ARTICLE IN PRESS

Mechanical Systems
and
Signal Processing
Mechanical Systems and Signal Processing 20 (2006) 373388
www.elsevier.com/locate/jnlabr/ymssp

Simulation and experimental validation of vehicle dynamic

characteristics for displacement-sensitive shock absorber
using uid-ow modelling
Choon-Tae Leea, Byung-Young Moonb,
a

Department of Mechanical and Intelligent Systems Engineering, Busan National University, 30 Changjeon-dong,
Keumjeong-ku, Busan 609-735, Republic of Korea
b
Department of Aerospace Engineering, Busan National University, 30 Changjeon-dong,
Keumjeong-ku, Busan 609-735, Republic of Korea
Received 23 February 2004; received in revised form 27 August 2004; accepted 27 September 2004
Available online 11 November 2004

Abstract
In this study, a new mathematical dynamic model of shock absorber is proposed to predict the dynamic
characteristics of an automotive system. The performance of shock absorber is directly related to the car
behaviours and performance, both for handling and ride comfort. Damping characteristics of automotive
can be analysed by considering the performance of displacement-sensitive shock absorber (DSSA) for the
ride comfort. The proposed model of the DSSA is considered as two modes of damping force (i.e. soft and
hard) according to the position of piston. For the simulation validation of vehicle-dynamic characteristics,
the DSSA is mathematically modelled by considering the uid ow in chamber and valve in accordance
with the hard, transient and soft zone. And the vehicle dynamic characteristic of the DSSA is analysed
using quarter car model. To show the effectiveness of the proposed damper, the analysed results of damping
characteristics were compared with the experimental results, which showed similar behaviour with the
corresponding experimental one. The simulation results of frequency response are compared with the ones
of passive shock absorber. From the simulation results of the DSSA, it can be concluded that the ride
comfort of the DSSA increased at the low-amplitude road condition and the driving safety was increased
partially at the high-amplitude road condition. The results reported herein will provide a better

Corresponding author. Tel.: +82 51 510 1531.

E-mail address: moonby@pusan.ac.kr (B.-Y. Moon).

0888-3270/$ - see front matter r 2004 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
doi:10.1016/j.ymssp.2004.09.006

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understanding of the shock absorber. Moreover, it is believed that those properties of the results can be
utilised in the dynamic design of the automotive system.
r 2004 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
Keywords: Shock absorber; Damping force; Quarter car model; Vehicle vibration; Ride comfort; Displacement
sensitive; Body valve

1. Introduction
Shock absorber is an important part of automotive which has an effect on ride characteristics
such as ride comfort and driving safety. There are several kinds of automotive shock dampers
such as position-sensitive damping, acceleration-sensitive damping, and continuous damping
control. Displacement-sensitive shock absorber (DSSA), which is also called stroke-dependent
shock absorber, and has a similar structure compared with conventional passive shock absorber.
Nevertheless, the DSSA has additional ow passages such as displacement-sensitive orice at the
cylinder wall. The DSSA has two modes of damping force according to piston stroke.
When piston stroke is in the range of displacement-sensitive orice, the leakage occurs through
this orice. In this range, the damping force become low compared with the passive shock
absorber. On the other hand, when the piston stroke is out of range of displacement-sensitive
orice, leakage through the orice is blocked. In this range, the damping force becomes high
because of leakage block. Such a DSSA improves ride comfort on the paved road driving
conditions because of low damping force caused by small piston stroke. Also, the driving safety is
improved when the vehicle is driving on rough roads or bumper roads because of high damping
force caused by large piston stroke and high-vibration amplitude. Accordingly, the DSSA can
keep ride comfort and driving safety as well.
There have been several studies about shock absorber. At rst, Lang [1] proposed simple
mathematical model of passive shock absorber. After that many studies have been carried out to
analyse the performance of shock absorber [2]. Cherng et al. [3] reported the effect of noise of
shock absorber using acoustic index method. Koenraad [4] proposed a mathematical model of the
mono-tube-type gas-charged shock absorber. Herr et al. [5] proposed a mathematical model of
twin tube-type shock absorber. Simms et al. [6] investigated the inuence of damper properties on
luxury vehicle dynamic behaviour through the simulation and test. Liu et al. [7] reported the
characteristics of non-linear dynamic response for the twin-tube hydraulic shock absorber by
using a software programme. Nevertheless, there have been few studies carried out on the DSSA.
Recently, there has been a study reported on the DSSA [8]. In those studies [9], the transient
characteristics of displacement-sensitive orice were not considered and the performance of the
vehicle with the DSSA was not veried. In general, those studies are insufcient to understand the
dynamic characteristics of DSSA completely to judge the handling and ride comfort of
automotive.
Therefore, in this study a new mathematical and simulation model of the DSSA is proposed
and analysed, which considered the transient range of displacement-sensitive orice of the DSSA.
And the vehicle dynamic characteristics of the proposed model are evaluated in the time and
frequency domain using quarter car-simulation model. The results of the dynamic characteristics

