. The effects of the damper characteristics change upon ride comfort and driving safety have also been investigated by numerical simulations.

• Smart Structures and Systems
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• v.6 no.8
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• pp.953-974
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• 2010

The performance of variable dampers for seismic protection of the benchmark highway bridge (phase I) under six real earthquake ground motions is presented. A simplified lumped mass finite-element model of the 91/5 highway bridge in Southern California is used for the investigation. A variable damper, developed from magnetorheological (MR) damper is used as a semi-active control device and its effectiveness with friction force schemes is investigated. A velocity-dependent damping model of variable damper is used. The effects of friction damping of the variable damper on the seismic response of the bridge are examined by taking different values of friction force, step-coefficient and transitional velocity of the damper. The seismic responses with variable dampers are compared with the corresponding uncontrolled case, and controlled by alternate sample control strategies. The results of investigation clearly indicate that the base shear, base moment and mid-span displacement are substantially reduced. In particular, the reduction in the bearing displacement is quite significant. The friction and the two-step friction force schemes of variable damper are found to be quite effective in reducing the peak response quantities of the bridge to a level similar to or better than that of the sample passive, semi-active and active controllers.

• Transactions of the Korean Society for Noise and Vibration Engineering
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• v.14 no.9 s.90
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• pp.837-845
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• 2004

A variable friction damper for vehicle driveline has been proposed. This new torsional damper system uses a solenoid as an actuator to vary friction force of the damper. To verify the idea of using a solenoid in a variable damper system, the test fixture and the dampers are made and tested. Also, to find out the range of damper friction forces that influence the vehicle driveline vibration, a mathematical model of the driveline had been developed and simulated. Test and simulation results show that, within electric current used in the vehicle electric system, the solenoid can develop enough friction force that will surpass resonance in the driveline of 1.5 L Gasoline engine vehicle during acceleration.

• Smart Structures and Systems
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• v.4 no.4
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• pp.493-515
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• 2008

Semi-active control systems have attracted a great deal of attention in recent years because these systems can operate on battery power alone, proving advantageous during seismic events when the main power source of the structure may likely fail. The behavior of semi-active devices is often highly non-linear and requires suitable and efficient control algorithm. This paper presents the comparative study and performance of variable semi-active friction dampers by using recently proposed predictive control law with direct output feedback. In this control law, the variable slip force of semi-active variable friction damper is kept slightly lower than the critical friction force, which allows the damper to remain in the slip state during an earthquake, resulting in improved energy dissipation capability. This control algorithm is able to produce a continuous and smooth slip forces for a variable friction damper. The numerical examples include a structure controlled with multiple variable semi-active friction dampers and with multiple passive friction dampers. A parameter, gain multiplier defined as the ratio of damper force to critical damper control force, is investigated under four different real earthquake ground motions, which plays an important role in the present control algorithm of the damper. The numerically evaluated optimum parametric value is considered for the analysis of the structure with dampers. The numerical results of the variable friction dampers show better performance over the passive dampers in reducing the seismic response of structures.

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Automotive Engineers
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• v.1 no.1
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• pp.90-100
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• 1993

This paper presents some inherent characteristics of a semi-active variable damper featuring electro-rheological (ER) fluid. The damping force of the damper can be selectively adjusted or controlled by employing electric field to the ER fluid domain. This is possible owing to the pressure drop across the piston occured by field-dependent variable yield stress of the ER fluid. This is fundamentally different than the performance of a conventional adjustable viscous damper. To demonstrate the effectiveness and superiority over the conventional one, the proposed damper is incorporated with a suspension system. A quarter car model with the suspension system is formulated and represented by a state equation. By choosing numerical values based on realistic package size, power requirements and suitable ER properties, the performance characteristics of the suspension system are obtained and evaluated in both frequency and time domains. The effects of constant electric field and on-off controlled electric field which relates to the damping force are also examined.

