ANALYSIS OF SHOCK ABSORBER

PROJECT REPORT

SUBMITTED IN PARTIAL FULLILMENT OF REQUIREMENT

OF SECOND YEAR INTERNSHIP OF:

B. TECH IN AUTOMOBILE ENGINEERING AS PRESCRIBED

BY SYMBIOSIS SKILLS AND OPEN UNIVERSITY

ARISH SYED 1700501038

VIRAJ BHOR 17005010052

VIKAS GUPTA 1700501059

KHOZEMA KADIANI 1700501017

DANISH INAMDAR 1700501014

Guided by VC Charudatta Pathak & Dr. Vaijanti Deshpande

AUTOMOBILE ENGINEERING DEPARTMENT

2018-2019
 Adjoining, Mumbai - Pune Expressway, Kiwale, Pune, Maharashtra 412101
Tel: - 020 2718 7768

CERTIFICATE
Date: 05-08-2019

This is to certify that the project work embodied in this report entitled, “ANALYSIS OF
SHOCK ABSORBER” submitted by students of second year. For the award of in house
internship in the subject of Automobile Engineering, is a work carried out by them
under my guidance and supervision within the institute. The work described in this
project report is carried out by the concerned students and has not been submitted for
the award of any other than SSOU, Kiwale.

Further, it is to certify that the students were regular during the academic year and have
worked under the guidance of concerned faculty until the submission of this project
work at the Symbiosis Skills and Open University.

NAME PRN

ARISH SYED 1700501038

VIKAS GUPTA 1700501052

KHOZEMA KADIANI 1700501017

VIRAJ BHOR 1700501052

DANISH INAMDAR 1700501014

__________________ ___________________
Signature of the Guide Signature of Vice-Chancellor
(Dr. Vaijanti Deshpande) (Dr. Charudutta Pathak)
 Student Declaration

We, the students involved in this in-house internship project (namely: Khozema Kadiani,

Danish Inamdar, Arish Syed, Viraj Vhor and Vikas Gupta) hereby declare, that the project

work entitled “ANALYSIS OF SHOCK ABSORBER” submitted to the Symbiosis Skills and Open

University is a record of an original work done by us under the guide of Dr. Charudutta

Pathak, Vice-Chancellor and Dr. Vaijanti Deshpande, professor in Department of

Mechatronics and this project work is submitted in the partial fulfillment of the

requirements of the degree of B.Tech in Automobile Engineering .

The results embodied in the thesis have not been submitted to any other university or

institute for the reward of any degree or diploma.

 Acknowledgement

This project is an outcome of a great deal of dedication, hard work, enthusiasm and

commitment of an industrious team without which this project could not have been brought

into book.

First and foremost, I offer my sincere gratitude to Dr. Charudutta Pathak and Dr. Vaijanti

Deshpande for their whole-hearted support, encouragement, guidance and valuable input

they provided us, without it, this work would not have been possible.

In all successful work, a lot of people work behind the curtains whose contribution cannot

be neglected. Here we would like to express gratitude to all the respondents, my friends and

all the connected persons who directly or indirectly supported us in this work and guided it

towards its completion.

We wish to express our gratitude to the whole staff of the Automobile department for their

co-operative & considerate approach and wish to thank the university for giving us a great

opportunity to grasp knowledge.

Furthermore, we would like to extend my heartiest thanks to the parents who stood beside

us as a wall and protecting us from every problem and gave us all the support by which we

were able to complete this project

 Preface

The main objective of any automobile engineering student is to get as much practical

knowledge as possible. Being able to have knowledge on how to perform analysis on an

automobile system is vital for working in the industry. We are thankful to have such an

opportunity to learn.

Through the development of the project, we had a great experience of various strategies

that are applied in development of projects. Completing the project helped us know more

about the concepts of suspension. Working with other team members taught us the

importance of cooperation, coordination, and synergy.

We are pleased to present this project. We have taken proper care while organizing the

project so it may be easy to comprehend. We hope you will find our project report

interesting. All constructive criticism and feedback is cordially invited.

