Algebraic Estimator of Damping Failure for Automotive Shock Absorber

One of the challenges for automotive industry is online fault identification and elimination of vehicle interior vibration. The effectiveness of semi-active shock absorbers can be threatened by additive and multiplicative perturbations. In fact, these perturbations are able to cripple the dynamics and complicate shock absorber operation. In particular, the ride comfort criteria should be insensitive to unpredictable troubles. Moreover, mechanical systems must operate in healthy conditions. Getting online-information about failures can be achieved by a simple algebraic estimator. These algebraic tools are based on operational calculus. The algebraic estimator has the fastest detection time and non-asymptotic behavior. In literature, the algebraic observers shown better robustness to vehicle mass uncertainties. Additionally, this estimator requires a lower number of sensors and has a lower computational overhead. Motivated by the above analysis, a simple quarter car model was used to test this approach. A restricted model is sufficient for identifying the hysteresis behavior of Magneto rheological damper. Only a sliding window needs to be tuned by the operator for obtaining a good estimation. Furthermore, just vehicles displacements are needed for identifying damping force online. The numerical simulations illustrate the effectiveness of proposed identification tool under different kind of perturbations.