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and the performance of the DSSA are compared with the passive shock absorber to prove the
effectiveness.

2. Method of analysis of shock absorber

2.1. Mathematical modelling of DSSA
Fig. 1 illustrates the conguration of a typical twin-tube-type passive shock absorber of an
automotive system. Basically the shock absorber consists of a piston, which moves up and down
along uid-lled cylinder. The cylinder is fastened to the axle or wheel suspension, and the piston
is connected via the piston rod to the frame of the vehicle.
As the piston is forced to move with respect to the cylinder, a pressure differential is developed
across the piston causing the uid to ow through orices and valves in the piston. The portion of
the cylinder above the piston is known as the rebound chamber, and the portion of the cylinder
below the piston is known as the compression chamber, and the volume which surrounds the
cylinder is known as the reservoir chamber. The reservoir chamber is partially lled with uid and
partially lled with a gas phase, normally air. The uid ow between the compression and
reservoir chambers passes through the body valve assembly at the bottom of the compression
chamber. Fig. 2 shows the congurations of the piston valve assembly and the body valve
assembly and their part of the shock absorber. As can be observed in Fig. 2, the DSSA has an
additional ow passage in the cylinder wall of a typical passive shock absorber. And these
displacement-sensitive orices can be divided into three zones such as the soft, transient and
hard zone. Here, the transient zone has tapered scheme to avoid abrupt changes of damping force.
Fig. 3 illustrates the analytic model of the DSSA, which describes a uid-ow pattern according to
piston movement.
The uid ows at the compression stroke can be divided into two ows such as Qr and Qc. The
rst Qr is a ow which ows from the compression chamber to the rebound chamber through the

Fig. 1. Schematic diagram of typical twin-tube-type passive shock absorber of an automotive system.

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Fig. 2. Typical conguration and uid ow pattern of DSSA: (a) uid ow pattern of DSSA at compression and
rebound stroke and (b) cross-section of AA.

piston valve (1) and the other Qc is a ow which ows from the compression chamber to the
reservoir chamber through body valve (2), where the valve numbers are noted in Fig. 2(a). The
ow Qr, which ows through the piston valve, can be divided into three ows Qri, Qro and Qrd.
The ow Qri ows through the bleed valve (4). The ow Qro ows through intake valve (6) and the
ow Qrd ows through displacement-sensitive orice (9) of piston valve, respectively. The ow Qc,
which ows through body valve (2) at the compression stroke, can be divided into two ows Qci
and Qcf. The ow Qci ows through the bleed valve and the ow Qcf ows through a blow-off
valve.
On the contrary, at the rebound stroke the uid ows can be divided into two ows Q
r and Q
c :
The rst Q
r is a ow which ows from the rebound chamber to the compression chamber through
piston valve (1) and the other one Q
c is a ow which ows from the reservoir chamber to the
compression chamber through body valve (2).
The ow Q
c ; which ows through body valve (2), can be divided into two ows Qci and Qco.
The ow Qci ows through the bleed valve and the ow Qco ows through suction valve (7). Also,
the ow Q
r ; which ows through piston valve (1), can be divided into three ows Qri, Qrf and Qrd.

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Fig. 3. Schematic diagram of uid ow and pressure at compression and rebound stroke.

