International Journal of Automotive Technology, Vol. 11, No. 4, pp.

471−479 (2010) Copyright © 2010 KSAE

DOI 10.1007/s12239−010−0058−5 1229−9138/2010/053−04

DEVELOPMENT AND ANALYSIS OF AN AIR SPRING MODEL

S. J. LEE *

Department of Mechanical Engineering, Myongji University, Gyeonggi 449-728, Korea

(Received 18 June 2009; Revised 23 October 2009)
ABSTRACT−The analytical model of an air spring can be effectively used for the design of air spring equipped vehicles to
provide better ride and handling characteristics along with various functions for passenger convenience. However, establishing
a general model of an air spring poses particular difficulties due to the severe nonlinearities in the stiffness and the hysteresis
effects, which are hardly observed in conventional coil springs. The purpose of this study is to develop a general analytic
model of an air spring − one which represents the main characteristics of stiffness and hysteresis and which can be connected
to a model of pneumatic systems desigined to control air spring height. To this end, the mathematical model was established
on the basis of thermodynamics with the assumptions that the thermodynamic parameters do not vary with the position inside
the air spring, that the air has the ideal gas property, and that the kinetic and potential energies of the air are negligible. The
analysis of the model has revealed that the stiffness is affected by the volume variation, the heat transfer, and the variation of
the air mass and the effective area. However, the hysteresis is mainly affected by the heat transfer and the variation of the
effective area. In particular, it was revealed that the increase of the volume due to the cross-sectional area increases the
stiffness, while the increase of the volume due to the other reason decreases it. In addition, the model was used to develop the
sufficient stability condition, and the stability of the model was analyzed. The paper also presents the comparison between the
simulation and experimental results to validate the established model and demonstrates the potential of the model to be
usefully employed for the development of the air spring and its algorithm for use in a pneumatic system.
KEY WORDS : Air spring, Analytic model, Stiffness, Hysteresis, Thermodynamic model, Stability

NOMENCLATURE z : vertical displacement

z0 : magnitude of displacement sinusoid
m· in : air mass flow rate flowing into air spring f : frequency of displacement sinusoid
m· out : air mass flow rate flowing out of air spring t : time
mcv : air mass inside air spring Vcv0 : fixed volume of air spring
Vcv : control volume of air spring Acs : cross-sectional area of the air spring
Qheat
·
: heat transfer rate zmax : maximum displacement of bottom of air spring
Aheat : area of heat transfer zcurr : current displacement of bottom of air spring
hc : heat transfer coefficient
W : work performed on air spring 1. INTRODUCTION
hin : enthalpy flowing into air spring
hout : enthalpy flowing out of air spring Air springs have been primarily applied to commercial
Ucv : internal energy inside air spring vehicles and luxury passenger cars because they are costly.
Pcv : pressure inside air spring They have many advantages, however, compared with
Patm : pressure of environment conventional coil springs. Air springs provide better com-
Tcv : temperature inside air spring fort and improvement in the handling performance because
Tin : temperature of air flowing into the air spring they can have relatively low stiffness and enable a vehicle
Tenv : temperature of environment around air spring to maintain optimum wheel alignment. In addition, air
cv : specific heat at constant volume springs can protect the body of a vehicle on rough roads
cp : specific heat at constant pressure and make the task of loading baggage into the trunk of a
k : specific heat ratio vehicle more convenient (Figure 1) because the heights of
R : ideal gas constant the air springs can be adjusted through supplying and ex-
Fas : force applied to vehicle body by air spring hausting the air via the pneumatic circuit connected to the
Aeff : effective area of air spring air spring (Jang et al., 2007; Hyundai Motor Company,
2009; Kia Motor Company, 2009). Figure 2 shows an air
*Corresponding author. e-mail: [email protected] spring and its relevant pneumatic system.

