Multi-Axle Air Suspension Control via Acceleration-Gated Pressure Adjustment
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing systems for vehicles with multiple rear axles lack a reliable method to accurately control air suspension pressures between axles, especially during motion, and fail to account for driving conditions, acceleration, speed, and load distribution effectively.
Innovation Solution
The system monitors vehicle acceleration and timing of air spring pressure measurements to ensure accuracy, using a confidence factor to scale adjustments and maintain a target ratio of air spring pressures between the tag and drive axles, thereby optimizing load distribution and ride height.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Productivity
If air spring pressure measurements are taken during vehicle motion, then the system can continuously monitor and adjust suspension pressures, but the accuracy of pressure readings deteriorates due to acceleration effects
Solution Approach 1:
The system performs pressure measurements at predetermined time intervals during periods of low or zero acceleration. By timing measurements to coincide with stable vehicle conditions, the system ensures accurate readings while maintaining continuous monitoring capability through systematic scheduling of measurement and adjustment cycles.
2Productivity
If the system frequently adjusts air spring pressures to maintain target ratios, then load distribution optimization is improved, but the risk of erroneous adjustments increases due to inaccurate measurements during acceleration
Solution Approach 1:
The system continuously monitors acceleration levels and uses this feedback to determine when pressure measurements should be taken. By gating measurements to occur only during low-acceleration periods, the system ensures that feedback-based pressure adjustments are based on accurate readings, thereby maintaining reliability while achieving load distribution optimization.
3Measurement precision
If the system takes into account multiple factors (acceleration, speed, load, ride height) in controlling air suspension pressures, then the accuracy and reliability of pressure control is improved, but the device complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The control system integrates multiple sensing functions into a unified platform that monitors acceleration, speed, load, and ride height simultaneously. By using a single controller to process multiple parameters and make coordinated adjustments, the system achieves high pressure control accuracy without proportionally increasing device complexity.
Data Source
AI summary
A system and method are provided for configuring suspension ratios in a multi-rear axle vehicle, the vehicle having a drive axle suspension and at least one tag axle suspension, each suspension having one or more air springs. The timing of the performance of an adjustment cycle series of steps for adjusting the suspension height and air spring pressure readings is optimized by monitoring the acceleration of the vehicle and conducting the adjustment cycle steps when the vehicle acceleration is below an acceleration threshold. Additionally, air spring pressure adjustments may be scaled based on a confidence factor of the air spring pressure readings. Finally, a method is provided for configuring suspension ratios in a multi-rear axle vehicle, the vehicle having a drive axle suspension and at least one tag axle suspension, and for adjusting the air suspension pressures.