 Index

Chapter Title of the Chapter/s

Chapter 1 Introduction

1.1  Introduction of the project title

1.2  Objectives of the study

1.3  Background of the study

1.4  Period and Scope

1.5  Significance of study

Chapter 2 Literature review

Chapter 3 Suspension Mechanism Modelling

3.1  Design of suspension mechanism

3.2  MATLAB model

3.3  Quarter car suspension model used

Chapter 4 Data Result

Chapter 6 Conclusion

1,
 Introduction

This project aims to analyze a suspension model and the various parameters considered in

their design.

Our aim was to study these parameters and the effects in changes of these parameters to

changes in the suspension system with respect to performance over a standard bump.

Typically, these parameters are: spring stiffness, damping coefficient, un-sprung and sprung

mass.

The suspension model we have chosen is a shock absorber. A shock absorber is made up of

a spring coiled around a damper. The ends of the damper are connected to the chassis and

the wheel knuckle. We have chosen this model as it is quite widely used in the industry and

is simple, easy-to-understand and duplicate.

Invented by Maurice Houdaille in 1907, the shock absorbers were a revolution in the

automobile and transport industry, with Houdaille’s equipment (now called rotary/lever

arm shock absorbers) becoming standard on the immensely popular Ford Model A in 1927.

Various improvements and evolutions have been made in the system but the principle

largely remains the same, a hydraulic device designed to absorb and damp shock impulses

to the chassis, and ensure maximum contact of wheels to the ground. It does this by

converting the kinetic energy of the shock into another form of energy (typically heat) which

is then dissipated.
Hence, it is quite important to understand, in depth the characteristics to such a vital system

of the industry; which we hope to have done in this project.

The study was conducted from 27 May 2019 to 27 July 2019, focusing on the simulation of a

quarter car suspension system. We have used MATLAB Simulink, MSc. Adams View and

Adams Car for this purpose due to their simplicity and accuracy, along with ease in making

required changes to the systems.

 Literature Review

A shock absorber is defined as a device on a vehicle, especially a car or an aircraft, that

reduces the effects of travelling over rough ground or helps it to land more smoothly.

Most vehicles now employ vertical telescopic shock absorbers over Houdaille’s lever arm

shock absorber. The telescopic shock absorber dissipates heat more effectively, owing to its

larger working volume of fluid and also the better ratio of surface area to fluid volume. In

most suspension systems they come paired with a spring, which is what we have analysed

here.

1927 Ford Model A 1999 Mitsubishi Eclipse

The major benefits of employing a shock absorber are: - safety, stability, and comfort.
Their major role in vehicle safety is to provide steering stability and complete vehicle safety.

Thanks to them, our cars do not veer to the sides when it is windy and have no trouble

stopping. Proper shock absorbers provide the capacity required to control the car and can

reduce about twenty percent of a vehicle’s stopping distance.

Another important role of shock absorbers is stability. They boost the friction between car

tires and road, enabling car stability on the road. If streets, highways and country roads

were perfectly flat, then shockers wouldn’t be necessary. But even recently paved roads

have subtle flaws that apply forces to the wheel, causing it to move up and down. Without

shock absorbers, all the vertical energy of wheels will shifts to the frame of the vehicle. This

can thus cause for the wheels to lose contact with the road surface for a moment and then,

due to gravity, slam back onto the road.

Comfort is the most common thing associated with shock absorbers. Since the invention of

the first car, the challenge of enhancing passengers’ comfort was a major part of the

manufacturing process. This is why absorbers were invented. Their job, apart from providing

vehicle stability, is to ensure the comfort of all passengers. They reduce the magnitude of

vibratory motions due to various road imperfections to provide a smooth and comfortable

ride.

Driver comfort is also an important criterion to consider for any automobile system. This is

mainly defined by the ISO standards.

 Vibration intensity Comfort estimation

<0.315 m/s2 Not uncomfortable

0.315 -0.63 m/s2 A Little Uncomfortable

0.5 -1.0m/s2 Fairly Uncomfortable

0.8 -1.6 m/s2 Uncomfortable

1.25 -2.5 m/s2 Very Uncomfortable

>2 m/s2 Extremely Uncomfortable

Source: ISO 2631 Standard

With our project we aim to help understanding of how to optimize the parameters of the

suspension system to best meet these requirements.

