ISSN (Online) 2581-9429

IJARST
International Journal of Advanced Research in Science & Technology (IJARST)

Volume 7, Issue 2, July 2020

Design and Analysis of a Two Wheeler Shock

Absorber Coil Spring
Kamalesh S. Kulkarni1, Babasaheb S. Hajare2
Assistant Professor, Mechanical Engineering, VACOE, Ahmednagar, India1,2
kamaleshkulkarni63@gmail.com1 and bsh91192@gmail.com2

Abstract: A suspension system is a mechanical device which is used to smooth out or damp shock
impulse and dissipate kinetic energy. In vehicles problem happens while driving on bumping road
condition so the rider feels uncomforted. Hence design of spring in shock absorber is very
important. In this project, spring is designed and the 3D model is created using modelling
software CATIA. Static analysis in done on the spring by varying materials as oil tempered spring
steel and beryllium copper. The analysis is done by considering loads, bike weight, single person
and two persons. In this analysis, maximum shear stress and total deformation is calculated using
ANSYS software. And the comparison is done on two materials.

Keywords: Spring, Beryllium copper, oil tempered spring steel, ANSYS, Static analysis.

I. INTRODUCTION
Suspension system or shock absorber is a mechanical device designed to smooth out or damp shock impulse, and
dissipate kinetic energy. The shock absorbers duty is to absorb or dissipate energy. In a vehicle, it reduces the effect of
traveling over rough ground, leading to improved ride quality, and increase in comfort due to substantially reduced
amplitude of disturbances. When a vehicle is traveling on a level road and the wheels strike a bump, the spring is
compressed quickly. The compressed spring will attempt to return to its normal loaded length and, in so doing, will
rebound past its normal height, causing the body to be lifted. The weight of the vehicle will then push the spring down
below its normal loaded height. This, in turn, causes the spring to rebound again. This bouncing process is repeated
over and over, a little less each time, until the up-and-down movement finally stops. If bouncing is allowed to go
uncontrolled, it will not only cause an uncomfortable ride but will make handling of the vehicle very difficult. The aim
of the project is to analyse the shock absorber coil spring by designing on CATIA then import into ANSYS so we could
analyse by changing its materials as steel spring and Beryllium Copper. So that the cost required to analyse by
practically will be minimized.

II. LITERATURE REVIEW

Settey Triveni, [1] did design calculations on the helical coil springs of Honda CB unicorn and Yamaha FZ to obtain
the dimensional accuracy of the spring by evaluating the results. They did 3D model in SOLID works and then
imported to hyper mesh for applying the attributes. Then they imported to ANSYS finally, and did analysis work. The
main objective of the paper is to calculate the design parameters for their optimum results. For that purpose they used in
ANSYS software to evaluate stresses, strains and its load carrying capacity by doing static analysis. The paper deals
with the coil spring which is used in the mono suspension system. The further analysis using software is done changing
the spring dimensions and by using by using alternate materials, thereby optimum results are obtained.
Similar to above papers the weights of 2 persons are considered. In this paper they had to find the better accuracy
using the FEA tool, i.e. ANSYS. The ANSYS has better accuracy than other any conventional method of evaluating
results. In this paper the shear stress equation is used for calculating the maximum stress induced in the spring.
Comparison has been made for theoretical results obtained from the shear stress equation to the Finite Element
Analysis (FEA) results. In both the cases the analysis results gives the better results than the existing one. It concludes
that there is a better chance for investigation to be made on different alternative materials available suitable materials to
achieve the overall weight reduction of the automobile without affecting the riding comfort of the two-wheeler

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IJARST
International Journal of Advanced Research in Science & Technology (IJARST)

