Application of Tuned Mass Dampers and Lever Type Vibration Isolator to the Quarter-Car Model in Order to Increase Ride Comfort

In this paper, performance of passive vibration isolators, namely rotational / linear tuned mass dampers (TMD) and lever type vibration isolators (LVI), are investigated under different configurations for optimal ride comfort. TMDs reduce vibration levels by absorbing the energy of the system, especially around natural frequencies with the help of viscous dampers. Two types of TMDs, rotational and linear, are investigated in this study. Although linear TMDs can be more easily implemented on suspension systems, rotational TMDs show better performance in reducing vibration levels. The reason is that, the inertia effect of rotational TMDs is higher than linear TMDs. In order to obtain better results with TMDs, a study on different possible configurations is conducted. A plate, with very small mass, is added between sprung and unsprung masses without changing the original suspension spring stiffness and damping coefficients and acts as a support for in-series TMD applications. Finally, LVIs are implemented to reduce sprung mass acceleration and more satisfactory results are obtained especially around body bounce frequency.