The ow Qri ows through bleed valve (4), the ow Qrf ows through blow off valve (5) and the
ow Qrd ows through the displacement-sensitive orice, respectively.
2.2. Flow continuity equations at the compression and rebound chamber
The ow continuity equation of the compression chamber at the rebound stroke, as described in
Fig. 3, can be expressed as follows:


V c @Pc

Ap x_ Q
r Q
c :
K
@t

(1)

The ow continuity equation of the compression chamber at the compression stroke can be
expressed as follows:


V c @Pc

Ap x_  Qr Qc ;
K
@t

(2)

where K is a bulk modulus of elasticity of working uid, Vc is a volume of compression chamber,

Pc is a pressure of compression chamber, Ap is an area of piston and x_ is a velocity of piston.

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Similar way, the ow continuity equation of the rebound chamber at the rebound stroke can be
expressed as follows:


V r @Pr

Ap  Arod x_  Q
r :
K
@t

(3)

The ow continuity equation of the rebound chamber at the compression stroke can be
expressed as follows:


V r @Pr

Ap  Arod x_ Qr ;
K
@t

(4)

where Vr is a volume of rebound chamber, Pr is a pressure of rebound chamber and Arod an area
of piston rod.
2.3. Flow equations at the compression stroke and rebound stroke
The ow rate of the piston valve Qr which ows between the rebound and compression
chambers at the compression stroke can be expressed as follows:
Qr Qri Qro Qrd :
Here, each ow rates can be obtained as follows:
s
s
2
2
Qri C d Apb
Pc  Pd1 C d Ad1
Pd1  Pr ;
r
r
s
2
Pd2  Picr
Qro C d Ad2
:
Pc  Pd2 Qim
r
Pim  Picr
Here, when Pd2 oPicr ; Qro becomes zero.
s
2
Qrd C d Ads x
Pc  Pr ;
r
8 h
z1 oxpz1 z2 ;
>
< wfz2 x z1 hg
z1 oxpz1 ;
Ads x wh
>
:
h
wfz2 x  z1 hg z1 z2 oxp  z1 ;

(5)

(6)

(7)

(8)

(9)

where Cd is a coefcient of discharge and Apb is a bleed valve (4) orice area of piston valve (1).
Ad1 and Ad2 are areas of piston valve (1) port restriction (3), Pd1 and Pd2 are pressures at piston
valve (1) port restriction (3), Qim is a maximum ow rate of the intake valve (6), Picr is a cracking
pressure of intake valve (6), Pim is a pressure of intake valve (6) at the maximum ow rate Qim and
Ads is an area of the displacement-sensitive orice.
The ow rate Qrd becomes zero when the displacement of the piston detaches from
displacement-sensitive orice, and the ow rate of the body valve Qc, which ows between the

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reservoir and compression chambers. At the compression, stroke can be expressed as follows:
s
2
(10)
Qc C d Aa3
Pc  Pa3 Qci Qcf :
r
Each ow rates of Eq. (10) can be obtained as follows:
s
2
Pa3  Pa ;
Qci C d Abb
r
Qcf Qbm

Pa3  Pbcr
:
Pbm  Pbcr

(11)

(12)

Here, when Pa3 oPbcr ; Qcf becomes zero. Abb is a bleed valve orice area of body valve (2), Ad3 is a
port restriction area (8) of body valve (2), Pa3 is a pressure at the port restriction of body valve (2),
Pa is a pressure of reservoir chamber, Qbm is a maximum ow rate of the blow-off valve at the
body valve, Pbcr is a cracking pressure of the blow-off valve at the body valve and Pbm is a
pressure of the blow-off valve at the maximum ow rate at the body valve.
The ow rate of the piston valve Q
r ; which ows between rebound and compression chambers
at the rebound stroke can be expressed as follows:
Q
r Qri Qrf Qrd ;
s
2
Qri C d Apb
Pd1  Pc ;
r
Qrf Qpm

Pd1  Ppcr
:
Ppm  Ppcr

Here, when Pd1 oPpcr ; Qrf becomes zero.

s
2
Pr  Pc ;
Qrd C d Ads x
r

(13)

(14)

(15)

(16)

where Qpm is a maximum ow rate of blow-off valve (5) at the piston valve, Ppcr is a cracking
pressure of the blow-off valve at the piston valve and Ppm is a pressure of the blow-off valve at the
maximum ow rate of the piston valve. Qrd becomes zero when the displacement of the piston
detaches from the displacement-sensitive zone. And the ow rate of body valve Qc*, which ows
between the reservoir and compression chambers at the rebound stroke can be expressed as
follows:
Q
c Qci Qco ;
s
s
2
2
Pa  Pd3 C d Ad3
Pd3  Pc ;
Qci C d Abb
r
r

