Performance analysis of a new hydropneumatic inerter-based suspension system with semi-active control effect

This paper develops a hydropneumatic inerter-based suspension system theoretical model to analyze its performance, based on the mechanical network theory of inerter and semi-active control. Comparison of the stiffness and damping characteristics among a passive hydropneumatic suspension system, semi-active hydropneumatic suspension system based on skyhook control, and hydropneumatic inerter-based suspension system is conducted. Moreover, the relationship between the internal coefficient of the inerter and the damping coefficient of the hydropneumatic suspension is investigated. The simulation results of the flow–volume curves of the hydropneumatic inerter-based suspension system are close to those of the semi-active hydropneumatic suspension system based on skyhook control. Furthermore, the performance of a quarter vehicle model with the hydropneumatic inerter-based suspension system is analyzed and compared to that with the semi-active hydropneumatic suspension system based on skyhook control. The simulation results show that the performance of the hydropneumatic inerter-based suspension system is as good as that of the semi-active hydropneumatic suspension system based on skyhook control, which means that the hydropneumatic inerter-based suspension system can achieve similar performance for semi-active control suspension. Finally, a prototype is developed, and a comparative bench test is carried out to verify the accuracy of the simulations. In addition, the hydropneumatic inerter-based suspension system can achieve semi-active control performance without additional hardware or energy loss.