Magneto-rheological active seat suspension for heavy vehicles

重型车辆司机暴露在振动和冲击载荷下，这些振动和冲击载荷来自于通过驾驶员座椅悬架传递的崎岖路况。这些振动对司机的健康有害，因为它们增加了下腰痛、坐骨神经痛和脊柱系统退行性变化的风险。目前用于重型车辆的被动座椅悬架的性能受到静态刚度和动态柔度之间的基本设计权衡的限制，因此，被动座椅悬架可能不符合ISO 2631-1振动暴露标准。使用主动悬架系统可以实现更大的减振，在主动悬架系统中，使用致动器而不是阻尼器来衰减传递给驾驶员的振动。两种商用的主动座椅悬架使用液压或电磁执行器来减弱传递给驾驶员的振动。尽管如此，液压执行机构的功率消耗很大，而电磁执行机构又重又贵。本研究旨在评估一种新型机电执行器作为重型车辆主动座椅悬架的低成本、轻量化和有效解决方案的可行性。在过去的研究中，这种执行器已被证明是一种可靠、轻便且经济有效的替代方案，可替代液压执行器用于航空飞行器的主要飞行控制，也可替代电磁执行器用于涉及大力和位移的动态应用。 该研究项目将提供一种具有成本效益的解决方案，以防止重型车辆司机因座椅悬挂传递的振动和冲击而造成永久性伤害。此外，这项研究将对新型执行器设计的基本行为和性能产生新的理解。该项目将使加拿大受益，因为它将为加拿大公司Exonetics Design提供可申请专利的创新，该公司的目标是在未来几年将该产品商业化。

Heavy vehicle drivers are exposed to vibrations and shock loads originating from the rough road conditions that are transmitted through the driver's seat suspension. These vibrations are harmful to the driver's health as they increase the risk of lower back pain, sciatic pain and degenerative changes in the spinal system. The performance of the passive seat suspensions currently used in heavy vehicles is limited by a fundamental design trade-off between static stiffness and dynamic compliance; as a result, passive seat suspensions may fail to comply with ISO 2631-1 vibration exposure standard. Much larger vibration reduction is achievable using active suspension systems, where actuators are used instead of dampers to attenuate vibrations transmitted to the driver. The two commercially available active seat suspensions use either hydraulic or electromagnetic actuators to attenuate the vibration transmitted to the driver. Nonetheless, hydraulic actuators consume large amount of power and electromagnetic actuators are heavy and expensive. This research aims at assessing the feasibility of a novel electromechanical actuator as a low cost, lightweight and effective solution for active seat suspensions of heavy vehicles. Such actuators have demonstrated in past research to be a reliable, lightweight and cost-effective alternative to hydraulic actuators for primary flight control of aerospace vehicles and to electromagnetic actuators for dynamic applications involving large forces and displacements. The research project will provide a cost-effective solution for preventing permanent injuries to heavy vehicle drivers that are caused by vibrations and shocks transmitted by the seat suspension. Furthermore, the research will generate new understanding on the fundamental behavior and performance of the novel actuator design. The project will benefit Canada as it will provide patentable innovations to the Canadian company Exonetics Design, which aims at commercializing the product in the coming years.