Design and experimental modeling of a compact hydro-pneumatic suspension strut

The dynamic properties of a compact hydro-pneumatic suspension strut integrating the gas chamber are investigated analytically and experimentally. A comprehensive experiment was designed to experimentally characterize the dependence of friction force on the strut operating pressure in addition to the pressure/force–displacement and pressure/force–velocity properties of the prototype under broad ranges of excitations. An analytical model of the strut is formulated to incorporate the polytropic gas process, nonlinear and hysteretic friction force and turbulent flows across the piston orifices. Owing to dominant effect of friction due to seals of the floating piston separating the gas and oil media, and strong dependence of friction force on the operating pressure, the Coulomb and Stribeck friction effects are described by a nonlinear function in the operating pressure. Furthermore, the viscoelastic O-ring-type seals contributed to notable hysteresis at very low velocities, which is described by a hyperbolic tangent function in velocity. The discharge coefficient of flows through orifices is also identified from the measured fluid pressures. The validity of the proposed model is demonstrated through comparisons of force–displacement and force–velocity responses of the model with the corresponding measured data under broad ranges of excitations. The comparisons revealed that the model could predict dynamic behavior of the strut reasonably well. The effects of charge pressure and gas volume are further investigated to seek guidance on tuning of the strut for realizing desired load carrying capacity and suspension stiffness.