Editorial Type:
Article Category: Research Article
 | 
Online Publication Date: 20 Mar 2024

Active and Semiactive Suspension Systems for Minimizing Tire Wear in Articulated Vehicles

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Page Range: 15 – 33
DOI: 10.2346/tire.22.21027
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ABSTRACT

Electric and hybrid propulsion systems for articulated vehicles have been gaining increased attention, with the aim to decrease exhaust particle emissions. However, the more environmentally-friendly electric or hybrid articulated vehicles are expected to have increased nonexhaust pollution-related sources because of their significantly increased mass compared with conventional vehicles. One of the main sources of nonexhaust pollution is tire wear, which could potentially cancel the benefits of removing the exhaust through electrification. Tire wear is mainly affected by internal (tire structure and shape) and external (suspension configuration, speed, road surface, etc.) factors. This work focuses on suspension systems and, more specifically, on the ability of active and semiactive suspensions to decrease tire wear in an articulated vehicle. In this direction, an articulated vehicle model that incorporates the tread in its modeling is built to study tire wear during cornering over a class C road. A novel active suspension design based on the H approach is suggested in this work and is compared with passive, semiactive, and other active suspension systems. The suspension systems are also compared mainly with regard to tire wear levels but also with other vehicle performance aspects (i.e., comfort and road holding). The H∞ active suspension design is the most effective in decreasing tire wear, with decreases of about 8% to 11%, but without neglecting the rest of the objectives.

Keywords: articulated vehicles; suspensions; active; semiactive; tires; wear
FIG. 1 —
FIG. 1 —

Articulated vehicle model.

FIG. 2 —
FIG. 2 —

(a) Quarter car model and (b) its digital twin in IPG/TruckMaker.

FIG. 3 —
FIG. 3 —

Control architecture for PID controller-based active suspension design.

FIG. 4 —
FIG. 4 —

Control architecture for H∞ controller.

FIG. 5 —
FIG. 5 —

Control architecture for H∞ controller.

FIG. 6 —
FIG. 6 —

Target functions (Wtarget) for the H∞ active suspension design.

FIG. 7 —
FIG. 7 —

Combination of vehicle, tread, and wear model to assess the tire wear levels.

FIG. 8 —
FIG. 8 —

Road path and road roughness profile.

FIG. 9 —
FIG. 9 —

Comparing tire wear levels at each axle (a) T1, (b) T2, and (c) tr1.

FIG. 10 —
FIG. 10 —

Benchmarking the different vehicle suspension systems with regard to RC, TW, TD, and ST at each axle (a) T1, (b) T2, and (c) tr1.

FIG. 11 —
FIG. 11 —

Benchmarking the tire deflection occurred at axle T1 for the validation of the tire dynamics.

Contributor Notes

1 Corresponding author. Centre for ECO2 Vehicle Design and KTH Vehicle Dynamics, KTH Royal Institute of Technology, Teknikringen 8, Stockholm, 10044, Sweden. Email: papaioa@kth.segm
2 Centre for ECO2 Vehicle Design and KTH Vehicle Dynamics, KTH Royal Institute of Technology, Teknikringen 8, Stockholm, 10044, Sweden. Email: haoranz@kth.se
3 Centre for ECO2 Vehicle Design and KTH Vehicle Dynamics, KTH Royal Institute of Technology, Teknikringen 8, Stockholm, 10044, Sweden. Email: jennyj@kth.se
4 Centre for ECO2 Vehicle Design and KTH Vehicle Dynamics, KTH Royal Institute of Technology, Teknikringen 8, Stockholm, 10044, Sweden. Email: larsd@kth.se
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