471
472 S. J. LEE

The analytic model can be usefully employed for the model of an air spring on the basis of thermodynamics,
design of an air spring, the related pneumatic system, and which consisted of two steps. First, the air spring pressure
the algorithm for the operation of the pneumatic system is obtained using the adiabatic condition, and then it is
(Jang et al ., 2007; Kim ., 2001). However, it is very
et al corrected by considering the temperature obtained by the
difficult to develop an accurate air spring model due to its heat transfer equation. Because the model does not consi-
severe nonlinearities, which are not found in conventional der the air supply or the air exhaust to/from the air spring, it
coil springs. More specifically, the stiffness of an air spring, cannot be employed in the design of the pneumatic system
which has a significant effect on the ride and handling or its control algorithm. In addition, it is difficult to employ
characteristics of a vehicle, varies nonlinearly with the the model for the stability analysis because the model is
frequency of the road excitation. The hysteresis characteri- expressed by algebraic equations.
stics of an air spring, which provides a vehicle with the The objective of this study is to develop the general air
additional damping force, cannot be neglected compared spring model on the basis of the thermodynamic equation
with the force of the damper, and it also varies with the without the assumption of adiabatic or isothermal condi-
frequency of the road excitation (Nieto ., 2008; Chang
et al tions and with the variation of air mass. The analysis of the
and Lu, 2008). developed model will reveal the important factors that have
Some research works (Kim ., 2001; Nieto
et al et al., a significant effect on the stiffness and hysteresis of an air
2008; Chang and Lu, 2008; Kim and Kim, 2005; Quaglia spring. The author of this paper performed the study on the
and Sorli, 2001; Seong ., 2008; Cha
et al et al ., 2006) have air spring model and its analysis in previous research (Cha
been carried out to develop an analytic model for an air et , 2006). The current study enhances the previous
al.

spring involving these nonlinear characteristics. Kim et al. model of an air spring. The further analysis is performed on
(2001) have developed a model of an air spring and a the basis of the enhanced model. Moreover, the stability of
vehicle with a flexible body using ADAMS, which has the air spring model is analyzed in this paper.
been used to estimate the performance of a vehicle with a The rest of this paper is organized in the following order.
control algorithm for the pneumatic system. The stiffness In Section 2, the generalized model of the air spring is
of the air spring model is expressed as a function of pre- derived on the basis of the thermodynamic equation. In
ssure, volume, area, and the polytropic index, but the Section 3, the derived model is validated by experimental
process that determines the pressure of the air spring is not results, and the stability and important characteristics of the
described. Nieto (2008) derived a nonlinear model of
et al. air spring such as the stiffness and hysteresis are analyzed.
an air spring on the basis of thermodynamics, assuming Finally, Section 4 presents a summary of the results and
adiabatic or isothermal conditions, and analyzed the stiff- draws the conclusions.
ness, the damping factor, and the transmissibility using the
derived model. Chang and Lu (2008) also developed a 2. MATHEMATICAL MODEL OF AIR SPRING
Figure 3 shows the control volume of the air spring, the
main variables of which are pressure, absolute temperature,
air mass and volume. The mathematical model of the air
spring can be derived using the energy conservation law.
The flow of the air mass into or out of the control
volume, shown in Figure 3, is controlled by the operation
of the control valve in the pneumatic circuit, as shown in
Figure 2. The flow of the air accompanies the enthalpy. In
Figure 1. Adjustment of the height of a vehicle. addition, work is performed on the control volume by the
vehicle body and the wheel, and the difference of temper-

Figure 2. Air spring and its pneumatic supply system

(Folchert, 2006; Jang ., 2007).
et al Figure 3. Control volume of the air spring.
DEVELOPMENT AND ANALYSIS OF AN AIR SPRING MODEL 473

