Adjusting damping forces through electronic control to achieve handling stability and ride comfort
Dampers are used on automobiles to improve handling stability and support ride comfort by absorbing inputs from the tires and suppressing the transmission of vibration to the car’s body. Honda’s Adaptive Damper System provides a high level of handling stability and ride comfort through independent real-time and continuous control of damping forces on all four wheels in response to driving and road conditions.
The damping characteristics of traditional mechanically-controlled dampers are determined by the weight and character of the car. For example, luxury sedans are designed to provide high-quality ride comfort, so they come with soft damper settings to absorb even minute shocks. Sports models, on the other hand, are designed to provide excellent handling stability by minimizing changes in vehicle posture during acceleration, deceleration, and cornering as well, so they come with hard settings. In contrast, the Adaptive Damper System can vary damping over a wide range, and instantaneously, depending on the situation. This provides incredibly reassuring handling in situations such as sports driving on winding roads, but with high-quality ride comfort for everyday driving as well.
Variable damping force control
Vehicle state detected in 1/500th of a second to control damping forces in real time
To respond to the ever-changing behavior of a car while driving, the Adaptive Damper System detects driver operation and vehicle state, including damper stroke, wheel speed, acceleration applied to the car body, and steering angle of the steering wheel, with a high level of accuracy and at intervals of one-five hundredth of a second. Through independent real-time and continuous control of damping forces on all four wheels, it achieves superior road holding performance by reducing excess suspension stroke and improving body integrity after passing over undulations in the road surface.
Damping force control is achieved by controlling electric current to solenoid valves attached to the dampers to adjust oil pressure flowing through the valves.
System overview
Variable damper construction
Reassuring and comfortable driving in a range of scenarios
Flat vehicle posture
The Adaptive Damper System controls damping force according to vehicle behavior to ensure good tire contact when driving over undulating road surfaces, and to suppress unpleasant vibrations when driving over rough road surfaces. In this way, it creates a flat vehicle posture to provide high-quality ride comfort.
Vehicle response with a sense of unity on winding roads
The Adaptive Damper System detects changes in roll and pitch posture when turning, such as when driving around corners on winding roads, and controls damping force independently for all four wheels. This allows the car to follow steering inputs from the driver without lag, and delivers a sense of unity to cornering through adjustments to the ground contact load of each wheel. It also enables efficient transmission of driving torque during acceleration, and suppresses unstable behavior during deceleration, to achieve stable vehicle behavior.
Damping force control with the Adaptive Damper System
