Improvement of Comfort in Suspension Seats with a Pneumatic Negative Stiffness System
This paper presents a Negative Stiffness System (NSS) for vibration isolation and comfort improvement of vehicle seats, which enhances the performance of optimized traditional passive seat suspensions. The NSS is based on a set of two Pneumatic Linear Actuators (PLAs) added to a seat supported by a...
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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MDPI AG
2020-12-01
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| Series: | Actuators |
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| Online Access: | https://www.mdpi.com/2076-0825/9/4/126 |
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| author | Eduardo Palomares Angel L. Morales Antonio J. Nieto Jose M. Chicharro Publio Pintado |
| author_facet | Eduardo Palomares Angel L. Morales Antonio J. Nieto Jose M. Chicharro Publio Pintado |
| author_sort | Eduardo Palomares |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | This paper presents a Negative Stiffness System (NSS) for vibration isolation and comfort improvement of vehicle seats, which enhances the performance of optimized traditional passive seat suspensions. The NSS is based on a set of two Pneumatic Linear Actuators (PLAs) added to a seat supported by a pneumatic spring. One end of each PLA is joined to the seat while the other end is joined to the vehicle frame. In static conditions, the PLAs remain horizontal, whereas in dynamic conditions, their vertical forces work against the pneumatic spring, reducing the overall dynamic stiffness and improving passenger comfort. The paper presents a stability analysis of the highly nonlinear dynamic system, as well as the numerical determination of the optimum PLA pressure for a given passenger mass that maximises comfort without instabilities. Finally, the performance of the proposed NSS is compared to that of a traditionally optimized passive seat suspension via simulations of an eight-degree-of-freedom vehicle model traversing several road profiles and speed bumps. Comfort improvements between <inline-formula><math display="inline"><semantics><mrow><mn>10</mn><mo>%</mo></mrow></semantics></math></inline-formula> and <inline-formula><math display="inline"><semantics><mrow><mn>35</mn><mo>%</mo></mrow></semantics></math></inline-formula> are found in all tests considered. |
| first_indexed | 2024-03-10T14:22:44Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-cf8ae7b1c20c467cb4f6a779b3b0bf65 |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 2076-0825 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-03-10T14:22:44Z |
| publishDate | 2020-12-01 |
| publisher | MDPI AG |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Actuators |
| spelling | doaj.art-cf8ae7b1c20c467cb4f6a779b3b0bf652023-11-20T23:18:53ZengMDPI AGActuators2076-08252020-12-019412610.3390/act9040126Improvement of Comfort in Suspension Seats with a Pneumatic Negative Stiffness SystemEduardo Palomares0Angel L. Morales1Antonio J. Nieto2Jose M. Chicharro3Publio Pintado4E.T.S. Ingeniería Industrial de Ciudad Real, University of Castilla-La Mancha, 13071 Ciudad Real, SpainE.T.S. Ingeniería Industrial de Ciudad Real, University of Castilla-La Mancha, 13071 Ciudad Real, SpainE.T.S. Ingeniería Industrial de Ciudad Real, University of Castilla-La Mancha, 13071 Ciudad Real, SpainE.T.S. Ingeniería Industrial de Ciudad Real, University of Castilla-La Mancha, 13071 Ciudad Real, SpainE.T.S. Ingeniería Industrial de Ciudad Real, University of Castilla-La Mancha, 13071 Ciudad Real, SpainThis paper presents a Negative Stiffness System (NSS) for vibration isolation and comfort improvement of vehicle seats, which enhances the performance of optimized traditional passive seat suspensions. The NSS is based on a set of two Pneumatic Linear Actuators (PLAs) added to a seat supported by a pneumatic spring. One end of each PLA is joined to the seat while the other end is joined to the vehicle frame. In static conditions, the PLAs remain horizontal, whereas in dynamic conditions, their vertical forces work against the pneumatic spring, reducing the overall dynamic stiffness and improving passenger comfort. The paper presents a stability analysis of the highly nonlinear dynamic system, as well as the numerical determination of the optimum PLA pressure for a given passenger mass that maximises comfort without instabilities. Finally, the performance of the proposed NSS is compared to that of a traditionally optimized passive seat suspension via simulations of an eight-degree-of-freedom vehicle model traversing several road profiles and speed bumps. Comfort improvements between <inline-formula><math display="inline"><semantics><mrow><mn>10</mn><mo>%</mo></mrow></semantics></math></inline-formula> and <inline-formula><math display="inline"><semantics><mrow><mn>35</mn><mo>%</mo></mrow></semantics></math></inline-formula> are found in all tests considered.https://www.mdpi.com/2076-0825/9/4/126vibration isolationnegative stiffness systemcomfortsuspension seat |
| spellingShingle | Eduardo Palomares Angel L. Morales Antonio J. Nieto Jose M. Chicharro Publio Pintado Improvement of Comfort in Suspension Seats with a Pneumatic Negative Stiffness System Actuators vibration isolation negative stiffness system comfort suspension seat |
| title | Improvement of Comfort in Suspension Seats with a Pneumatic Negative Stiffness System |
| title_full | Improvement of Comfort in Suspension Seats with a Pneumatic Negative Stiffness System |
| title_fullStr | Improvement of Comfort in Suspension Seats with a Pneumatic Negative Stiffness System |
| title_full_unstemmed | Improvement of Comfort in Suspension Seats with a Pneumatic Negative Stiffness System |
| title_short | Improvement of Comfort in Suspension Seats with a Pneumatic Negative Stiffness System |
| title_sort | improvement of comfort in suspension seats with a pneumatic negative stiffness system |
| topic | vibration isolation negative stiffness system comfort suspension seat |
| url | https://www.mdpi.com/2076-0825/9/4/126 |
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