Performance research and safety verification of compound structure air spring

Abstract

To further reduce the vertical stiffness of the air spring, appropriately reduce its lateral stiffness to attenuate the transmission of vibration along the lateral and longitudinal directions, a compound structure air spring (CSAS) was designed. It is a laminated structure with a hard elastic layer at the lower end of the original air spring. Prototypes of the air spring and the CSAS were produced, then related static and dynamic characteristics tests were conducted. Compared with the test results of the air spring, it can be found that under the same air pressure, the bearing capacity of the CSAS is decreased slightly; under rated load, the vertical static/dynamic stiffness and natural frequency is decreased slightly, and the lateral static/dynamic stiffness is decrease significantly. Furthermore, the CSAS was subjected to the safety and reliability tests, and its performance was stable without damage. This article expands the stiffness range of the air spring, and provides a new idea for the design of the air spring with low lateral to vertical stiffness ratio and low natural frequency.