Improving Roll Stability of Vehicles With High Center of Gravity by Using Magneto-Rheological Dampers
The performance of a new semiactive control method for improving roll stability of sport utility vehicles (SUVs) is discussed, using a series of road tests. The new method augments the conventional skyhook control for semiactive suspensions with steering input, in order to account for the suspension requirements during a lateral maneuver. After discussing the formulation for the steering input augmented (SIA) skyhook control, the paper includes the implementation of a semiactive system with magneto-rheological (MR) dampers on a sport utility vehicle. The vehicle is used for a series of road tests that includes lane change maneuvers, with different types of suspensions. The suspensions that are tested include the stock suspension, the uncontrolled MR dampers, skyhook control, and SIA skyhook. The results of the study show that SIA skyhook can improve the suspension travel and lateral forces at the vehicle body during maneuvers, as compared to other suspensions evaluated on the vehicle.