Optimization of hydropneumatic suspension for articulated wheel loader based on kriging model and particle swarm algorithm

Articulated wheel loaders that travel on unstructured roads experience severe vibration and poor stability. Introducing suspended axles on wheel loaders, which are traditionally constructed without wheel suspension, is desirable for ride comfort. This study mainly focuses on the parameter optimization of the hydropneumatic suspension to obtain the minimum root mean square of vertical accelerations under different driving conditions, thereby improving the ride comfort of the wheel loader. The multibody model of the wheel loader with hydropneumatic suspension was developed by RecurDyn in co-simulation with MATLAB/Simulink. The vertical acceleration root mean square at the seat position was analyzed when the wheel loader was traveling on class C, D, and E roads with different travel speeds. The surrogate model of the vertical acceleration root mean square with respect to the suspension parameters was established based on kriging method. The established surrogate model was then optimized using particle swarm optimization algorithm. The optimization results of the hydropneumatic suspension parameters of the wheel loader under different road excitations and driving speeds were obtained. Simulation and optimization results show that a well-designed hydropneumatic suspension system can significantly improve wheel loader performance in reducing the vertical acceleration at the seat position compared to a suspension system without optimization.