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A Compact Variable Stiffness and Damping Shock Absorber for Vehicle

Suspension

Article  in  IEEE/ASME Transactions on Mechatronics · October 2015

DOI: 10.1109/TMECH.2015.2406319

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IEEE/ASME TRANSACTIONS ON MECHATRONICS
A Compact Variable Stiffness and Damping Shock
Absorber for Vehicle Suspension
Shuaishuai Sun, Huaxia Deng, Member, IEEE, Haiping Du, Member, IEEE, Weihua Li, Member, IEEE, Jian Yang,
Guiping Liu, Gursel Alici, Member, IEEE, and Tianhong Yan
Abstract—A shock absorber is an important device for vehicle
suspension. The semi-active suspension requires the damping or
stiffness of the shock absorber to be controllable. This paper pro-
posed a novel compact shock absorber with both damping and
stiffness variable characteristics. The shock absorber is developed
based on MR fluid through an innovative design. A prototype is
tested by MTS to characterize the variable damping and stiffness
properties. A mathematical model that incorporated the Bingham
model is established and an optimization method is adopted to
identify the parameters. The coherence of experiments and the
proposed model verified the control ability of dual damping and
stiffness of the shock absorber.
Index Terms—MR damper, semi-active vehicle suspension,
shock absorber, variable stiffness and damping.
I. INTRODUCTION
OAD irregularities always cause vibration in ground ve-
R hicles. This vibration is unwanted because it can cause
discomfort to passengers and drivers, and even damage to the
vehicle systems. For these reasons, developing a well-performed
vehicle suspension system has become a pressing need [1], [2].
There are three types of vehicle suspension systems: passive sus-
pension, active suspension, and semi-active suspension. Passive
suspension, which uses passive shock absorbers composed of
passive springs and conventional hydraulic dampers, has been
widely used because of its simplicity and low cost. Passive
suspension, however, which has fixed parameters, cannot vary
its damping or stiffness in response to different road condi-
tions. This limitation means that the passive suspension is only
Manuscript received June 30, 2014; revised November 1, 2014 and Jan-
uary 14, 2015; accepted February 7, 2015. Recommended by Technical Editor
H. Gao. This work was supported by ARC Discovery grants (150102636,
140100303), NSFC grants (51305121, 51205100, 51328502), 111 project
(B12019), UOW-CSC scholarships, and the fundamental research funds for
the central universities.
S. Sun, W. Li, J. Yang, and G. Alici are with the School of Mechan-
ical, Material and Mechatronics Engineering, University of Wollongong,
Wollongong, N.S.W. 2522, Australia (e-mail: ss886@uowmail.edu.au; wei-
huali@uow.edu.au; jy937@uowmail.edu.aul; gursel@uow.edu.au).
H. Deng is with the School of Instrument Science and Optoelectronics Engi-
neering, Hefei University of Technology, Anhui, Hefei 230027, China (e-mail:
hxdeng@hfut.edu.cn).
H. Du is with the School of Electrical, Computer and Telecommunications
Engineering, University of Wollongong, Wollongong, N.S.W. 2522, Australia
(e-mail: hdu@uow.edu.au).
G. Liu is with the State Key Laboratory of Advanced Design and Manufac-
turing for Vehicle Body, Hunan University, Changsha 410082, China (e-mail:
ji_pi@sina.com).
T. Yan is with the School of Mechanical and Electrical Engineering, China