 Suspension System Modelling

The software we have chosen for the purpose of modelling our system in has primarily been

MATLAB, along with industry used MSc Adams. The reason for the choice was the ease of

modelling the suspension system with knowledge of required equations, as well as the

optimized graphs and data that can be extracted. Furthermore, functionality can be greatly

expanded by the addition of toolboxes. These are sets of specific functions that provided

more specialized functionality which we have taken advantage of in Simulink.

The governing equations of quarter car suspension can be represented by equations of

motions: -

Where:

xS = Vehicle body motion,

xu = Wheel body motion,

xr = Road velocity,

kS, kt = Suspension & Tire spring rates respectively,

cS, ct = Suspension & Tire damping respectively.

 Parameter Value

Sprung Mass 160 kg

Un-sprung Mass 60 kg

Spring Stiffness 15280 N/m

Damping Coefficient 1385 Ns/m

These parameters were put into the Simulink model shown above, and the results were

taken from the scope graphs.

 Data Results

The data procured from the program was extensively analysed, yielding the results

mentioned below.

The given conditions are: Displacement of 10 mm, given with a frequency of 0.477 rad/sec

in a sinusoidal wave.

In all graphs, the blue line is the standard value of the parameter; red line represents an

increase in the parameter’s standard value with a factor of ten and the black line represents

a decrease in the parameter’s standard value by a factor of ten.

All graphs contain data of displacement (mm) vs time (sec).

For the case of damping coefficient, the values are as follows: -

Line Type Parameter Value

Blue Line 1385 Ns/m

Red line, dashed 13850 Ns/m

Black line, dotted 138.5 Ns/m

Damping Coefficient
In case of spring stiffness: -

Line Type Parameter Value

Blue Line 15280 N/m

Red line, dashed 152800 N/m

Black line, dotted 1528 N/m

Spring Stiffness
And in the case of sprung mass: -

Line Type Parameter Value

Blue Line 160 kg

Red line, dashed 1600 kg

Black line, dotted 16 kg

Sprung Mass
 Conclusions

The results of the analysis presented in this paper enabled us to consider the effects of the

parameters in a suspension on the resultant behaviour of the quarter car suspension model.

It was found that changes in the suspension parameters have the following effect: -

 The driving comfort was decreased as spring stiffness was increased for excitation

frequencies close to resonant frequencies of the system body.

 Within the zone of resonant frequency of sprung mass, the deformation amplitudes

were increased as spring stiffness increased.

 Higher shock absorber damping values provided better oscillatory comfort for the

driver at excitation frequencies close to the resonant frequency of the system body.

At excitation frequencies above resonance frequency, the shock absorber with lower

damping coefficient values ensured greater oscillatory comfort.

 The amplitudes of dynamic wheel load were decreased as the values of the shock

absorber damping coefficient were increased, at excitation frequencies

approximating resonant frequencies of sprung and unsprung body masses.

Consequently, the choice of spring stiffness and shock absorber damping should be made

according to the most favourable values of the weighted driver’s acceleration and to ensure

maximum performance gained out of traction generated by the suspension system.

From this project we have learned that which we can now apply into further research into

this topic, in the field of active suspensions; as well as apply this knowledge in the future, for

our careers.
 References

1. Sudarshan Martande, Y. N. Jangale, N.S. Motgi; Design and Analysis of Shock

Absorber; International Journal of Application or Innovation in Engineering &

Management (IJAIEM), Volume 2, Issue 3; March 2013.

2. Sanoop Soman, Sherry Shaji, Vipin T Thomas, Vishnu E. M, Arun K Varghese; Semi-

Active Suspension for Two Wheelers; International Journal for Innovative Research in

Science & Technology, Volume 1, Issue 11; April 2015.

3. Dragan Sekulić, Vlastimir Dedović; The Effect of Stiffness and Damping of the

Suspension System Elements on the Optimisation of the Vibrational Behaviour of a

Bus; University of Belgrade, Faculty of Transport and Traffic Engineering; 1

September 2011.

4. Divyarajsinh Rathod, Krunal Parmar; Vibration Analysis of Two Wheeler Suspension

System under Various Loading Conditions (An Analytical Approach); International

Research Journal of Engineering and Technology, Volume 03, Issue 07; July-2016.

5. Patrick Smith; Houdaille Hydraulic Shock Absorber Service & Adjustments; PMS

Media Tech Series; 2015.

6. Repair Guide: Mitsubishi Eclipse, 1999; Autozone.