(17)
(18)

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s
2
Pd4  Pscr
Qco C d Ad4
Pa  Pd4 Qsm
:
r
Psm  Pscr

(19)

Here, when Pd4 oPscr ; Qcf becomes zero, where Ad4 is a port restriction (8) area of the body
valve. Pd4 is a pressure at the body valve port restriction (8), Qsm is a maximum ow rate of
suction valve (7). Pscr is a cracking pressure of the suction valve and Psm a pressure at the
maximum ow rate of the suction valve.
2.4. Flow analysis at the reservoir chamber
Because the piston rod passes through the rebound chamber, and is connected to the rebound
side of the piston, the area of the rebound side is less than the area of the compression side of the
piston. Accordingly, as the piston moves, the combined volume of the compression and rebound
chambers changes by an amount equivalent to the inserted, or withdrawn piston rod volume. The
amount of uid equivalent to the inserted, or withdrawn piston rod volume must be transferred
to, or from, the reservoir chamber which normally surrounds the cylinder. Air pressure of the
reservoir chamber can be expressed as an ideal gas equation as follows:
Pa V a ma RT;

(20)

where Pa is an air pressure of the reservoir chamber, Va is an air volume of reservoir chamber, ma
is an air mass of reservoir chamber, R is a gas constant and T is the temperature of air in the
reservoir chamber.
Generally, the mass of air is assumed constant because the chamber is sealed, and the
temperature T of the reservoir chamber in assumed constant to simplify the analysis. Accordingly,
the air of the reservoir chamber can be expressed as an ideal gas equation as follows:
Pa V a const:
The time variation of air volume Va of reservoir chamber can be expressed as follows:
Z
V a t V a0  Qc dt;

(21)

(22)

where Va0 is an initial air volume of the reservoir chamber. Therefore, the air pressure variation of
the reservoir chamber can be obtained from Eqs. (20) and (22) as follows:
Pa

ma RT
R
:
V a0 Qc dt

(23)

2.5. Damping force of shock absorber

The damping force of shock absorber is determined by the forces acting on the both sides of the
piston. And the friction forces are another factor that determines damping force. Nevertheless, in
this study, the friction forces are ignored to simplify the analysis. Fig. 4 shows free body diagram
of the piston considering the damping force.

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Fig. 4. Free body diagram of the piston.

By considering the forces acting on the piston, the damping force can be obtained as follows:
F damping Pr Ar  Pc Ap  F friction ;

(24)

Ar Ap  Arod ;

(25)

where Fdamping is a damping force. Ffriction is the friction force, that is acting on piston rod.

3. Results of the dynamic analysis and discussion

Numerical calculation results of vehicle system are obtained under the road excitation.
Dynamic characteristics of the response are observed by the proposed method.
3.1. Analytical results of DSSA
As an analysis model, a shock absorber system, which is shown in Fig. 2, is considered. Fig. 5
shows simulation results of damping force versus stroke for the excitation velocity of 0.1, 0.3, 0.6
and 1.2 m/s, respectively. The damping force changes from soft mode to hard mode due to the
displacement-sensitive characteristics around the stroke of 720 mm, as shown in Fig. 5.
Especially, the damping force changes smoothly around the transient zone. It illustrates well the
function of transient zone which prevents abrupt changes of the damping force.
To verify the reliability of simulation results of the proposed method, experimental results of
shock absorber study are presented in Fig. 6 [8]. As can be observed in Fig. 6, the experimental
result shows very similar tendency with the result of this study.

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2400
2000

transient zone soft zone

transient zone

hard zone

hard zone
1.2 [m/sec]

damping force [N]

1600
1200
0.6 [m/sec]

800

0.3 [m/sec]

400

0.1 [m/sec]

0
-400
-800
-1200
-40

-20

0
stroke [mm]

20

40

Fig. 5. Analytical result of DSSA in stroke-damping force.

Fig. 6. Experimental result of DSSA in stroke-damping force.

