Mechatronics 11 (2001) 345353

Technical note

Field test results of a semi-active ER

suspension system associated with skyhook
controller
S.B. Choi a,*, H.K. Lee a, E.G. Chang b
a

Smart Structures and Systems Laboratory, Department of Mechanical Engineering, Inha University,
253 Yong Hyun-Dong, Nam-Gu, Incheon, 402-751, South Korea
b
Passenger Car Research Center II, Hyundia Motor Company, 771-2 Nymyang, Kyunggi 445-850,
South Korea
Received 19 July 1999; received in revised form 18 February 2000; accepted 28 February 2000

Abstract
Performance characteristics of a semi-active ER (electro-rheological) suspension system
are evaluated through the eld test of a passenger car. Four ER shock absorbers are
designed and manufactured for both front and rear parts, and their eld-dependent
damping properties are investigated. Subsequently, four independent skyhook controllers
associated with ER shock absorbers are formulated by considering the vertical motions of
the body and wheel of the car to be tested. Both ride comfort and steering stability of the
car are evaluated via the eld test showing bump and squat test responses. 7 2000
Published by Elsevier Science Ltd.
Keywords: Electro-rheological (ER) uid; ER shock absorber; Field test; Vibration control; Skyhook
controller

1. Introduction
One of the salient properties of ER (electro-rheological) uid is that it has a fast
* Corresponding author. Tel.: +82-32-860-7319; fax: +82-32-868-1716.
E-mail address: seungbok@dragon.inha.ac.kr (S.B. Choi).
0957-4158/01/$ - see front matter 7 2000 Published by Elsevier Science Ltd.
PII: S 0 9 5 7 - 4 1 5 8 ( 0 0 ) 0 0 0 2 2 - 2

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response characteristic to an electric eld and hence a wide control bandwidth.

This inherent feature has triggered tremendous research activities in the
development of various engineering applications including shock absorbers [16].
Sturk et al. [1] proposed a high voltage supply unit with ER shock absorber (or
damper) and proved their eectiveness via quarter car suspension system. Nakano
[2] constructed a quarter car suspension model using an ER damper and proposed
a proportional control algorithm in order to isolate any vibration. Petek et al. [3]
constructed a semiactive full suspension system installed with four ER dampers
and evaluated suspension performance through the implementation of a skyhook
control algorithm which considers heave, pitch and roll motions of the car body.
Peel et al. [4] proposed a long-stroke ER damper for eective vibration control.
Wereley and Pang [5] proposed a nondimensional model for the analysis of ER
damper operated in various working modes, and proved the validity of the model
via experimental work. Choi et al. [6] proposed a cylindrical ER damper for a
passenger car and its controllability of damping force was proved by
implementing a skyhook controller.
As is evident from previous work, most research has only been focussed on
damping force evaluation of the ER damper itself or/and vibration isolation
evaluation of a quarter suspension system installed with one ER damper.
However, the eld test of a full car installed with four ER dampers is considerably
rare. This, of course, is due to that the practical implementation of adding ER
dampers to a full car requiring a multi-disciplinary procedure involving ER uids,
ER devices, high voltage ampliers, sensors and controllers as well as the test
vehicle.
This Technical Note presents eld test results of a semi-active suspension system
of a passenger car installed with four ER shock absorbers. Four cylindrical ER
shock absorbers adaptable to a middle-sized passenger vehicle are manufactured
and then eld-dependent damping characteristics are evaluated. A skyhook
controller for considering the vertical motions of the car body and wheel is
formulated and incorporated with the test vehicle equipped with various sensors
such as an accelerometer and a gyroscope. The eld test is then undertaken in
order to evaluate both the ride comfort and steering stability.

2. ER shock absorber
The schematic conguration of the ER shock absorber proposed in this work is
shown in Fig. 1. The ER shock absorber is divided into the upper and lower
chambers by the piston, and is fully lled with the ER uid. By the motion of the
piston, the ER uid ows through the duct between inner and outer cylinders
from one chamber to the other. The gas chamber located outside of the lower
chamber acts as an accumulator of the ER uid induced by the motion of the
piston. By applying the electric eld to the ER shock absorber, the damping force
can be obtained as follows [6]:

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2h


Ar2
Xp Ap Ar Ie V_ p Re Vp Ap Ar PER Fr
Cg

347

where
Ar
Cg
Ap
Ie
Xp
Vp
Re
PER
Fr

area of the piston rod

compliance of the gas chamber
area of the piston
uid inertia
piston displacement
piston velocity
uid resistance due to the viscosity
pressure drop due to the yield stress of the ER uid
frictional force

We clearly see from Eq. (1) that the damping force of the ER shock absorber
comprises ve components. Among them, the fourth term is controllable by the
intensity of the electric uid.
The size and the level of the required damping force adopted in this study are
chosen on the basis of the conventional passive oil damper used for a middle-sized
passenger car. The damping force model given by Eq. (1) is analyzed in order to
determine design parameters. The designed parameters of the ER shock absorber
proposed in this work are given as follows.

Fig. 1. Schematic conguration of the ER shock absorber.

