Modelling, validation and parameter sensitivity of regenerative hydraulic-electric shock absorber
ISSN: 0264-4401
Article publication date: 5 October 2021
Issue publication date: 24 March 2022
Abstract
Purpose
Suspension is a significantly important component for automotive and railway vehicles. Regenerative hydraulic-electric shock absorbers (RHSA) have been proposed for the purpose of attenuating vibration of vehicle suspension, and also recover kinetic energy originated from vehicle vibration that is conventionally dissipated by hydraulic dampers. To advance the technology, the paper aims to present an RHSA system for heavy-duty and railway vehicles and create a dynamic modelling to discuss on the development process of RHSA model.
Design/methodology/approach
First, the development of RHSA dynamic model can be resolved into three stage models (an ideal one, a second one with an added accumulator and a third one that considers both accumulator and system losses) to comprehensively evaluate the RHSA's characterisation. Second, a prototype is fabricated for testing and the results meet desired agreements between simulation and measurement. Finally, the study of key parameters is carried out to investigate the influences of hydraulic-cylinder size, hydraulic-motor displacement and accumulator pre-charged pressure on the RHSA system.
Findings
The findings of sensitivity analysis indicate that the component design can satisfy the damping characteristics and power performance required for heavy-duty vehicle, freight wagon and typical passenger train. The results also show that reducing the losses is highly beneficial for saving suspension energy, improving system reliability and increasing power-conversion efficiency.
Originality/value
The paper presents a more detailed method for the development and analysis of a RHSA. Compared with the typical shock absorbers, RHSA can also recover the vibration energy dissipated by suspension.
Keywords
Acknowledgements
Funding: This paper is sponsored by National Key Research and Development Program (No. 2017YFB1300900), Chinese National Natural Science Foundation (No. 51605483) and Science Foundation of National University of Defense Technology (No. ZK17-03-02, No. ZK18-03-55).
Authors' contributions: MinZhang designed the study and built the system model; Cheng Hu wrote the manuscript and analysed the simulation process; Jingwei Gao and Peng Zheng did the experimental validation. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.
Competing interests: The authors declare that there are no conflicts of interest regarding the publication of this paper.
Citation
Zhang, M., Hu, C., Gao, J. and Zheng, P. (2022), "Modelling, validation and parameter sensitivity of regenerative hydraulic-electric shock absorber", Engineering Computations, Vol. 39 No. 4, pp. 1348-1373. https://doi.org/10.1108/EC-09-2020-0547
Publisher
:Emerald Publishing Limited
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