Jiliang University, Hangzhou 310018, China (e-mail: yanth@163.com).
Color versions of one or more of the figures in this paper are available online
at http://ieeexplore.ieee.org.
Digital Object Identifier 10.1109/TMECH.2015.2406319
1083-4435 © 2015 IEEE. Personal use is permitted, but republication/redistribution requires IEEE permission.
See http://www.ieee.org/publications standards/publications/rights/index.html for more information.
1
effective in a narrow frequency range [2]. In order to make the
suspension system adjustable/controllable, many researchers
have tried to construct an active suspension system in order
to improve vibration isolation over a wider range. Sun and Gao
developed adaptive robust control algorithms and back stepping
control algorithms for vehicle vibration control [3]–[5]. Gohrle
et al. developed preview active suspension controllers for ve-
hicles [6]. The obvious advantage of active control is that it
can offer controllable active force to deal with different road
conditions and thus improve ride comfort [7]. However, the em-
ployment of the active force may deteriorate the stability of
the suspension system if the force control is not appropriate.
The fail-safe, high power consumption, and high price of ac-
tuators also limit its practical usage. A semi-active suspension
system can solve all these problems. Semi-active suspension
can vary the parameters of its shock absorbers, such as stiffness
and damping, in order to respond to changes in road condition
and provide the desired comfort while using a small amount of
energy and having a low cost [8]. In addition, because the semi-
active suspension can work passively if the semi-active control
fails, the fail-safe is not a problem for semi-active control.
Orifice variable dampers and controllable fluid-based damper
using magnetorheological fluids (MRFs) are two typical semi-
active dampers. Because MRF-based dampers have no extra
moving parts, they are simpler, more practical and more reliable
than orifice variable dampers. For this reason, there has been
much research into MRF-based dampers and they have been
widely used to improve vibration attenuation. There has also
been strong improvement in the control algorithms for MRF-
based dampers [9]–[11]. Yao et al. employed a skyhook control
strategy to control an MRF damper for a vehicle suspension
system [12]. Yu’s group mounted four MRF dampers to a full
car and tested the system on different types of roads [13]. The
experimental results confirmed that the MRF damper is effective
in improving the vehicle’s ride comfort [14], [15].
In order to further improve the vibration reduction perfor-
mance of vehicle suspensions, variable stiffness has also been
tried. Youn and Hać developed a variable stiffness suspension
by employing a semi-active air spring to vary the suspension
stiffness among three discrete values [16]. The experimental
result verified the effectiveness of variable stiffness on vibra-
tion control. Compared with MRF technology, however, the
use of variable stiffness air springs is complicated because the
air pressure must be controlled by an air pump, which can be
complicated and costly. In order to vary isolator stiffness us-
ing MRF, Li et al. developed an MRF-based air spring which
can vary its stiffness and damping by controlling the excitation
current applied to an MR valve [17]. Following this research,
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2 IEEE/ASME TRANSACTIONS ON MECHATRONICS