atures between the inner and the outer sides of the control Finally, the first order differential equation for the pressure
volume generates some heat transfer between them. These of the air in the control volume can be obtained from
power flows can be modeled by the following energy equations (1), (6), (7), the specific heat ratio k =cp /cv, and
conservation equation (Fernandez and Woods, 1999; Cha R /cv = k−1 as follows:
et al., 2006).
P· cv =−kPcv V
·
cv
Qheat+W+( hinmin – houtmout )=Ucv
· · · · ·
(1) ------
Vcv
where the time derivative of work that is performed on the k–1 Vcv - ⎞
+ --------- h c A heat T env – ----------
⎛ P (9)
control volume, W , is defined using the pressure inside the
·
Vcv ⎝ Rmcv cv⎠
control volume, Pcv, and the time derivative of the control kR ⎛ · PcvVcv · ⎞
volume, Vcv, by + ------ T in m in – ------------- m out
Vcv ⎝ mcvR ⎠
W· =−PcvV· cv (2) Equation (9), which represents the mathematical model
The enthalpies flowing into and out of the control volume, for the air spring, consists of two kinds of variables, in
hin and hout, are expressed using the specific heat at constant which the specific heat ratio, heat transfer coefficient, and
pressure, cp, and the temperatures of the air mass flowing the area of heat transfer are the parameters, and the volume
into and inside the control volume, Tin and Tcv, respectively, and the rate of change of the volume in the air spring, the
by air mass flow rates, and the temperature of the environment
are the variables determined by the components connected
hin=cpTin to the air spring. Each parameter was obtained through the
hout=cpTcv (3) following methods. The ideal gas constant was selected
The enthalpies multiplied by the air mass flow rate flowing from the property of the air, and the air mass inside the air
into and out of the air spring, min and mout , represent · · spring was calculated from the ideal gas equation. The
power flows. The internal energy of the control volume, specific heat ratio was estimated from the comparison bet-
Ucv, is defined using the specific heat at constant volume, ween the experimental and simulation results. The area of
cv, the air mass, mcv, and the temperature inside the control heat transfer and the volume of the air spring were
volume by calculated from the measured geometric data and adjusted
through the comparison between the experimental and
Ucv cv mcvTcv
= (4) simulation results. The heat transfer coefficient was select-
The heat transfer rate between the inner and the outer sides ed from the well-known heat transfer coefficients and
of the control volume, Qheat , is expressed using the heat · adjusted through the comparison between the experimental
transfer coefficient, hc , the area of the heat transfer, Aheat , and simulation results.
and temperatures of the outer and the inner sides of the Equation (9) can be transformed into the following state
control volume, Tenv and Tcv, in the following form. space form.
Qheat hcAheat( Tenv Tcv )
·
= – (5) P· cv =a( t )Pcv+u( t ) (10)
To derive the pressure dynamic equation from the equation where t stands for time, and a(t) and u(t) represent
(1), the temperature inside the control volume is replaced functions of time defined by
with the pressure inside the control volume using the
cv ( k – 1 ) h c Aheat 1
a( t)=− k V m· out
·

following ideal gas equation. ------ − ----------------------------- ------- − k -------- (11)

Vcv R mcv mcv
V P
Tcv = -1-- ----cv--------cv-- (6) T ---- T----in---m
u( t)=( k – 1 )hcAheat ----env + kR
·
(12)
R mcv in
------
Tcv Vcv
where R is the ideal gas constant. The derivative of the
temperature inside the control volume with respect to time This representation is used for the stability analysis of the
can be derived by differentiating equation (6) with respect dynamic equation. Although this equation is a first order
to time, as follows:
T--·--cv-- = -P-·--cv-- − -m-·---cv-- + -V-·--cv-- (7) Table 1. Parameters for the air spring model.
Tcv Pcv mcv Vcv
R 287 J/kgK
where the air mass inside the control volume varies with Tenv 293.15 K
the air mass flowing into and out of the control volume on mcv 0.012 kg
the basis of the mass conservation law, as follows: Aheat 0.050 m2 (at maximum)
mcv ∫ mcv dt ∫ ( min mout )dt
=
·
=
·
(8)
–
·
k 1.17~1.3 (for 0.05~5 Hz)
474 S. J. LEE

linear system, its stability cannot be determined by only the Table 2. Experimental conditions.
sign of the time constant, a(t), because the dynamic equa-
tion (10) is not a time invariant system. The stability for the Initial pressure 7.7 bar (absolute pressure)
dynamic system will be analyzed in the next section. Environment Room temperature
The pressure inside the air spring, which is determined temperature
by equation (10), is transformed into the force acting on the Displacement 10 mm (amplitude)
vehicle body input (sinusoid) 0.05 Hz, 0.5 Hz, 5 Hz (frequency)
Fas=Aeff ( Pcv – Patm ) (13)
where Fas is the force, Aeff is the effective area of the air body, the pressure inside the air spring and the force are
spring, through which pressure is transformed into the measured to validate the established model.
force, and Patm is the pressure of the environment.
3.2. Analysis and Validation for Hysteresis
3. ANALYSIS AND VALIDATION OF AIR The experimental data on the forces generated by the air
SPRING MODEL spring are plotted versus the vertical displacement in Figure
5, which clearly shows the hysteresis. Because the force is
The air spring model of equation (9) was developed to
describe the important characteristics such as the hysteresis
and nonlinear spring stiffness. The experimental results for
the air spring validate the mathematical model, and the
factors that affect the stiffness and the hysteresis of the air
spring are analyzed in this section.
3.1. Experiments of the Air Spring
Figure 4 briefly shows the experimental setup where a
sinusoidal displacement is vertically applied to the air
spring by a linear actuator, which is positioned in the lower
part of the air spring instead of the road excitation. The
force, which is applied to the vehicle body by the air
spring, is measured by the sensor which is positioned in the
upper part of the air spring. The pressure of the air spring is
measured by the sensor, which is positioned in the air Figure 5. Experimental results of force versus vertical
passage between the air spring and the control valve. displacement for sinusoidal motion excitation at 0.05 Hz,
Experiments in which the air spring is excited at various 0.5 Hz and 5 Hz (the 0.05 Hz and 5 Hz data are represented
frequencies are performed. Through the experiments, the 200 N lower and higher than the actual values for ease in
signals such as vertical displacement which represents the distinction between the different data plots, respectively).
vertical movement of the wheel with respect to the vehicle

