Nonlinear Characteristic Analysis of Gas-Interconnected Quasi-Zero Stiffness Pneumatic Suspension System: A Theoretical and Experimental Study

Abstract Because of significantly changed load and complex and variable driving road conditions of commercial vehicles, pneumatic suspension with lower natural frequencies is widely used in commercial vehicle suspension system. However, traditional pneumatic suspension system is hardly to respond the greatly changed load of commercial vehicles. To address this issue, a new Gas-Interconnected Quasi-Zero Stiffness Pneumatic Suspension (GIQZSPS) is presented in this paper to improve the vibration isolation performance of commercial vehicle suspension systems under frequent load changes. This new structure adds negative stiffness air chambers on traditional pneumatic suspension to reduce the natural frequency of the suspension. It can adapt to different loads and road conditions by adjusting the solenoid valves between the negative stiffness air chambers. Firstly, a nonlinear mechanical model including the dimensionless stiffness characteristic and interconnected pipeline model is derived for GIQZSPS system. By the nonlinear mechanical model of GIQZSPS system, the force transmissibility rate is chosen as the evaluation index to analyze characteristics. Furthermore, a testing bench simulating 1/4 GIQZSPS system is designed, and the testing analysis of the model validation and isolating performance is carried out. The results show that compared to traditional pneumatic suspension, the GIQZSPS designed in the article has a lower natural frequency. And the system can achieve better vibration isolation performance under different load states by switching the solenoid valves between air chambers.