Sun et al. investigated an innovative suspension system for high-

speed trains. This new suspension system involves a MRF-based
variable stiffness air spring and an MRF damper. This research
theoretically verified the vibration suppression effectiveness of
variable stiffness and damping suspension is better than only
variable damping or variable stiffness suspension [18]. Raja
et al. developed another variable stiffness and damping device:
an MR fluid damper–liquid spring suspension system for heavy
off-road vehicles. This new device is capable of changing its
damping as well as stiffness and its maximum force can reach
as high as 10 000 N [19], but its stiffness and damping cannot
change separately and its stroke is limited. Recently, Greiner-
Petter et al. reported a unique structure employing MRF to
realize the variable stiffness and damping characteristics [20].
In order to experimentally verify the effectiveness of variable
stiffness and damping suspension, Liu et al. proposed a struc-
ture employing two Voigt elements (each one consisting of a
constant spring and a controllable damper) in series to control
variable stiffness and damping [21]. In this design, the damp-
ing and stiffness cannot be controlled independently as the two
MRF dampers are installed in series. Then, Liu and his group
proposed a new structure which can vary its stiffness and damp-
ing independently of each other [22]. The new structure is also
composed of two MRF dampers. Vibration testing experiment Fig. 1. Design and photograph of the shock absorber.
was conducted to evaluate the vibration isolation performance.
The results showed that the variable stiffness and damping sus-
pension performed best in isolating vibrations. Following their original car suspension configuration. The structure of this pa-
work, Spelta et al. developed a novel control algorithm to control per is as follows. In Section II, the detailed design and working
the variable stiffness and damping suspension in order to fur- principle of the CVSDSA are presented. Then, the prototype of
ther improve the ride comfort of vehicles [23]. The simulation the proposed CVSDSA is described, and the results of testing
result demonstrated that the variable stiffness and damping sus- on an MTS machine are presented in Sections III and IV, respec-
pension controlled by their control algorithm was more efficient tively. Section V focuses on developing a model to predict the
in improving vibration isolation performance than the suspen- dynamic performance of the proposed shock absorber and ap-
sions with only variable damping. Xu et al.’s simulation results plying an innovative parameter identification method to identify
also verified their usefulness in enhancing vehicle stability by the model parameters. Section VI presents the conclusion.
replacing the passive front suspension system with a variable
stiffness and damping structure in the vehicle [24], [25]. II. DESIGN OF SHOCK ABSORBER
It can be seen from the above discussion that the effective-
ness of variable stiffness and damping suspension on vibration A. Design
reduction has been fully verified. The work reported by Spelta Fig. 1 shows the structure design and the prototype of the
et al. and Xu et al., however, only proposed the idea of a variable proposed shock absorber. The shock absorber mainly consists
stiffness and damping structure. They did not design a real de- of two coaxial damping cylinders and two springs with different
vice capable of varying stiffness and damping. Liu et al. offered stiffness. The damping cylinders are composed of an internal
a complicated system employing two independently controlled damping cylinder, which connects the top connector and bot-
MRF dampers to suppress lateral vibration for a one degree- tom connecters, and an outer damping cylinder, which links
of-freedom system. This, however, would consume too much the two springs. The internal damping cylinder is composed of
space and would not be suitable in practice. The same problem a piston rod, electromagnetic coils, seals, and a reserve filled
existed in Greiner-Petter’s design. What is necessary is the de- with MRF. The electromagnetic coils extend generally coaxi-
velopment of a compact variable stiffness and damping shock ally around the piston. The solid lines in Fig. 1 illustrate the
absorber (CVSDSA) which will be able to replace the conven- magnetic circuit generated by the coils in the internal damping
tional one without large changing the original car suspension cylinder. The damping force of the internal cylinder is control-
configuration. This was the aim of the research presented in this lable by the applied magnetic field on the basis of MRF proper-
paper. ties. The outer damping cylinder consists of an electromagnetic
A CVSDSA was designed, prototyped, tested, and modeled coil, seals, reserve, and in particular, it has the internal damping
in this paper. The size and shape of the proposed shock ab- cylinder as its piston rod. The electromagnetic coils of the outer
sorber are suitable for a real vehicle, and more importantly, the damping cylinder are winded in a special designed supporting
CVSDSA can be easily implemented without any change in the structure at the outer house of the internal damping cylinder. The
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SUN et al.: COMPACT VARIABLE STIFFNESS AND DAMPING SHOCK ABSORBER FOR VEHICLE SUSPENSION
Fig. 2. Scheme of connection mode.
magnetic circuits are shown by the dashed lines in Fig. 1. The
