Hybrid tension-compression pneumatic actuators for active levelling, tuning and damping of vehicle suspensions and engine mounts

This paper features the innovative use of pneumatic tension actuators in combination with conventional compression air-springs to separate and independently control both the load-levelling function and the effective stiffness or spring-rate characteristic. As the air-supply to the actuators is actively manipulated and controllable to frequencies above the dominant vibration modes of the structure, both active damping and adaptive tuning are readily provided. Simple dynamic simulations verify that such hybrid configurations will prove beneficial for vehicle suspensions and machine mountings.