Figure 6. Simulation results for pressure response due to

only variation of the volume for sinusoidal motion
excitation at 0.05 Hz, 0.5 Hz and 5 Hz (the 0.05 Hz and 5
Figure 4. Schematic representation of the experimental Hz data are represented 200 mbar lower and higher than
setup. the actual values, respectively).
DEVELOPMENT AND ANALYSIS OF AN AIR SPRING MODEL 475

the effective area times the pressure, the cause of the

hysteresis can be found in the pressure dynamic equation
(9). The inspection of equation (9) reveals that the hysteresis
can be caused by three terms.
The first term, kPcvVcv Vcv , occurs due to the volume
–
·
/

change in an air spring according to the vertical displace-

ment. The hysteresis on the pressure response can occur
when the volume is a function of other variables as well as
the vertical displacement. However, for the fixed air mass
and the given temperature, the volume of the air spring is
assumed to be a function of only the vertical displacement
on the basis of test results on some air springs. Hence, the
pressure responses due to only the variation of the volume,
which is a function of only the vertical displacement, do
not show the hysteresis as in Figure 6. Figure 7. Simulation results of pressure versus vertical
– 1-h A ⎛T – ----------
V - ⎞ , which occurs displacement for sinusoidal motion excitation at 0.05 Hz,
The second term, k---------
V ⎝ Rm ⎠
P c heat env
cv
cv 0.5 Hz and 5 Hz (the 0.05 Hz and 5 Hz data are represented
cv cv

due to the heat transfer between the air spring and the 200 mbar lower and higher than the actual values, respec-
environment, is a function of the pressure as well as the tively).
vertical displacement. The hysteresis due to this second term
can be analyzed through the pressure dynamic equation,
which consists of the first term and the second term as follows: where 0 and represent the magnitude and the frequency of
z f

the vertical displacement sinusoid, respectively. This equa-

Pcv =a( t )Pcv +u( t )
·
tion indicates that the increase of the frequency reduces the
cv ( k – 1 ) h c A heat
effect of the hysteresis due to the second term.
a(t)=−k V
·

------ − ----------------------------- (14) The simulated pressure responses shown in Figure 7 are
Vcv Rmcv
T ---- compared with the experimental results shown in Figure 8,
u( t )=( k – 1 )hc Aheat ----env
Vcv which are obtained without the air mass flowing into or out
of the air spring. The similarity between the simulation and
This equation has the form of a first-order low-pass filter in experimental results validates the air spring model develop-
which ( ) is the cut-off frequency, ( ) is the input signal,
a t u t ed and its analysis.
and cv is the filtered output signal. The low-pass filter
P
P V · ⎞ , in equation (9)
kR- ⎛T m· − -------------
causes the phase shift of the output signal with respect to The third term, -----
V ⎝ in
m R ⎠
in
cv cv
m out