two damping cylinders may have relative sliding motions under
the external excitations.
B. Working Principle
The working principles of the variable stiffness and damping
shock absorber can be demonstrated by Fig. 2, where two differ-
ent connection modes of this device are shown. When the current
applied to the outer damping cylinder (I2 ) is small enough, the
outer damping force will allow the relative motion between the
two damping cylinders. In this case, the CVSDSA is working
in connection mode 1 where spring k1 and spring k2 work in
series because both of the springs deform when the outer cylin-
der slides along the internal cylinder. On the other hand, when
the outer damping force is large enough to prevent the relative
motion between the two damping cylinders, the CVSDSA is
working in connection mode 2 because only spring k2 will have
a deformation in response to the external force. The determina-
tion of connection mode is controlled by the magnitude of the
outer damping force which is determined by the amount of the
input current I2 . The stiffness variability, therefore, is realized
by the switch between the connection modes.
The damping variability is realized by adjusting the current
applied to the internal damping cylinder. As shown in Fig. 2,
no matter which connection mode the CVSDSA is, the overall
equivalent damping is represented by the internal damping C1 .
C1 increases as the current (I1 ) applied to the internal damping
cylinder increases. In summary, the effective stiffness of the
proposed shock absorber is controlled by current I2 and the
equivalent damping is controlled independently by current I1 .
III. PROTOTYPE AND TEST OF THE DYNAMIC PERFORMANCE
A. Prototype
The first step in the assembly of the CVSDSA was to prepare
two sets of electromagnetic coils for two damping cylinders, re-
spectively. MRF (MRF-132DG, LORD Corporation) was then
poured into the reserve of the internal damping cylinder after the
piston rod was inserted into the internal cylinder. The piston rod
will seal the MRF inside a closed reserve. Then, a small spring
serving as the accumulator with approximately 200-N preload
was mounted between the piston rod and the bottom connector
in order to provide enough prepressure on the MRF inside the
internal damper. As follow up, spring k1 was then mounted
3
TABLE I
PARAMETERS OF THE TWO SPRINGS
Parameter Spring 1 Spring 2
Stiffness 7420 N/m 24 583 N/m
Free Length 11 cm 15 cm
Inside Diameter 48 cm 50 cm
Outside Diameter 60 cm 68 cm
Fig. 3. Photograph of test setup.
connecting the bottom connector and the external damping
cylinder. MRF was then poured into the reserve and sealed
between these two cylinders. In the last step, spring k2 connect-
ing the external cylinder and the top connector was assembled.
Table I shows the details of the two springs and the actual CVS-
DSA prototype is shown in Fig. 1.
B. Test Setup
As shown in Fig. 3, a computer-controlled MTS machine was
used to test the dynamic performances of the shock absorber.
The MTS machine has upper and lower heads with grippers that
can hold the device in place. The lower head is fixed to the bot-
tom base and the upper head, which is excited by the hydraulic
cylinder, can move up and down at different speeds. A load cell
is mounted below the lower head to measure the force gener-
ated by the CVSDSA. Once the CVSDSA was mounted on the
MTS machine using two ends connectors, a predefined routine
was programmed into the control software in order to maintain
consistency in the testing. Sufficient cycles have been measured
for each single loading case to ensure the performance stability
and uniformity. In summary, the hydraulic cylinder obtained the
excitation signal from the software to activate the upper head.
The excitation path was programmed into the software and the
force signal generated by the CVSDSA was measured through
the load cell and then transferred to the computer for recording
via a data acquisition board.
The properties of stiffness variability and damping variability
were first tested separately. The excitation signal chosen was a
sinusoidal wave with a single frequency of 0.1 Hz and amplitude
of 10 mm. To obtain the performance in terms of the variable
stiffness of the device, the current applied to the outer damping
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4 IEEE/ASME TRANSACTIONS ON MECHATRONICS
Fig. 4. Force displacement relationship under I1 = 0 A.
cylinder was varied from 0 to 1.5 A with a step of 0.5 A, while the
current applied to the internal damping cylinder was set as 0 A.
On the other hand, the current applied to the internal damping
cylinder was set to 0, 1, and 2 A, respectively, with the external
current maintained as a constant of 0.25 A to demonstrate the
performance of variable damping. In addition to studying the
field-dependent properties, the effectiveness of changing load-
ing frequency on the device performance is also investigated. In
this test, the loading frequency was changed from 0.1 to 0.5 Hz,
then to 2 Hz with a step of 0.5 Hz and the internal and external
currents were set as 0 and 0.25 A, respectively.
IV. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
A. Stiffness Variability Testing
Fig. 4 shows a series of stable force–displacement loops un-
der the condition of I1 = 0 A and I2 = 0 A, 0.5 A, and 1 A,
respectively. For each case, two cycles were provided to show
the accessible repeatability and uniformity of the device perfor-
mance. The experimental results in Fig. 4 clearly show that the