3.2. Analysis results of the quarter car model

In this study, quarter car model adopted to analyse dynamic behaviour, including the DSSA in
the vehicle, as shown in Fig. 7. Here, a tire model is assumed to have both characteristics of spring
and damping. And a relative displacement of the shock absorber is calculated from the absolute
displacement of the body and suspension to embody the displacement-sensitive characteristics of
the shock absorber.
The main physical properties of quarter car simulation model are listed in Table 1.

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Fig. 7. Quarter car model including DSSA.

Table 1
Properties of quarter car model
Parameter

Value

Sprung mass, M
Un-sprung mass, m
Shock absorber spring constant, K
Shock absorber damping coefcient, C
Tire spring constant, k
Tire damping coefcient, c1

250 kg
50 kg
18 N/mm
12731697 N/m/s
270.8 N/mm
0.1 N/m/s

To analyse the dynamic characteristics of the DSSA, four kinds of damping modes are selected
and the corresponding results are compared with each other, as listed in Table 2. The DSSA has
two kinds of damping modes according to the piston stroke, such as soft and hard mode. Here,
the mid-mode has an intermediate characteristic of the soft and hard mode. Thereby, the midmode is estimated as a typical passive shock absorber in this paper.

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3.3. Results of frequency characteristics analysis

In general, driving characteristics of the vehicle are affected by sprung mass vertical
acceleration, dynamic wheel force and suspension deection. The vertical acceleration of the
sprung mass means the magnitude of vibration transmitted to sprung mass, which is directly
related to the ride comfort. The dynamic wheel force affects on the holding force characteristics
Table 2
Denition of damping modes
Mode

Damping coefcient (N/m/s)

Damping ratio z

Soft mode
Mid-mode
Hard mode
Displacement-sensitive mode

1273
1485
1697
12731697

0.3
0.35
0.4
0.30.4

0.05
0.3

derivative of input [m/s]

input displacement [m]

0.04
0.03
0.02
0.01
0.00
-0.01
-0.02

0.1
0.0
-0.1
-0.2
-0.3
-0.4

-0.03
0

(a)

0.2

time [s]

10

10

10

time [s]

(b)

-9

-10

PSD of input [m2/Hz]

10

-11

10

-12

10

-13

10

-14

10

-15

10

-16

10

-17

10

(c)

10

100

Frequency (Hz)

Fig. 8. Input characteristics of quarter car model of DSSA: (a) input excitation signal, (b) derivative of input excitation
and (c) PSD of input.

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between the tire and road, which is related to the driving stability. And the suspension deection is
related to the rattle space of the suspension system, which is necessary to operate suspension
system properly. Accordingly, it becomes a constraint condition at the initial stage of the
suspension system design.
To analyse the frequency characteristics of the DSSA in a quarter car model, the input
excitation signal is applied as described in Fig. 8. A sinusoidal sweep function from 0 to 30 Hz was
applied according to the road input condition. In each frequency range, the maximum velocity is
0.3 m/s. The velocity characteristics of input signal is shown in Fig. 8(b). As shown in gure, the
maximum velocity of input signal is a constant of the value 0.3 m/s. Also, the power spectrum
density (PSD) of input signal is illustrated in Fig. 8(c), which stands for the random process of the
road condition.
Fig. 9(a) shows the sprung mass acceleration response of the displacement-sensitive mode using
the DSSA in time domain against the input signal stated in Fig. 8. Also, Fig. 9(b) shows the PSD

sprung mass acceleration [m/s2]

4
3
2
1
0
-1
-2
-3
0

PSD of sprung mass acceleration [(m/s2)2/Hz]

(a)

10

mid mode
soft mode
hard mode
disp.sensitive mode

-5

10

hard mode
-6

10

soft mode
-7

10

1
(b)

time [s]

10
Frequency (Hz)

Fig. 9. Sprung mass acceleration response of displacement-sensitive mode: (a) time response of sprung mass
acceleration and (b) PSD of sprung mass acceleration response.