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Automotive Engineers
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• v.10 no.3
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• pp.192-200
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• 2002

Semi-active suspension systems are greatly expected to be in the mainstream of future controlled suspensions for passenger cars. In this study, a continuous variable damper for a passenger car suspension is developed, which is controlled actively and exhibits high performance with light weight, low cost, and low energy consumption. To get fast response of the damper, reverse damping mechanism is adapted, and to get small pressure change rate after blow-off, a pilot controlled proportional valve is designed and analyzed. The reverse continuous variable damper is designed as a HS-SH damper that offers good body control with reduced transferred input force from tire, compared with any other type of suspension system. The damper structure is designed, so that rebound and compression damping force can be tuned independently, of which variable valve is placed externally. The rate of pressure change with respect to the flow rate after blow-off becomes smooth when the fixed orifice size increases, which means that the blow-off slope is controllable using the fixed orifice size. The damping force variance is wide and continuous, and is controlled by the spool opening, of which scheme is usually adapted in proportional valves. The reverse continuous variable damper developed in this study is expected to be utilized in the semi-active suspension systems in passenger cars after its performance and simplicity of the design is confirmed through real car test.

• International Journal of Automotive Technology
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• v.3 no.1
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• pp.27-32
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• 2002

Semi-active suspension systems are greatly expected to be in the mainstream of future controlled suspensions fur passenger cars. In this study, a continuous variable damper for a passenger car suspension is developed. It is controlled actively and exhibits high performance with light weight, low cost, and low energy consumption. To get fast response of the damper, reverse damping mechanism is adapted, and to get small pressure change rate after blow-off, a pilot controlled proportional valve is designed and analyzed. The reverse continuous variable damper is designed as a HS-SH damper which offers good body control with reduced transferred input force from tire, compared with any other type of suspension system. The damper structure is designed, so that rebound and compression damping force can be tuned independently, of which variable valve is placed externally. The rate of pressure change with respect to the flow rate after blow-offbecomes smooth when the fixed orifice size increases. Damping forces are measured with the change of the solenoid current at the different piston velocities to confirm the maximum hysteresis of 20N, linearity, and variance of damping farce. The damping farce variance is wide and continuous, and is controlled by the spoof opening, of which scheme is usually adapted in proportional valves. The reverse continuous variable damper developed in this study is expected to be utilized in the semi-active suspension systems in passenger cars after its performance and simplicity of the design is confirmed through real car test.

• Proceedings of the KSR Conference
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• 2011.10a
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• pp.1929-1934
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• 2011

Recently the maximum speed becomes the most important performance in high speed train. But the speed up of train will not give the passenger good riding comfort. The semi-active suspension system by using variable damper with hydraulic solenoid valve is used to solve this problem. But the variable damper with hydraulic solenoid valve requires tank for supplying fluid. In this study, the MR(Magneto Rheological) damper was considered instead of hydraulic variable damper in order to improve riding comfort. Dynamic simulation was conducted for semi-active suspension system with MR damper was made by using Matlab-Simulink S/W. According to control strategy of MR damper for improving ride comfort in railway vehicle, The riding comfort of the railway vehicle with semi-active suspension system was analyzed and compared with conventional suspension system by using the program.

• Journal of the korean Society of Automotive Engineers
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• v.3 no.2
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• pp.34-42
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• 1981

The feasibility of using fluidic components for improving certain performance characteristics of the suspension systems for tracked vehicle is investigated. This study describes three variable damping systems for which the damping coefficients are function of relative velocity and absolute a of the vehicle body. Through the comparison analysis between constant damping coefficient damper and each of variable dampers. the followings were found: (1)Fluidic Diode Damper gave less accelerations, (2)Both Fluidic Diode Damper and Relative Velocity Damper gave the less time for which the wheel is off the ground, (3) At low vehicle velocity Fluidic Diode Damper gave low energy dissipation rate, while at high vehicle velocity Turbulence Accelerometer Damper gave low energy dissipation rate.

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Automotive Engineers
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• v.3 no.6
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• pp.69-77
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• 1995

This paper presents performance investigation of a continuously variable ER(Electro-Rheological) damper for passenger vehicles. A dynamic model of the damper is formulated by incorporating electric field-dependent Bingham properties of the ER fluid. The Bingham properties are experimentally obtained through Couette type electroviscous measurement with respect to two different particle concentrations. The governing equation of the hydraulic model treating three components of fluid resistances;electrode duct flow, check valve flow and piston gap flow, is achieved via the bond graph method. A prototype ER damper is then designed and manufactured on the basis of parameter analysis. The damping forces of the system are experimentally evaluated by changing the intensity of the electric field, the particle concentration and the electrode gap.