output force is a piecewise function of the input displacement
in a clockwise direction. In order to give a clear explanation
of how the force–displacement loop progresses, the response
under the condition of I1 = 0 A and I2 = 0.5 A was taken as an
example. It is seen that letters are placed clockwisely as indica-
tors of each inflection. For the reason that there exists an initial
damping force from the internal damping cylinder although no
current applied to it, an external force large enough to overcome
the internal damping force so as to allow the relative motion
between the piston rod and the internal cylinder is requested,
which explains segment AB where the displacement is nearly
unchanged even though the absolute force continues to grow.
The same rule applies to the external damper, which means that
the relative motion between the internal and the external damp-
ing cylinders will happen only if the pressure from spring k2
is large enough to overcome the external damping force. As
the external force increases to overcome the internal damping
force, the piston rod begins to move into the internal cylinder
and spring k2 begins to be compressed, generating an elastic
force applied to the external damping cylinder. During this pro-
cess, only spring k2 works and spring k1 remains undeformed
because there is no movement between these two cylinders.
This means that the effective stiffness of this process can be
represented by the stiffness k2 , which is indicated by segment
BC in Fig. 3. The elastic force increases as spring k2 is more
compressed until it is large enough to overcome the external
damping force, which is indicated by the critical inflection C.
After inflection C, the external cylinder begins to slide along
the internal cylinder, which means that k1 is also compressed.
In this stage, k1 and k2 can be considered as working in series;
therefore, the effective stiffness of this stage can be represented
by k1 k2 /(k1 + k2 ). This process is described by segment CD.
We can see that the slope of segment CD is much smaller than
that of segment BC.
This process is reversed when the piston rod moves out of the
internal damping cylinder. As shown by segment DE, when the
piston rod intends to move in a different direction, the internal
damping force prohibits its movement. That is why in segment
DE, the absolute force decreases but the displacement remained
unchanged. In segment EF, the compressed spring k2 begins
to restore as the piston rod starts to move out of the internal
cylinder. In this case, only spring k2 is working and the effective
stiffness of the device is presented by the stiffness k2 . As spring
k2 restores, the elastic force generated by spring k2 becomes
smaller. When it reaches the critical point at which the elastic
force of spring k2 plus the external damping force is not strong
enough to resist the elastic force generated by spring k1 , the
external damper begins to slide along the internal damper in the
opposite direction and spring k1 begins to restore as well. At
this point, the springs work in series again and this process is
described by segment FA.
The results observed from the figure matches well with the
above analysis because segments AB, BC, and CD are parallel
to segments DE, EF, and FA, respectively. This means that the
force–displacement relationship of this device consists of sym-
metrical loops. Accordingly, the overall effective stiffness of the
MRF damper can be represented by the slope of the solid line
which encloses segments BC and CD, as shown in Fig. 4.
From an overall respect in terms of these three testing cases
in Fig. 4, segment BC is longer and segment CD is shorter than
those corresponding segments in the loop under I1 = 0 A and
I2 = 0 A. This means that the critical absolute displacement
where the segment BC (only spring k2 is working) is changed
to segment CD (spring k1 and spring k2 are working in series)
increases. It is because a larger external damping force is gen-
erated when a larger external current (I2 = 0.5 A) is applied,
which means that spring k2 must be compressed much more
in order to produce a much bigger elastic force to overcome
the external damping force. The force–displacement response
under I1 = 0 A and I2 = 1 A is shown as a parallelogram. This
is because the external damping force under I2 = 1 A is large
enough to overcome the elastic force generated by spring k2 and
spring k1 remains undeformed during this whole test. Despite
of the difference, it can still be seen that the corresponding seg-
ments in the different curves are parallel. It is worth noting that
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SUN et al.: COMPACT VARIABLE STIFFNESS AND DAMPING SHOCK ABSORBER FOR VEHICLE SUSPENSION
Fig. 5. Effective stiffness as a function of the current applied to the external
damper.
Fig. 6. Variable damping performance under various currents.
the overall effective stiffness increases as the current (I2 ) ap-
plied to the external damping cylinder increases. The effective
stiffness versus current I2 is shown in Fig. 5, which illustrates
that the increase of I2 from 0 to 1 A enhances the stiffness from
8.7 to 24.5 kN/m.
B. Damping Variability Testing
Fig. 6 shows the variable damping characteristic of the shock
absorber under different currents of I1 = 0, 1, and 2 A, respec-
tively. It is seen that the enclosed area of the force–displacement
loops increases with the increase of current I1 . This means that
the increasing I1 leads to the increase in the equivalent damp-