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of sprung mass acceleration response for the four damping modes, which is described in Table 2.
As shown in Fig. 9, the response characteristic of the DSSA shows a similar one with the passive
shock absorber around the resonance frequency range of sprung mass. However, at the resonance
frequency of un-sprung mass, which means low-amplitude condition of input, the DSSA shows
soft damping characteristics. Therefore, it can be said that the ride comfort characteristics of
DSSA was improved compared with the ones of passive shock absorber.
Fig. 10(a) shows the analysis result of suspension deection of the displacement-sensitive mode
using the DSSA in the time domain. Fig. 10(b) shows the analysis results of suspension deection
in the PSD for the four damping modes in the frequency domain. As shown in Fig. 10, the
response characteristic of the DSSA seems similar to the ones of passive shock absorber around
the resonance frequency range of sprung mass. However, at the resonance frequency of un-sprung
mass, the DSSA shows soft damping characteristics.
Fig. 11 (a) shows the analysis result of dynamic wheel force in the displacement-sensitive mode
using the DSSA in the time domain. Fig. 11 (a) shows response results of dynamic wheel force in
the PSD for the four damping modes in the frequency domain. As illustrated in Fig. 11, around
the resonance frequency of sprung mass, which means high-amplitude condition of input, the

suspension deflection [m]

0.04
0.02
0.00
-0.02
-0.04
-0.06
0

PSD of suspension deflection [m2/Hz]

(a)

10

time [s]
10-8
soft mode

mid mode
soft mode
hard mode
disp.sensitive mode

10-9
hard mode

disp. sensitive & soft mode

-10

10

10-11

hard mode
mid mode

10-12
1
(b)

10
Frequency (Hz)

Fig. 10. Suspension deection of displacement-sensitive mode: (a) time response of suspension acceleration and (b)
PSD of suspension deection.

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7000

dynamic wheel force [N]

6000
5000
4000
3000
2000
1000
0

10

10

1
disp. sensitive mode
soft mode
mid mode

PSD of dynamic wheel force [N /Hz]

4
time [s]

(a)

soft mode &

disp. sensitive mode

hard mode

100
hard mode

10-1

10-2
1
(b)

10
Frequency (Hz)

Fig. 11. Response of dynamic wheel force in displacement-sensitive mode: (a) response of dynamic wheel force and (b)
response of dynamic wheel force in PSD.

DSSA shows slightly improved characteristics of driving safety compared with the ones of the
passive shock absorber.
This paper has a validation of a mathematical model for a sensitive shock damper. As a result,
the proposed DSSA has an engineering knowledge as follows. From the sprung mass acceleration
response analysis, the response characteristic of the DSSA showed soft damping characteristics,
which stands for the improvement of ride comfort characteristics of the DSSA compared with the
ones of passive shock absorber on the paved road driving conditions. From the analysis result of
suspension deection, the response characteristic of DSSA showed soft damping characteristics,
which stands for the improvement of ride comfort characteristics of the DSSA. From the analysis
result of dynamic wheel force, the response characteristic of the DSSA showed improved
characteristics of driving safety compared in a high-amplitude condition. Those improved

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characteristics of ride comfort and driving safety will contribute to the design of a shock absorber.
And the geometry of the displacement-sensitive orice will be dened in a further study.

4. Conclusions
In this study, a new mathematical dynamic model of the DSSA is proposed. The uid rate and
the damping force of a shock absorber of an automotive system was theoretically formulated. The
analysis results of the proposed mathematical dynamic model of the DSSA showed similar results
of the corresponding experimental study. It is shown that the damping force could be efciently
calculated according to the excitation. And the vehicle dynamic characteristic of the DSSA is
analysed using quarter car model. Several damping properties of the automotive shock absorber
that are of interest in vehicle vibration applications are reviewed in accordance with the ride
comfort problem. The simulation results of frequency response are compared with the ones of
passive shock absorber. From the analysis results of the DSSA, the ride comfort of the DSSA
increased. The results reported herein will provide a better understanding of the shock absorber.
Moreover, it is believed that those properties of the results can be utilised in the dynamic design of
the automotive system.
Acknowledgements
This work was supported by Grant No: R08-2003-000-11075-0 from the basic Research
Program of the Korea Science Engineering Foundation and the authors wish to thank for this
support.
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shock absorbers, Society of Automotive Engineers 970101 (1997) 125137.
[3] J.G. Cherng, T. Ge, J. Pipis, R. Gazala, Characterization of air-borne noise of shock absorber by using acoustics
index method, in: Proceedings of the 1999 SAE International Congress and Exposition, 1999-01-1838.
[4] K. Reybrouck, A nonlinear parametric model of an automotive shock absorber, Society of Automotive Engineers
940869 (1994) 7986.
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