This article describes semi-active modern control schemes for a quarter-vehicle suspension with a magnetorheological damper (MRD) to attenuate vibrations and simultaneously improve the passenger comfort and the vehicle road-holding. The first solution is a multiple positive position feedback (MPPF) control scheme to attenuate the vibration amplitude at the two modal frequencies. The second solution is based on elementary passivity considerations on the exact regulation error dynamics passive output. The passive output feedback is used to improve the control aims. Finally, the third solution deals with a disturbance rejection control (DRC) based on an extended state observer. The three proposed control schemes consider an inverse polynomial model of a commercial MRD for numerical implementation and are evaluated by comfort and road-holding performance indexes proposed in the literature. Furthermore, the effects of variation in the sprung mass (emulating different number of passengers) on the controllers’ performance is analysed. The numerical results show in both scenarios (constant and variable sprung mass) that passivity based control (PBC) and DRC improve the performance indexes compared with the classical sky-hook control and the open-loop systems with a different constant current input for the MRD. Obtained results for damping force and power consumption are within the operation range of the considered commercial MRD showing the viability for experimental implementation of the proposed control schemes.

In this work, a novel methodology for the identification of stiffness and damping rotordynamic coefficients in a rotor-bearing system is proposed. The mathematical model for the identification process is based on the algebraic identification technique applied to a finite element (FE) model of a rotor-bearing system with multiple degree-of-freedom (DOF). This model considers the effects of rotational inertia, gyroscopic moments, shear deformations, external damping and linear forces attributable to stiffness and damping parameters of the supports. The proposed identifier only requires the system’s vibration response as input data. The performance of the proposed identifier is evaluated and analyzed for both schemes, constant and variable rotational speed of the rotor-bearing system, and numerical results are obtained. In the presented results, it can be observed that the proposed identifier accurately determines the stiffness and damping parameters of the bearings in less than 0.06 s. Moreover, the identification procedure rapidly converges to the estimated values in both tested conditions, constant and variable rotational speed.

In this paper, a mathematical model is presented to identify the direct dynamic coefficients (k_xx, k_zz, c_xx, c_zz) of a pressurized bearing in a rotor-bearing system. The presented mathematical model for online identification is the result of the application of the algebraic identification approach to a two-degree-of-freedom rotor-bearing model. The proposed identification model requires only the vibration response as the input data. The performance of the model was assessed by theoretically and experimentally testing the proposed identifier at different shaft frequencies and, for the experimental test, a pressurized bearing that has hydrodynamic and hydrostatic characteristics at a support pressure of 10 psi was considered. The working fluid is Chevron GST 32 oil. The results show negligible differences between the vibration response of the experimental rotor and those obtained numerically using the identified direct dynamic coefficients of the pressurized bearing. In addition, it is observed that the algebraic identifier determines the identified parameters in a time less than 0.2 s. The proposed identifier can be used in other types of bearings, which is a great advantage over other identifiers.

En este trabajo se propone el desarrollo de identificadores de los parámetros de masa, rigidez y amortiguamiento de un sistema rotor-cojinete simplificado de dos grados de libertad. La técnica utilizada para el desarrollo de los identificadores se conoce en la literatura como: técnica de identificación algebraica. Para el desarrollo de los identificadores paramétricos, se utilizó el modelo matemático de un sistema rotor-cojinete que considera los efectos de inercia traslacional y rotacional, así como, los efectos giroscópicos. Los identificadores algebraicos desarrollados determinan los valores de los parámetros físicos del sistema, para dos condiciones diferentes de velocidad de operación del rotor: velocidad constante y velocidad variable. La evaluación numérica de los identificadores muestra que, es posible determinar los valores de los parámetros de masa, amortiguamiento y rigidez del sistema rotor-cojinete en un pequeño intervalo de tiempo que va de los 0.1 a 0.28 segundos.