ing of the shock absorber, which can be evidenced by Fig. 7,
where the equivalent damping coefficient is shown. The equiv-
alent damping coefficient Ce and energy consumption shown in
Fig. 7 is calculated by (1) and (2) reported in [26].
5
Fig. 7. Effective damping and Energy consumption as a function of the applied
currents to the internal damper.
The equivalent damping coefficient
Ce = Ed /(πωX02 ) (1)
where X0 is the displacement amplitude and ω is the excitation
frequency. The energy dissipated by CVSDSA in one cycle, Ed ,
is represented by the area enclosed within the hysteresis loop,
which is given as
  2π /ω
Ed = F dx = F ẋdt (2)
0
where F is the force generated by the CVSDSA and x is the
piston displacement. It can be clearly seen from Fig. 7 that the
increase in current I1 from 0 to 2 A leads to the equivalent damp-
ing coefficient being increased from 16.24 to 29.72 kN/(m/s).
As the thermodynamic analysis is important to develop shock
absorber [27], Fig. 7 also shows the energy consumption as a
function of the current during the test. It is seen that the con-
sumed energy grows as the current (I1 ) increases. However, the
MRF used herein is the commercialized product from LORD
Corporation. It is stable even under different temperatures. Thus,
the effect of temperature on the dynamic performance of the new
shock absorber is light.
C. Frequency-Dependent Response
This part gives an analysis of the effectiveness of changing
the loading frequency on the damper performance, as shown in
Fig. 8. In this test, the loading frequency was chosen as 0.1, 0.5,
1, 1.5, and 2 Hz, respectively. It is seen that the force generated
by the shock absorber increases slightly though the loading fre-
quency increases, and that the effective stiffness and equivalent
damping are almost independent of the loading frequency. The
loop shape, however, tends to be more smooth as the frequency
grows.
 This article has been accepted for inclusion in a future issue of this journal. Content is final as presented, with the exception of pagination.
6 IEEE/ASME TRANSACTIONS ON MECHATRONICS
Fig. 8. Force–displacement loops under different frequencies.
Fig. 9. Mathematic model for CVSDSA.
V. MODELING AND PARAMETER IDENTIFICATION
A. Model Establishment
Fig. 9 illustrates a mathematic model for the CVSDSA which
incorporates two Bingham components [28] to represent the two
cylinders, respectively. In this model, a coulomb friction element
f1 in parallel with a viscous dashpot c1 is used to characterize
the internal damping cylinder. Similarly, the paralleled structure
of the coulomb friction element f2 with the viscous dashpot
c2 models the external damping cylinder. The outer damping
cylinder is parallel with spring k1 and then in a series with
spring k2 . In this model, the working principle of the shock
absorber can be summarized as follows. When the damping of
the outer damping cylinder is small, the two springs k1 , k2 can
be considered as working in series. Thus, the total stiffness of
the system is keff = k1 k2 /(k1 + k2 ). Otherwise, the effective
stiffness of the shock absorber can be represented by only spring
k2 . Therefore, the stiffness of the proposed CVSDSA can be
varied between the minimum value of k1 k2 /(k1 + k2 ) and the
maximum stiffness of spring k2 . For the damping variation case,
the damping of the CVSDSA can be controlled by varying the
current applied to the internal cylinder. In this model, x2 is
the relevant displacement between the top connecter and the
bottom connector. x1 is the relative displacement between the
top connecter and the outer housing of the external MRF damper.
The equations for the model can be written as
F = c1 ẋ2 + f1 + k2 x1 (3)
where F is the force generated by the CVSDSA; the relationship
between F and x2 is needed to describe the CVSDSA. x2 is
determined by
if : f2 + c2 (ẋ2 − ẋ1 ) ≥ k2 x1
x2 = x1 (4)
if : f2 + c2 (ẋ2 − ẋ1 ) < k2 x1
f2 + c2 (ẋ1 − ẋ2 ) + k2 x2 + k1 (x1 − x2 ) = 0. (5)
The inputs of the new shock absorber are currents I1 and
I2 . To give explicit function relationships between the field-
dependent parameters (f1 , f2 , C1 , and C2 ) and the applied
currents, four polynomials are given and these functions are
assumed as third-order polynomials:
f1 = f1a I13 + f1b I12 + f1c I1 + f1d (6)
f2 = f2a I23 + f2b I22 + f2c I2 + f2d (7)
C1 = C1a I13 + C1b I12 + C1c I1 + C1d (8)
C2 = C2a I23 + C2b I22 + C2c I2 + C2d . (9)
B. Parameter Identification
In this section, both the theoretical and the experimental re-
sults are used to verify the effectiveness of the proposed model
on predicting the behavior of the CVSDSA. Above all, the pa-
rameters in the model must be first identified according to the
experimental data. For this reason, this section proposed an en-
hanced identification method, called the “intergeneration pro-
jection genetic algorithm” (IP-GA) [29], which is more accurate
and faster than traditional GA.
IP-GA was proposed based on μGA. It not only takes advan-
tage of the μGA avoiding premature convergence but also has a
faster global convergence speed than traditional GA. A heuristic
operation operator, intergeneration projection (IP) operator, is
employed to further improve the performance of the GAs. The
IP operator is obtained by the following method. Pjb and Pjb−1
represent the best individuals in the parent and the grandpar-
ent generations, respectively. Then, three different IP operators,
new1, new2, new3, can be obtained by the following method:
new1 = pbj + α(pbj − pbj −1 )
 
