Truck suspension incorporating inerters to minimise road damage
Road damage caused by heavy vehicles is a serious problem experienced worldwide. This paper investigates the potential for reduction in road damage by incorporating the inerter element into truck suspension systems. Initially, quarter-car, pitch-plane and roll-plane models with two low-complexity inerter-based linear suspension layouts are investigated in the frequency domain. Reductions of the J95 road damage index for each model are identified against conventional parallel spring–damper truck suspension layouts. It is also shown that the proposed suspensions are capable of enhancing the roll stability while keeping the road damage at a given level. Subsequently, the nonlinear relationship between force and displacement as manifested by leaf springs is incorporated into the pitch-plane and roll-plane time-domain models. These confirm the potential advantage of inerter-based suspension layouts for road damage reduction.