Pneumohydraulic spring with adaptive self-adjusting damper for suspension of a high-speed tracked vehicle and its calculation procedure

Currently, a further increase in the mobility of high-speed vehicles is largely limited by the existing suspension systems, which mainly have unregulated characteristics, and the developed adjustable suspension systems with external control are very complex, expensive and less reliable. Therefore, the development of relatively simple and reliable self-adjusting suspensions for high-speed machinery is an urgent task. At the Department of Automatic Installations of Volgograd State Technical University an original design of an air-hydraulic spring (AHS) with an adaptive self-regulating damper for suspension of a high-speed tracked vehicle (HSTV) was developed. A feature of its adaptive damper is the provision of a two-stage inelastic resistance depending on the amplitude, frequency and direction of oscillation, which can significantly reduce the acceleration of the «shaking» and heating of AHS when the HSTV moves along small irregularities, as well as practically eliminate suspension breakdowns when large vertical and angular vibrations occur at the vehicles body when driving on large bumps or springboards with a takeoff of the rollers from the supporting surface. These modes of operation are ensured by installing two spring-loaded step plungers in the serial AHS body, which in a static position and with small spring lift open an additional throttle channel, which significantly reduces the inelastic resistance of the suspension, and at large strokes they block this channel, thereby significantly increasing damping fluctuations. Due to the fact that these plungers are equipped with a system for delaying their movement in the opposite direction, the increased resistance is maintained for several periods of oscillation. The article also presents an engineering methodology and a numerical example of determining the parameters of the main elements of an adaptive self-regulating damper, the elastic and damping characteristics of the AHS taking into account the operation of the pressure relief valve and the rebound check valve.

air-hydraulic spring, adaptive self-adjusting damper, smoothness of movement, damper calculation procedure