Laboratory tests of a car seat suspension system equipped with an electrically controlled damper

The paper presents the results of laboratory simulation tests of a suspension system for a car seat. The first part of the paper contains a description of the experiment, paying particular attention to the conditions in which the tests were conducted and the properties of the electrically controlled damper, which was mounted in the tested car seat’s suspension. Graphs of the damper’s operation were determined for different values of current intensity and the signal controlling the damper’s damping ratio and then the damping characteristics were determined on this basis. Simulated tests of the car seat’s suspension were carried out on a car component test station. During the tests, the values measured were the acceleration recorded at selected points on the dummy, which was placed on a seat equipped with suspension using a magnetorheological (MR) damper during the experiment. The second part of the paper presents an analysis of the results of the experimental tests with particular emphasis on the influence of the current that controls the operation of the damper on the values of the RMS index of the acceleration at selected points of the dummy.