Shock absorber and Shock strut

A shock absorber (in reality, a shock “damper”) is a mechanical or hydraulic device designed to absorb and damp shock impulses. It does this by converting the kinetic energy of the shock into another form of energy (typically heat) which is then dissipated. A shock absorber is a type of dashpot.

HONDA CIVIC Rear copmplete Shock strut

Pneumatic and hydraulic shock absorbers are used in conjunction with cushions and springs. An automobile shock absorber contains spring-loaded check valves and orifices to control the flow of oil through an internal piston (see below).[1]

One design consideration, when designing or choosing a shock absorber, is where that energy will go. In most shock absorbers, energy is converted to heat inside the viscous fluid. In hydraulic cylinders, the hydraulic fluid heats up, while in air cylinders, the hot air is usually exhausted to the atmosphere. In other types of shock absorbers, such as electromagnetic types, the dissipated energy can be stored and used later. In general terms, shock absorbers help cushion vehicles on uneven roads.

Vehicle suspension

In a vehicle, shock absorbers reduce the effect of traveling over rough ground, leading to improved ride quality and vehicle handling. While shock absorbers serve the purpose of limiting excessive suspension movement, their intended sole purpose is to damp spring oscillations. Shock absorbers use valving of oil and gasses to absorb excess energy from the springs. Spring rates are chosen by the manufacturer based on the weight of the vehicle, loaded and unloaded. Some people use shocks to modify spring rates but this is not the correct use. Along with hysteresis in the tire itself, they damp the energy stored in the motion of the unsprung weight up and down. Effective wheel bounce damping may require tuning shocks to an optimal resistance.

Spring-based shock absorbers commonly use coil springs or leaf springs, though torsion bars are used in torsional shocks as well. Ideal springs alone, however, are not shock absorbers, as springs only store and do not dissipate or absorb energy. Vehicles typically employ both hydraulic shock absorbers and springs or torsion bars. In this combination, “shock absorber” refers specifically to the hydraulic piston that absorbs and dissipates vibration.

Types of vehicle shock absorbers

Twin-tube

Basic twin-tube

Also known as a “two-tube” shock absorber, this device consists of two nested cylindrical tubes, an inner tube that is called the “working tube” or the “pressure tube”, and an outer tube called the “reserve tube”. At the bottom of the device on the inside is a compression valve or base valve. When the piston is forced up or down by bumps in the road, hydraulic fluid moves between different chambers via small holes or “orifices” in the piston and via the valve, converting the “shock” energy into heat which must then be dissipated.

Twin-tube gas charged

Variously known as a “gas cell two-tube” or similarly-named design, this variation represented a significant advancement over the basic twin-tube form. Its overall structure is very similar to the twin-tube, but a low-pressure charge of nitrogen gas is added to the reserve tube. The result of this alteration is a dramatic reduction in “foaming” or “aeration”, the undesirable outcome of a twin-tube overheating and failing which presents as foaming hydraulic fluid dripping out of the assembly. Twin-tube gas charged shock absorbers represent the vast majority of original modern vehicle suspensions installations.

Position sensitive damping

Often abbreviated simply as “PSD”, this design is another evolution of the twin-tube shock. In a PSD shock absorber, which still consists of two nested tubes and still contains nitrogen gas, a set of grooves has been added to the pressure tube. These grooves allow the piston to move relatively freely in the middle range of travel (i.e., the most common street or highway use, called by engineers the “comfort zone”) and to move with significantly less freedom in response to shifts to more irregular surfaces when upward and downward movement of the piston starts to occur with greater intensity (i.e., on bumpy sections of roads— the stiffening gives the driver greater control of movement over the vehicle so its range on either side of the comfort zone is called the “control zone”). This advance allowed car designers to make a shock absorber tailored to specific makes and models of vehicles and to take into account a given vehicle’s size and weight, its maneuverability, its horsepower, etc. in creating a correspondingly effective shock.