the input signal, which in turn generates the hysteresis of cv cv

occurs when air is supplied to or exhausted from the air

the output signal with respect to the input signal. Because spring, which means that the vehicle body is lifted or
( ) is time-varying, equation (14) represents the charac-
a t
lowered for some specific purpose, as shown in Figure 1.
teristics that are significantly different from the low-pass
filter with a time-invariant cut-off frequency. However, the
first order dynamics of equation (14) generate the phase
shift between the input and the output, which causes the
hysteresis in the pressure output. More specifically, the phase
shift of the pressure output with respect to the displacement
input decreases as the frequency of the input increases from
0.05 Hz to 5 Hz, which decreases the magnitude of the
hysteresis in the pressure, as shown in Figure 7. (Pressures
of all the figures in this paper represent the relative
pressure.) In addition, the variation of the magnitude of the
hysteresis can also be shown in the following equation,
which is derived by considering only the first term and the
second term of equation (9) when the sinusoidal vertical
displacement, = 0 sin(2π ), is applied to the air spring.
z z f t

dPcv kPcv dVcv Figure 8. Experimental results of pressure versus vertical

----------- = − ----------- -----------
dz Vcv dz displacement for sinusoidal motion excitation at 0.05 Hz,
0.5 Hz and 5 Hz (the 0.05 Hz and 5 Hz data are represented
( k – 1 ) hc Aheat Vcv - ⎞
+ --------------------------------------------- T env – ----------
⎛ P (15) 200 mbar lower and higher than the actual values, respec-
2 π fz 0 cos ( 2 π f t ) V cv ⎝ Rmcv cv⎠ tively).
476 S. J. LEE

This term is also a function of the pressure as well as the

vertical displacement and is expressed including the first
term by the first order filter form as follows:
V· cv – k m
P· cv =⎛⎝− k ------
· out ⎞
--------
·
in m in
- Pcv +kR T------------
- (16)
Vcv mcv ⎠ Vcv
Unlike the second term, the third term does not show the
typical form of a hysteresis but shows the pressure re-
sponses presented in Figure 9. This figure represents the
pressure responses due to the first term and the third term
when the upper part of the air spring is lowered by 10 mm,
which means that the vehicle height is lowered when the
lower part of the air spring is excited at 0.5 Hz. In Figure 9,
the thin lines represent the pressure responses before and
after the variation of the air mass inside the air spring, and Figure 11. Force response for sinusoidal motion excitation
the thick line stands for the pressure response while the air at 0.05 Hz, 0.5 Hz and 5 Hz (the 0.05 Hz and 5 Hz data are
mass varies. This figure indicates that the variation of the represented 200 N lower and higher than the actual values,
respectively). Simulation results include all effects except
the air mass variation.

air mass inside the air spring has an effect on the pressure
response, but no hysteresis occurs due to the variation of
the air mass.
Because the force is defined by the effective area times
the pressure such as expressed in equation (13), the effec-
tive area in addition to the pressure has an effect on the
hysteresis of the force response. The effective area varies
with the vertical displacement because it varies with the
vertical shape of the contour of the piston in the lower part
of the air spring, which changes the ride comfort of the
vehicle. In addition, the effective area varies with the pre-
ssure at the same displacement, which yields the hysteresis
Figure 9. Simulation results for pressure responses due to of the effective area. In Figures 10 and 11, the effect of this
the variations of the volume and the air mass inside the air hysteresis is represented. Simulation results in Figure 10 do
spring. not include the hysteresis of the effective area, while those
in Figure 11 include it. These figures show that the hysteresis
of the effective area enlarges the hysteresis of the force
response. Finally, the comparison between the simulated
and the experimental results in Figure 11 confirms the
validity of the air spring model.
3.3. Analysis and Validation of Stiffness
The stiffness of the air spring can be obtained by differenti-
ating equation (13) with respect to the vertical displace-
ment, as follows:
dF dP dA
kas = ---------as- = Aeff ---------cv- +( Pcv – Patm ) ---------eff- (17)
dz dz dz
where kas represents the stiffness of the air spring, and z the
vertical displacement. This equation indicates that the stiff-
Figure 10. Force responses for sinusoidal motion excitation ness of the air spring varies with the derivatives of the
at 0.05 Hz, 0.5 Hz and 5 Hz (the 0.05 Hz and 5 Hz data are pressure and the effective area with respect to the vertical
represented 200 N lower and higher than the actual values, displacement.
respectively). Simulation results do not include the hysteresis In equation (9), the first term, which represents the effect
of the effective area while experimental results include it. of the volume variation, is one of the factors that change
DEVELOPMENT AND ANALYSIS OF AN AIR SPRING MODEL 477

the stiffness of the air spring expressed in equation (17). specifically, the heat transfer at the low frequency signifi-
The variation of the pressure due to the first term is cantly reduces the stiffness due to the variation of the
rewritten in the following equation. volume, while at the high frequency it slightly reduces the
dP 1 dV
stiffness. The negative pressure in Figure 12 occurs for the
cv
--------- = −kPcv ------ -------cv-- (18) following reason. When the air spring is compressed, the
dz Vcv dz pressure increases due to the compressed volume. The
= kPcv ----------------A-z-max
cs
(19) resulting increment of the pressure increases the temper-
ature of the air spring in equation (6) and decreases the rate
-------------------

