HCIB Based Control for Reducing Low Frequency Driveline Vibrations on Commercial Vehicles

HCIB, high-capacity inertia brake, is a frictional braking device used in Eaton’s transmission to slow down the engine speed during the gear shifting process. This paper develops a control strategy to apply HCIB for reducing torsional vibration on the driveline for a specific driving situation in which the driver uses the gas pedal to maintain a truck position on an upslope, known as the hill holding condition. Under this condition the truck is standing still on a hill while the engine is running to deliver torque to the wheels through the entire drivetrain system. It is a clutch-slipping drive with frictional torque to transmit power from engine to wheels. In this developed control algorithm, output-shaft speed and accelerator pedal signals are used to identify the pattern for this driving situation and at the same time the input-shaft speed and engine speed are used to determine vibration amplitudes at a certain interested frequency range. The estimated vibration amplitude is then used to derive the control signal of HCIB for vibration reduction. The torsional vibration control (TVC) algorithm has been successfully implemented and tested on a prototype MD (Medium Duty) truck.