Acceleration sensitive damping

The next phase in shock absorber evolution was the development of a shock absorber that could sense and respond to not just situational changes from “bumpy” to “smooth” but to individual bumps in the road in a near instantaneous reaction. This was achieved through a change in the design of the compression valve, and has been termed “acceleration sensitive damping” or “ASD”. Not only does this result in a complete disappearance of the “comfort vs. control” tradeoff, it also reduced pitch during vehicle braking and roll during turns. However, ASD shocks are usually only available as aftermarket changes to a vehicle and are only available from a limited number of manufacturers.

Coilover

Coilover shock absorbers are usually a kind of twin-tube gas charged shock absorber around which has been mounted a large metal coil. Though common on motorcycle and scooter rear suspensions, coilover shocks are uncommon in original equipment designs for vehicles, though they have become widely available as aftermarket add-ons. Coilover shocks for cars have been considered specialty items for high performance and racing applications where they allow for significant reductions in overall vehicle height, and though high-quality aftermarket options with wide sturdy springs may provide improvements in vehicle performance, there is dispute over whether or not most aftermarket coilover shocks confer any material benefits to most drivers and may in fact reduce performance over original equipment installations.

Mono-tube

Hydraulic shock absorber monotube in different operational situations:
1 ) Drive slow or adjustments open
2 ) How to “1”, but extension immediately after the compression
3 ) Drive fast adjustments or closed, you can see the bubbles of depression, which can lead to the phenomenon of cavitation
4) How to “3”, but the extension immediately after the compression
Note: The volume change caused by the stem is considered.

Absorber with gas tank connected rigidly, compared to most of the shock absorbers to separate tank is used a diaphragm instead of the membrane and is not present the control valve of the expansion of the pneumatic chamber.
Description:
1) Sheath gas tank and
2) Stem
3) snap rings
4) Plate bearing spring
5) Spring
6) End cap and preload adjustment
7) Cap gas, either in the gas valve is not in the version with the gas valve (inverted profile)
8) Diaphragm Mobile
9) Pad switch (compression)
10) Wiper
11) A seal assembly, oil seal oil seal and bases and closing damper
12) Buffer Buffer or negative limit switch (extension)
13) Piston with piston ring and strip / sliding

The principal design alternative to the twin-tube form has been the mono-tube shock absorber which was considered a revolutionary advancement when it appeared in the 1950s. As its name implies, the mono-tube shock, which is also a gas-pressurized shock and also comes in a coilover format, consists of only one tube, the pressure tube, though it has two pistons. These pistons are called the working piston and the dividing or floating piston, and they move in relative synchrony inside the pressure tube in response to changes in road smoothness. The two pistons also completely separate the shock’s fluid and gas components. The mono-tube shock absorber is consistently a much longer overall design than the twin-tubes, making it difficult to mount in passenger cars designed for twin-tube shocks. However, unlike the twin-tubes, the mono-tube shock can be mounted either way— it does not have any directionality. It also does not have a compression valve, whose role has been taken up by the dividing piston, and although it contains nitrogen gas, the gas in a mono-tube shock is under high pressure (260-360 or so) which can actually help it to support some of the vehicle’s weight, something which no other shock absorber is designed to do.

Mercedes became the first auto manufacturer to install mono-tube shocks as standard equipment on some of their cars starting in 1958, manufactured byBilstein. Because the design was patented, no other manufacturer could use it until 1971 when the patent expired.