Volume 7, Issue 2, July 2020

suspension. Prince Jerome Christopher J., [2] designed a shock absorber used in 160 cc bike and modelled in 3D
parametric software called Pro/E engineer. The analysis is done on ANSYs. As mentioned n above papers this paper
considers weights of two persons in the design considerations. The objective of this paper is to design and analyse the
performance of shock absorber by varying the wire diameter. The analysis is done by considering bike mass, loads, and
number of person seated on bike comparison is done by varying the wire diameter of the coil spring to verify the best
dimension to minimize the weight of spring. In this paper the calculation are done first for different wire diameter for
same material and then the wire diameter is varied. It concludes that for better stiffness the weight of the spring
increases and for less stiffness the weight decreases.
R. Kannan [3] studied the spring steel and carbon fibre for the analysis of helical spring. He designed and created a
3D model using SOLID works. He did structural analysis for both materials. The analysis was done by various factors
such as loads, weight for a single person and double person. The modelling was done in SOLID works and analysis was
done in ANSYS. He concluded that “Spring Steel is better Than a Carbon Fibre”. The various parameters like stress,
deformation, strain were having better results for spring steel than carbon fibre. The load of 1753N was
applied to observe the deformation and the coil used had outer diameter of 70mm.The weight of a person and two
persons are considered to demonstrate the parameters. The overall weight of the system became 178.75 kg [1753N].
Abdul Budan [4] checked feasibility of replacing the metal coil spring with the composite coil spring. Three different
types of spring were made using glass fibre, carbon fibre and combination of a glass fi bre and a carbon
fibre. The objective of the study was to reduce the weight of the spring. According to experimental results the spring
rate of the carbon spring is 34% more than the glass fibre spring and 45% more than the glass fibre/ carbon fibre spring
and 80% less than the steel spring. Three types of composite springs have been developed in this study; they are lighter
than steel spring and the stiffness achieved in this spring are less than the steel spring. (Spring rate of same dimension
steel spring is approximately 14M/mm and weight of the steel spring is 1.078 kg). The following conclusion can be
drawn from the analysis of experimental results of these springs. The weight of the springs manufactured from carbon
fibre roving is less than the glass fibre and glass fibre/ carbon fibre roving springs. The stiffness of the carbon fibre
spring is greater than the other two types of a composite spring. The springs developed from the glass fibre/carbon fibre
roving does not exhibit a favourable results compared to other two types of springs.
The cost of the glass fibre spring are 25% more than the steel spring and cost of carbon fibre spring is 200% more
than the steel springs. The selection of the glass fibre or a carbon fibre springs depend upon the cost and application of
the spring which can be compensated by saving the fuel from weight reduction. As compared to steel springs of the
same dimensions, the stiffness of a composite spring is less. In order to increase the stiffness of a spring the dimensions
of the composite spring is to be increased which in turn increases the weight of the spring. Hence the application of the
composite spring can be limited to light vehicles, which requires less spring stiffness, e.g. electric vehicles and hybrid
vehicles.
C. Madan Mohan Reddy [5] carried out their research on modelling on analysis and testing of suspension spring is
to replace existed steel helical spring used in popular two wheeler vehicle. The objective of the paper is to calculate
stress and deflection of the helical spring and find its optimum value for a new material. The comparative study is
carried out between existed spring and new material spring, for experimental values and analytical values. The new
material used for coil spring is chrome vanadium steel spring is found better over older material hard drawn steel
spring. It concluded that chrome vanadium steel spring has 13-17% less maximum shear stress compare to hard drawn
steel spring. The deflection pattern of the chrome vanadium steel spring 10% less at specified weight with compare to
hard drawn steel spring it is also observed that 95% of the similarity in deflection pattern and 97% similarity
in shear stress pattern between experimental values to the analytical values. The modelling of spring is developed on
Pro/E 5.0 and analysis is carried out on ANSYS 14. Piotr Czop & Damian Slawik [6] presented the model of a
complete system, consisting of a variable damping shock absorber and a servo-hydraulic tester, used to evaluate the
vibration levels produced by a shock absorber.
Kim [7] also performed an analysis of a twin tube damper with focus on implementation into a vehicle
suspension system. Kim’s model included chamber compliance and fluid compressibility which yielded a differential
equation for the chamber pressures that was solved using the Runga Kutta Method. Discharge coefficients were
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International Journal of Advanced Research in Science & Technology (IJARST)

Volume 7, Issue 2, July 2020

experimentally found and applied to the model. Incorporating damping data into a quarter car model, the frequency
response of the sprung mass and tire deflection were calculated numerically. Good agreement with experimental data
was found for single strokes of the damper, but no full cycle FV plots were included.

