RESEARCH ON THE ABILITY OF AIR SUSPENSION SYSTEMS TO REDUCE DYNAMIC LOADS ON HEAVY TRUCKS

Abstract

Air suspension systems are becoming increasingly popular on heavy duty vehicles to improve driving comfort and road holding. This study focuses on evaluating the ability to reduce dynamic loads at the axles of semi-trailers using air suspension systems compared to semi-trailers using spring suspension systems. Firstly, a vertical dynamic model is proposed for semi-trailers with two types of leaf spring suspension systems and air suspension systems for the two axles of the semi-trailer, the middle and rear axles of the tractor, while the front axle of the tractor uses a leaf spring suspension system. The air suspension system is built based on the GENSYS model, while the remaining structural parameters are considered the same. The system of differential equations describing the entire mechanical system is established based on D'Alembert's principle combined with the principle of multiple body mechanical systems. Matlab/Simulink is used for simulation and evaluation calculations. Simulation results show that semi-trailers using air suspension systems are significantly improved compared to semi-trailers using spring suspension systems.