Vcv0 + ∫curr Acs dz

of change of pressure due to the second term in equation
where V 0 stands for the fixed volume like the additional
cv (15). Consequently, when the temperature of the air spring
volume attached to some air spring in order to improve the becomes larger than that of the environment, the pressure
comfort, A represents the cross-sectional area of the air
cs due to heat transfer decreases, which can yield a negative
spring, and zmax and z are the maximum displacement and
curr pressure. However, the entire pressure increases because
the current displacement of the bottom of the air spring, the increase of the pressure due to the volume variation is
respectively. It is well known that an increase of the volume larger than the decrease of the pressure due to the heat
of the air spring reduces the stiffness of the air spring. transfer even when the temperature of the air spring is
However, a close inspection of equation (18) reveals that larger than the environment.
the absolute value of the derivative of the pressure with The pressure response due to the variation of the air
respect to the vertical displacement, which represents a part mass, which is included in the third term of equation (9), is
of the stiffness expressed in equation (17), decreases as the also added to that due to the other two terms, which in turn
entire volume of the air spring increases but increases as changes the stiffness which is determined by the other
the derivative of the volume with respect to the vertical terms. The equation (9) shows that the mass flow rate
displacement increases. Hence, the derivative of the pressure flowing into the air spring, m , increases the stiffness, while
·
in

increases, which increases the stiffness, if the increment of the mass flow rate flowing out of the air spring, m , ·
out

the derivative of the volume is larger than the increment of decreases it. Figure 9 represents the pressure response due
the volume even though the entire volume increases. The to variations of the volume and the air mass when the air
mass is flowing out of the air spring.
z
term, V 0 ∫ max A dz , in the denominator of equation (19)
cv + cs

In addition to the pressure variation, the variation of the

curr
represents the entire volume, and the cross-sectional area,
A , in the numerator stands for the derivative of the entire
cs effective area has an effect on the stiffness. As mentioned
volume with respect to the vertical displacement. When the earlier, the contour of the piston of the air spring is manu-
cross-sectional area increases, the increment of the deriva- factured in order to obtain the optimum ride comfort,
tive of the volume is larger than the increment of the entire which yields the variation of the effective area. Hence, the
volume. For example, when the cross-sectional area increases large variation of the effective area can have a significant
by 50 percent, the entire volume cannot increase by up to effect on the variation of the stiffness. This study on the air
50 percent because the fixed volume does not increase. spring which was employed in this experiment shows that
Hence, the increase of the volume due to the cross- most of values of the stiffness due to the second term in
sectional area increases the stiffness of the air spring, while equation (17), which represents the effect of the effective
the increase of the volume without the variation of the area variation, vary within 40% of the entire stiffness.
cross-sectional area decreases the stiffness.
The heat transfer, which is included in the second term
of equation (9), also has an effect on the variation of the
stiffness. Equation (15) clearly shows the variation of the
stiffness due to the heat transfer. In equation (15), the
derivative of the pressure with respect to the displacement
due to the heat transfer is added to that due to the variation
of the volume, which changes the stiffness due to the vari-
ation of the volume. In addition, because the term due to
the heat transfer is divided by the frequency of the dis-
placement in equation (15), the stiffness due to the heat
transfer is reduced as the frequency increases. The stiffness
variation with frequency is shown in Figure 12, which re-
presents the pressure responses due to only the heat trans-
fer. The entire pressure response in equation (15) is deter-
mined by the sum of Figure 6 and Figure 12. Hence, the Figure 12. Simulation results for pressure response due to
heat transfer at the low frequency has a significant effect on only heat transfer for sinusoidal motion excitation at 0.05
the entire stiffness, unlike that at the high frequency. More Hz, 0.5 Hz and 5 Hz.
478 S. J. LEE

