Enhancing vehicle roll and yaw stability through a novel semi-active interconnected structure mechanism using 4/3 hydraulic control valves

Abstract Vehicle rollover and wheel lift-off are undesirable under certain conditions, reducing the vehicle handling ability and causing serious accidents/fatalities. However, the conventional suspension structure repeatedly fails to meet the requirements in dynamic conditions due to its passive characteristics. Although active suspension systems improve roll dynamics, an excessive amount of energy demand is required, and implementation in vehicles is a major hindrance. A smart suspension structure with less power consumption is required to supply pressurized fluid adequately as needed to achieve safety and comfort. Attaining instantaneous pressurized fluid with minimal power has proved to be a formidable challenge. A novel semi-active suspension system is proposed using a 4/3 hydraulic control valve, which requires minimal power to attain a variable force. Through the proposed architecture, the roll and yaw stability was improved by minimizing the lateral load transfer along with the suspension objectives. To assess the dynamical characteristics and the ability of the proposed structure, the vehicle model was investigated under double lane change and slalom tests. The proposed suspension structure with a model predictive controller (MPC) was tested experimentally using dSPACE MicroAutoBox III hardware. The results show that the proposed suspension system provides a significant improvement in enhancing vehicle safety. The proposed system considerably improves the performance of the lateral load transfer ratio by 30% over that of conventional systems.