Active and Semi-Active Systems for Optimisation of Bogie Vehicle Primary and Secondary Suspensions in the Lateral Plane

SUMMARY

The application of an actuator in the secondary suspension of a body-steered bogie vehicle without any yaw stiffness in both the primary and the secondary suspension has been studied. The improvements in ride quality are investigated when the actuator works in the active and the semi-active states. Without reducing stability, for American track standard class 6 track, the body acceleration rms is reduced by 33% when the actuator is in the active state; for a bump track input, a reduction of 11% is possible when the actuator is in a semi-active state, compared with passive suspensions.