Investigation of the idea of active suspension system application in hybrid electric vehicles

This paper describes the idea of application of active suspension system in hybrid electric vehicles (HEVs). For the investigation of this idea, a methodological approach for simultaneous simulation of power train and suspension systems is presented. In this approach, the hybrid electric power train and the active suspension systems simulations are integrated and the exchange of power and data between two systems is simulated. Considering the effect of power train simulation input, introduced as driving cycle on the suspension disturbance, two combined road-speed disturbances are generated and are applied to the suspension system. Furthermore, energy interaction of the AS and power train systems is modeled for both conventional and hybrid electric power trains. The simulation results show the ability of the approach for investigation of the active suspension system power demand as well as fuel consumption, emission, and the ride characteristics of the hybrid electric vehicle equipped with active suspension system.