The slopes of the force curves in Figure 11 represent the has not been proven that the air spring model is unstable if
entire stiffness, which includes the rate of change of the the derived stability condition is not satisfied.
effective area as well as the pressure. Figure 11 indicates Equation (22) indicates that the increase of the fixed
that the stiffness varies with the displacement and fre- volume of the air spring, the heat transfer coefficient and
quency. In addition, it is observed that the stiffness of the area, and the air mass flow rate flowing out of the air spring
simulation curves is similar to that of experimental curves are helpful in satisfying the stability condition (22), while
in the full range of the displacement. the increase of the negative rate of change of the volume
and the air mass prevent the stability condition (22) from
3.4. Stability Analysis of the Air Spring System being satisfied. Figure 13 shows that ( ) has the negative
a t

The stability of the air spring is very important for the values for sinusoidal motion excitation at 0.5 Hz. For other
vehicle stability. However, the stability of the pressure sinusoidal motion excitation of 0.05 Hz and 5 Hz, ( ) also
a t

dynamics of the air spring is not simply determined like a has the negative value.
time-invariant system because ( ) in the air spring model
a t

equation (10) is time-varying. 4. CONCLUSION

For the stability analysis of the dynamic equation (10),
linear time-invariant dynamic systems are introduced as This research developed a general model of an air spring
follows: based on thermodynamics. This model was derived from
the energy conservation law. The thermodynamic para-
P· max=amaxPmax+u( t ) meters inside the air spring are assumed to be uniform,
P· min=aminPmin+u( t ) (20) which means that the parameters do not vary with the
position inside the air spring. The air inside an air spring is
where max and min are the pressure variables, and max and
P P a also assumed to have an ideal gas property, and the kinetic
a min are the constant maximum and minimum values of ( ). a t and potential energies of the air are neglected. However,
Because ( ) is bounded by max and min, cv is also
a t a a P the resulting model can represent all processes ranging
bounded by max and min as follows:
P P from isothermal to adiabatic conditions because the assump-
P· min ≤ P· cv ≤ P· max (21) tion that the process is adiabatic or isothermal has not been
employed. In addition, the model can be used to simulate
Because equation (20) is a linear time-invariant system, the system with the pneumatic circuit able to adjust the
P max and min are bounded if max and min are negative values
P a a vehicle height because it includes the air mass flowing into
and the input, ( ), is bounded (Khalil, 1996). ( ) in the
u t u t and out of the air spring.
equation (12) is bounded when the air mass flow rate The analysis of the established model revealed that the
flowing into the air spring, m· in , is bounded. Consequently, volume variation, the heat transfer, the variation of the air
the pressure of the air spring, cv, is bounded, when m· in is
P mass and the effective area have an effect on the stiffness
bounded and the following condition is satisfied. and hysteresis. The heat transfer yields the larger hysteresis
· (k – 1)h A · out under the input with the low frequency than that with the
a( t )=− ⎛⎝k V - + km
------cv + ----------------------------
c heat
-⎞ < 0
-------- (22) high frequency, and the effective area enlarges the hy-
Vcv Rmcv mcv ⎠
steresis. In addition, the heat transfer significantly reduces
This stability criterion is a sufficient condition because it the stiffness at the low frequency, and the air mass flow rate
flowing into the air spring increases the stiffness, while the
air mass flow rate flowing out of the air spring decreases it.
In particular, the increase of the volume due to the cross-
sectional area increases the stiffness, while the increase of
the volume due to the other reason decreases it. Addition-
ally, most of the stiffness due to the effective area varied
within about 40% of the entire stiffness for the air spring
used in this study.
The stability condition for the air spring was also derived
from the study regarding the established time-varying
model. The inspection of the stability condition revealed
that the increases of the fixed volume, the heat transfer
coefficient and area as well as the air mass flow rate flow-
ing out of the air spring have a positive effect on the
stability, while the increases of the negative rate of change
Figure 13. Values of the variable, ( ), of equation (22) for a t of the volume and the air mass have a negative effect on it.
sinusoidal motion excitation at 0.5 Hz when there is no air However, the analysis for the parameters has some limitation
mass flowing into or out of the air spring. because the derived stability criterion is a sufficient condi-
DEVELOPMENT AND ANALYSIS OF AN AIR SPRING MODEL 479

tion. trol and failsafe algorithm for closed loop air suspension
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