new2 = pbj −1 + β pbj − pbj −1
 
new3 = pbj + γ pbj − pbj −1 (10)
where α, β, and γ are control parameters and 0 < α < 1, 0 <
β < 1, 0 < γ < 1. Then, the fitness of new1, new2, and new3
are calculated. If the fittest individual performs better than the
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SUN et al.: COMPACT VARIABLE STIFFNESS AND DAMPING SHOCK ABSORBER FOR VEHICLE SUSPENSION 7

Fig. 10. Flowchart of parameter identification using IP-GA.

TABLE II
IDENTIFIED PARAMETERS

Parameters f1 a f1 b f1 c f1 d

value 26.69 −129.83 223.25 71.05

Parameters f2 a f2 b f2 c f2 d
value 0 506.08 81.38 62.93
Parameters C1a C1b C1c C1d
value 0 −0.274 3.45 1.03
Parameters C2a C2b C2c C2d
value 0 −5.84 15.32 2.68

worst individual in the current generation, the worst individual

will be replaced by the best performing individual among new1,
new2, and new3.
Fig. 10 presents a flowchart describing the process of param-
eter identification. First, the displacement data were collected.
Then, the data series was incorporated into the mathematical
model expressed by (3)–(9). Based on the proposed model, the
simulated force can be calculated. In order to minimize the er-
ror between the simulated force and the measured force, the
objective function was defined as the mean square error, which
is presented as follows:


1 n Fig. 11. Comparison between the simulated response and the measured re-
error (C) =  (um − ucj )2 (11) sponse. (a) Variable damping property. (b) Variable stiffness property.
n j =1 j

where um c
j and uj are the measured and calculated forces gen-
erated by the CVSDSA at the jth sampling point, respectively.
Control parameters of IP-GA, α, β, γ, were set as 0.2, 0.6, and
0.2 during the GA phase. Thus, it can be concluded that the
best individual chromosome can be obtained when the objective
function reaches the lowest value.
C. Identification Results
The identified parameters by using IP-GA for the variable
stiffness and variable damping cases are shown in Table II.
The input data for identifying these parameters were obtained
by driving the shock absorber using a sinusoidal wave with a
single frequency of 0.1 Hz and amplitude of 12 mm. It can
be seen that only (6) is a third-order polynomial, while the
rest three functions are second-order polynomials because their
third-order coefficients are zero. Fig. 11 shows the fitting results
between the predicted responses and the measured responses.
It can be seen that the proposed model captures the damping
variability property very well [see Fig. 11(a)] and predicts the
performance of variable stiffness favorably [see Fig. 11(b)].
In order to further verify the capability of the proposed model
to predict the performance of the shock absorber, different
dataset is used to evaluate the effectiveness of the identified
parameters. As shown in Fig. 12, the testing condition of shock
absorber is similar to that Fig. 11 except the testing amplitude.
Thus, the identified parameter in Table II should be able to
describe the new testing results. It can be seen from Fig. 12
that the predicted responses match well with the measured data,
which means that the parameters identified by other dataset can
also precisely describe the new testing result. All of the fitting
results indicate that the proposed model is appropriate for the
description of the dynamic performance of the shock absorber.
VI. CONCLUSION
This paper reports the results of the design, prototyping, test-
ing, and modeling of a CVSDSA. The analysis and test results
 This article has been accepted for inclusion in a future issue of this journal. Content is final as presented, with the exception of pagination.
8 IEEE/ASME TRANSACTIONS ON MECHATRONICS
Fig. 12. Comparison between the simulated response and the measured re-
sponse. (a) Variable damping property. (b) Variable stiffness property.
verified that the stiffness and damping properties of the shock
absorber can be controlled separately. The stiffness of the CVS-
DSA can vary from 8.7 to 24.5 kN/m when the current applied
to the external damping cylinder increased from 0 to 1 A. The
equivalent damping coefficient has the ability to change from
16.24 to 29.72 kN/(m/s). An innovative model incorporating two
Bingham components was established and identified by the IP-
GA parameter identification method. The results demonstrate
that IP-EA is an efficient and effective method to identify model
parameters and the proposed model can accurately predict the
dynamic performance of the CVSDSA.
ACKNOWLEDGMENT
Dr. M. S. Cincotta is thanked for the help of language edition.
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SUN et al.: COMPACT VARIABLE STIFFNESS AND DAMPING SHOCK ABSORBER FOR VEHICLE SUSPENSION 9

[27] P. Zhang, L. Yu, Z. Yang, and D. Yin, “Theoretic investigation on thermo- Jian Yang received the B.E. degree from the China
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no. 1, pp. 95–98, 2006. She is currently working toward the Ph.D. degree at
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Oct. 2014. Australia.
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no. 7, pp. 601–631, Nov. 2001. quake.

