Smart actuators to improve sportiness of a luxury car by deploying additional suspension stiffness on-demand Online publication date: Tue, 23-Apr-2013
by A.C. Shivaram
International Journal of Vehicle Design (IJVD), Vol. 60, No. 1/2, 2012
Abstract: The present work addresses the need to satisfy conflicting expectations of better sportiness and ride comfort using smart actuators. It is proposed to achieve this by deploying additional suspension stiffness when better sportiness is demanded from a car. Two smart actuator configurations, one using shape-memory-alloy wires and the other using magneto-rheological-fluid are proposed to implement this task. A Simulink-model has been developed which can interface with a general purpose dynamic simulation software and deploy additional-stiffness based on a control-signal input. Using this model, full-vehicle simulations have been conducted: 1) to identify a suitable control-signal; 2) to estimate the response time and other performance requirements for the smart actuator; 3) to analyse the impact of false actuation. Based on these understandings, a lab-scale prototype of the variable-stiffness-configuration using an SMA-actuator has been built and tested. This prototype demonstrates the packagability of the smart actuator and provides experimental proof of concept.
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