Hysteresis Modeling of Automotive Electrohydraulic Semi-Active Dampers Using Tangent Functions and Simulation-Based Ride Comfort Evaluation

This study develops a hyperbolic tangent-based model for the hysteretic behavior of automotive grade electrohydraulic semi-active dampers. Model parameters were identified from experimental force–velocity data gathered under sinusoidal excitations across 1–6 Hz and 0.38–1.6 A. The calibrated model was integrated into an IPG CarMaker 13.0/Simulink 2022b co-simulation to assess performance under ISO-compliant road profiles and realistic driving scenarios. Comparative analysis with conventional nonlinear damper models was conducted, focusing on ride comfort metrics such as vertical acceleration, pitch rate, and roll rate. The results demonstrate that the proposed model provides improved fidelity in replicating real damper behavior and enables more realistic assessment of semi-active suspension performance in virtual vehicle development platforms by providing reduced vertical acceleration errors by >5 dB (2–6 Hz) compared to nonlinear models.