Shuaishuai Sun received the B.E. degree in mechan-

ical engineering and automation from the School of
Mechanical, Electronic and Information Engineering,
China University of Mining and Technology, Beijing,
China, in 2011. He is currently working toward the
Ph.D. degree at the School of Mechanical, Material
Guiping Liu received the Ph.D. degree in mechan-
and Mechatronics Engineering, University of Wol-
ical engineering from Hunan University, Changsha,
longong, Wollongong, N.S.W, Australia.
China, in 2008. She was a Visiting Fellow with the
His research interests include smart materials and
University of Wollongong from 2014 to 2015. She
structures, vibration control, and self-sensing MR de-
has been an Assistant Professor at the College of Me-
vices.
chanical and Automotive Engineering, Hunan Uni-
Mr. Sun received the “Best Poster Award” in ERMR 2014 and UOW-CSC
versity, since 2008. Her current research interests in-
Scholarship.
clude engineering design and analysis of vehicle and
modeling and simulation for high-speed motorized
Huaxia Deng (M’11) received the B.E. and M.S. de- spindles.
grees from the University of Science and Technology Dr. Liu received the first prize for the Science and
of China, Hefei, China, in 2004 and 2007, respec- Technology Advancement Award of Hunan Province and the second Award for
tively, and the Ph.D. degree from the University of the Nation Science Development in 2010 and 2013, respectively.
Liverpool, Liverpool, U.K., in 2011.
He was a Research Associate with the Univer-
sity of Liverpool. He has been the Hungshan Young
Scholar Professor at the School of Instrument Science
and Optoelectronics Engineering, Hefei University of
Technology, Hefei, since 2012. His research interests
include smart materials and vibration control. He is
the Review Editor of the Journal Frontiers in Smart Materials. Gursel Alici received the Ph.D. degree in robotics
Dr. Deng was elected as the Member of the Institute of Physics in 2011. from the Department of Engineering Science, Ox-
He received the Duncan Norman Research Scholarship, Jin Guofan Prize for ford University, Oxford, U.K., in 1994.
Excellent Youth of China Instrument Society. He is currently a Professor at the University of
Wollongong, Wollongong, N.S.W., Australia, where
he is the Head at the School of Mechanical, Materi-
Haiping Du (M’09) received the Ph.D. degree in me-
als and Mechatronic Engineering. He is the Leader
chanical design and theory from Shanghai Jiao Tong
of the Soft Robotics for Prosthetic Devices theme of
University, Shanghai, China, in 2002.
the ARC Center of Excellence for Electromaterials
He was a Research Fellow with the University of
Science. He has published more than 270 refereed
Technology, Sydney, from 2005 to 2009, and was a
publications in his areas of research.
Postdoctoral Research Associate with Imperial Col-
Dr. Alici was a Technical Editor of the IEEE/ASME TRANSACTIONS ON
lege London from 2003 to 2005 and the University
MECHATRONICS during 2008–2012. He is a Technical Editor of IEEE Access,
of Hong Kong from 2002 to 2003. He is currently an
the first IEEE open access journal with interdisciplinary scope. He is a Mem-
Associate Professor at the School of Electrical, Com-
ber of the Mechatronics National Panel formed by the Institution of Engineers,
puter and Telecommunications Engineering, Univer-
Australia. He received the Outstanding Contributions to Teaching and Learning
sity of Wollongong, Wollongong, N.S.W, Australia.
Award in 2010 and the 2013 Vice-Chancellor’s Interdisciplinary Research Ex-
He is the Editorial Advisory Board Member of the Journal of Sound and Vibra-
cellence Award from the University of Wollongong.
tion.
Dr. Du was an Associate Editor of the IEEE Control Systems Society Con-
ference. He received the Endeavour Research Fellowship in 2012.

Weihua Li (M’15) received the B. E. and M. E. de-

grees from the University of Science and Technology
of China, Hefei, China, in 1992 and 1995, respec-
tively, and the Ph.D. degree from Nanyang Techno-
logical University, Nanyang, Singapore, in 2001.
He was with the School of Mechanical and Pro-
duction Engineering, Nanyang Technological Uni-
versity, as a Research Fellow, from 2001 to 2003. He
has been with the School of Mechanical, Materials
and Mechatronic Engineering, University of Wollon-
gong, Wollongong, N.S.W, Australia, as an Academic
Staff Member, since 2003. He has published more than 260 technical articles
in refereed international journals and conferences. He serves as an Associate
Editor or Editorial Board Member for nine international journals.
Dr. Li received the number of awards, including the JSPS Invitation Fellow-
ship in 2014, the Endeavour Research Fellowship in 2011, and the Scientific
Visits to China Program Awards.
Tianhong Yan received the Ph.D. degree in
aerospace engineering and mechanics from the
Harbin Institute of Technology, Harbin, China, in
1999.
He has been a full Professor at China Jiliang Uni-
versity, Hangzhou, China, since 2009. His research
interests include dynamics and servo control of high-
speed and high-precision mechatronics systems in
large or complex equipment, and robotics. He has
published more than 70 papers and was awarded more
than 20 Chinese patents. He is the main Scientist for
the national key grand projects of the National “863” plan and the 10th five
years plan.

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