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1. for the front ER damper

1.1. electrode gap (h ): 0.75 mm
1.2. electrode length (L ): 214.5 mm
1.3. maximum stroke:2125.2 mm
1.4. outer radius: 45 mm
1.5. inner radius: 30.1 mm
1.6. gas pressure: 20 bar
2. for the rear ER damper
2.1. electrode gap (h ): 0.75 mm
2.2. electrode length (L ): 267 mm
2.3. maximum stroke:2199 mm
2.4. outer radius: 45 mm
2.5. inner radius: 30.1 mm
2.6. gas pressure: 20 bar
Fig. 2 presents the measured damping characteristics of the front ER shock
absorber. For the ER uid, one of Bayer product (TP AI 3565) was employed. As
seen in Fig. 2(a), the damping force increases as the electric eld increases. For
instance, the damping force is increased up to 1000 N at the piston velocity of
0.25 m/s by applying the electric eld of 3 kV/mm. Thus, we can expect improved
suspension performance of the vehicle system to be tested in a subsequent section
by controlling the damping force. It is here remarked that the level of damping
force of the conventional passive oil damper is almost same as the one at 0 kV/
mm. It is also observed in Fig. 2(b) that the enclosed area increases as the electric
eld increases. This directly implies that the energy dissipation during the cycle is
increased by increasing the intensity of the electric eld. It is noted that the result
in Fig. 2(b) is obtained by exciting the ER shock absorber with the excitation
frequency of 1.4 Hz and the excitation magnitude of222 mm.

3. Experimental realization
The conguration of an experimental vehicle with the proposed ER semi-active
suspension system is shown in Fig. 3. A portable computer (microprocessor)
equipped with DSP (digital signal processing) board is positioned beside the
driver's seat (1). Four pairs (one for car body and the others for wheel) of
accelerometers are installed on four independent suspension in order to measure
the vertical motions of the vehicle (4). The signals from the accelerometers are fed
back to the microprocessor depending upon the skyhook control algorithm and
the required control input voltages are determined and applied to four ER shock
absorber via four independent high voltage ampliers positioned at four corners in
trunk (6). The skyhook control algorithm implemented in this work is given by:

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ui

Ci jz_si j, for z_si z_si z_usi > 0

0,
for z_si z_si z_usi R0

349

.
where, ui is control input voltage, zsi denotes the vertical velocity of the car body,
and z_usi represents the vertical velocity of the wheel. The control gain Ci is set by
8000 for all ER shock absorbers. On the other hand, the high voltage amplier
used in this work is inhousingly made. The size is 10 cm (length)  10 cm (width)
 6 cm (height), and the weight is 0.6 kg. The time constant to a step electric eld
is 2 ms and operated in PWM (pulse width modulation) method to incorporate
with ECU (electric control unit). In Fig. 3, the ABS (anti-lock brake system)
sensor (5), gyroscope (3), and TPS (throttle position sensor) sensor are not used as

Fig. 2. Damping force characteristics of the ER shock absorber (front).

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Fig. 3. Experimental vehicle with ER suspension system.

the feedback signals for the skyhook controller, but used to evaluate control
performance such as pitch angle of the car.
In order to evaluate ride performance of the vehicle, a bump test is undertaken
and its result is presented in Fig. 4. As clearly observed, the vertical acceleration
decays faster by applying the control eld to the ER shock absorber. It is noted
that the uncontrolled response is obtained in the absence of the electric eld, and
this result is equivalent to the performance of the conventional passive oil damper.
From this result, we may expect that ride comfort can be improved by employing

Fig. 4. Bump response at 30 km/h.

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351

Fig. 5. Pitch motion response under squat test.

the proposed semi-active ER suspension system. Fig. 5 presents the pitch motion
at various acceleration levels. This is obtained by undertaking squat test (sudden
acceleration at idle stage). We clearly observe that the pitch angle can be reduced
by controlling the ER suspension system at each tested acceleration level. This
improvement in the pitch motion directly relates to the improvement of the
steering stability of the vehicle. The roll motion under sinusoidal steer test at 0.7
Hz is predicted in Fig. 6. It is observed that the roll angle becomes smaller when
the ER suspension system is controlled. This result also indicates the improvement
of the steering stability. In order to evaluate fast response characteristics of the
ER suspension system, sinusoidal road test is undertaken and the corresponding
response is presented in Fig. 7. We see that the vertical acceleration of the body is
reduced by controlling the suspension showing its eectiveness in normal driving
condition.

Fig. 6. Roll motion response under sinusoidal steer test.

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Fig. 7. Sinusoidal road response at 50 km/h.

4. Conclusion
Field test was undertaken in order to evaluate performance characteristics of a
semi-active ER suspension system associated with skyhook controller. As a rst
step, four ER shock absorbers were made and their eld-dependent damping
characteristics were experimentally evaluated. After assembling the demonstration
vehicle, various tests were performed. It has been demonstrated through bump
and sinusoidal road tests that ride comfort of the vehicle can be signicantly
improved by controlling the semi-active ER suspension system. In addition, the
improvement of the steering stability was also demonstrated by showing the
reduction of the pitch and roll motions. The results presented in this work are
quite self-explanatory justifying that the semi-active ER suspension system can be
eectively employed to the passenger vehicle with improved both ride comfort and
steering stability. It is nally remarked that eld tests using various control
strategies to much improve the performance, and control durability test will be
undertaken in the near future as a second phase of this study.
Acknowledgements
This work was supported by Hyundai Motor Company. This nancial support
is gratefully acknowledged.
References
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[2] Nakano M. A Novel: semi-active control of automotive suspension using an electroheological

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