Theoretical approaches

There are several commonly used principles behind shock absorption:

• Hysteresis of structural material, for example the compression of rubber disks, stretching of rubber bands and cords, bending of steel springs, or twisting of torsion bars. Hysteresis is the tendency for otherwise elasticmaterials to rebound with less force than was required to deform them. Simple vehicles with no separate shock absorbers are damped, to some extent, by the hysteresis of their springs and frames.
• Dry friction as used in wheel brakes, by using disks (classically made of leather) at the pivot of a lever, with friction forced by springs. Used in early automobiles such as the Ford Model T, up through some British cars of the 1940s. Although now considered obsolete, an advantage of this system is its mechanical simplicity; the degree of damping can be easily adjusted by tightening or loosening the screw clamping the disks, and it can be easily rebuilt with simple hand tools. A disadvantage is that the damping force tends not to increase with the speed of the vertical motion.

For more details on this topic, see Friction disk shock absorber.

Solid state, tapered chain shock absorbers, using one or more tapered, axial alignment(s) of granular spheres, typically made of metals such asnitinol, in a casing. 

Fluid friction, for example the flow of fluid through a narrow orifice (hydraulics), constitutes the vast majority of automotive shock absorbers. This design first appeared on Mors racing cars in 1902.[6] One advantage of this type is, by using special internal valving, the absorber may be made relatively soft to compression (allowing a soft response to a bump) and relatively stiff to extension, controlling “rebound”, which is the vehicle response to energy stored in the springs; similarly, a series of valves controlled by springs can change the degree of stiffness according to the velocity of the impact or rebound. Specialized shock absorbers for racing purposes may allow the front end of a dragster to rise with minimal resistance under acceleration, then strongly resist letting it settle, thereby maintaining a desirable rearward weight distribution for enhanced traction.

For more details on this topic, see Lever arm shock absorber.

Compression of a gas, for example pneumatic shock absorbers, which can act like springs as the air pressure is building to resist the force on it. Enclosed gas is compressible, so equipment is less subject to shock damage. This concept was first applied in series production on Citroëncars in 1954. Today, many shock absorbers are pressurized with compressed nitrogen, to reduce the tendency for the oil to cavitate under heavy use. This causes foaming which temporarily reduces the damping ability of the unit. In very heavy duty units used for racing or off-road use, there may even be a secondary cylinder connected to the shock absorber to act as a reservoir for the oil and pressurized gas.In aircraft landing gear air shock absorbers may be combined with hydraulic damping to reduce bounce. Such struts are called oleo struts (combining oil and air)[3].

Inertial resistance to acceleration, for example prior to 1966 [4] the Citroën 2CV had shock absorbers that damp wheel bounce with no external moving parts. These consisted of a spring-mounted 3.5 kg (7.75 lb) iron weight inside a vertical cylinder [5] and are similar to, yet much smaller than versions of the tuned mass dampers used on tall buildings.

Composite hydropneumatic suspension combines many suspension elements in a single device: spring action, shock absorption, ride-height control, and self leveling suspension. This combines the advantages of gas compressibility and the ability of hydraulic machinery to apply force multiplication.

Conventional shock absorbers can be combined with Air suspension springs - an alternate way to achieve ride-height control, and self leveling suspension.

In electrorheological fluid damper, an electric field changes the viscosity of the oil. This principle allows semi-active dampers application in automotive and various industries.

Magnetic field variation magneto rheological damper changes its fluid characteristics through an electromagnet.

The effect of a shock absorber at high (sound) frequencies is usually limited by using a compressible gas as the working fluid or mounting it with rubber bushings.

Features & Benefits[edit]

Some shock absorbers allow tuning of the ride via control of the valve by a manual adjustment provided at the shock absorber.

In more expensive vehicles the valves may be remotely adjustable, offering the driver control of the ride at will while the vehicle is operated.

The ultimate control is provided by dynamic valve control via computer in response to sensors, giving both a smooth ride and a firm suspension when needed.

which allow ride height adjustment or even ride height control, seen in some large trucks and luxury sedans, including Lincoln and Land Roverautomobiles.

Ride height control is especially desirable in highway vehicles intended for occasional rough road use, as a means of improving handling and reducing aerodynamic drag by lowering the vehicle when operating on improved high speed roads, as seen in the Tesla Model S.