Investigation of a semi-active suspension system for high-speed trains based on magnetorheological isolator with negative stiffness characteristics

As the operation speed of high-speed train increases, trains with fixed suspension stiffness will encounter dramatical vibrations, especially when its lateral resonance occurs. This greatly affects the ride comfort and safety of the trains. Based on this motivation, a novel stiffness variable suspension system using magnetorheological elastomer (MRE) isolator with negative stiffness is proposed. The controllable stiffness can make the train avoid lateral resonance while the negative stiffness characteristics can provide an actuating force similar to the active control, which further improve the vibration attenuation performance of the suspension. The new MRE isolator was firstly fabricated and tested to verify its stiffness variability, especially negative stiffness characteristics. Four different suspension systems were then tested on a 6-DOF vibration platform for the performance comparison. The experimental results show that this new semi-active lateral suspension system has improved vibration attenuation performance than the passive system and the traditional MRE isolation system without negative stiffness. The vibration attenuation performance of the new suspension system is even comparable to that of some of the existing active suspensions while avoiding the disadvantages of the active control.