Improvement of the Truck Ride Comfort Via Cab Suspension

Suspensions are installed underneath the cab to reduce the transmitted vibration from the chassis and to improve ride comfort for truck and drivers. This paper addresses the cab suspension control and truck ride performance. A nine-degree of freedom model for the evaluation of ride performance for a truck and trailer moving on an irregular road surface is developed. The cab suspension for passive system is represented by a parallel arrangement of a spring and damper. A hybrid control strategy is proposed to improve ride performance. The effect of vehicle speed and road roughness on the ride performance is evaluated. The road roughness, speed, cab suspension and the proposed control strategy have significant effects on the truck ride performance.