III. ANALYTICAL DESIGN

The spring is designed by using design data book and its 3D model is created in CATIA software. The design of the
spring is done by using basic design calculations. The material used for the helical spring is oil tempered spring steel
(ASTM 229 A) and phosphorous bronze (ASTM B 197). The dimension of the spring is given in Table 1.
Sr. No. Parameters Oil Tempered Spring Beryllium Copper
01 Wire diameter 6 mm 7 mm
02 Coil Diameter 36 mm 42 mm
03 Free Length 214 mm 270 mm
04 Pitch 13.375 mm 16.875 mm
Table 1: Dimensions of the Spring
Finite element analysis is use for stress, deformation analysis. The complete procedure of analysis has been done
using ANSYS workbench 14.5. The analysis is done by considering the load on rear suspension only and it is equals to
0.65% of the total load. The load on the single spring will be half of the load on rear suspension.
Sr. No. Loading Description Load (kg) Load on rear suspension
01 Bike Load 125 797
02 Bike load + one person 200 1275
03 Bike load + two persons 275 1754
Table 2: Loading Condition for Spring Analysis

IV. RESULT AND DISCUSSION

The analysis of spring is done on the ANSYS workbench 14.5 and deformation of the spring and maximum shear
stress is calculated. This two results for oil tempered spring steel and beryllium copper is compared for bike load plus
two persons, bike load plus one person and only bike load. For the static structural analysis of the helical spring first
step is to assign the material properties to the ANSYS workbench.
Sr. No. Material Properties Values
01 Minimal tensile strength 1138 MPa
02 Modulus of elasticity 2.07*e5 N/m2
03 Density 875 Kg/m
Table 3: Mechanical Properties of Oil Tempered Spring Steel
Then the model of helical compression spring for Oil tempered spring steel is imported to the Ansys. Then for
analysis purpose and for obtaining better results discretization of the model is necessary. It is also called as meshing.
Mesh generation is the process of dividing the analysis continuum into a number of discrete parts or finite elements.
The finer the mesh better are results, but longer is analysis time. Therefore, a compromise between accuracy and
solution speed is usually made. The mesh may be created manually, such as the one on the right, or generated
automatically like the one below. In manually created mesh, you will notice that the elements are smaller at the joints.
This is known as mesh refinement, and it enables the stresses to capture at geometric discontinuity. Now the next
step is to apply the load on the spring by fixing the last 2 coils of the helical spring. Bike load plus two persons
condition is analysed in ANSYS workbench 14.5. In this, the load applied on the spring is 1754 N and one side of the
spring is kept fixed. And deformation as well as maximum shear stress is calculated for both the materials.

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International Journal of Advanced Research in Science & Technology (IJARST)

Volume 7, Issue 2, July 2020

Figure 1: Total Deformation for oil tempered spring steel

Figure 2: Maximum shear stress for oil tempered spring steel

Same type of analysis was done for the Beryllium Copper for the prescribed loading conditions. The following
readings was obtained after doing static analysis in ANSYS WORKBENCH 14.5.
Sr. Loading Material Total deformation Shear stresses Equivalent
No. Condition (mm) (MPa) (Von-Mises) stress (MPa)
01 Bike load plus Beryllium Copper 54.368 372.1 645.79
2 persons Oil Tempered 37.285 478.38 830.38
Spring steel
02 Bike load plus Beryllium Copper 40.185 275.03 477.32
1 person Oil Tempered 27.558 353.58 613.8
Spring steel
03 Bike load Beryllium Copper 26.002 177.96 358.85
Oil Tempered 17.832 228.79 397.17
Spring steel
Table 4: Result of Static Analysis
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V. CONCLUSION
From the above results, we conclude the following:
1. From the result we conclude that, the total deformation of the oil tempered spring steel is greater than the
beryllium copper. So we can say that the stiffness of the spring steel material is better than the beryllium
copper.
2. But the stresses developed in oil tempered spring steel is more than the beryllium copper, so we conclude that
the beryllium copper is safe material for the maximum loading as compared to oil tempered spring steel.

REFERENCES
[1]. Setty Thriveni, G. Ranjith Kumar, Dr. G. Karinath Gowd, Design evaluation and optimization of a Two-
Wheeler Suspension system, International Journal Of Emersing Technology And Advanced Engineering,
August 2014 .
[2]. Prince Jerome Christopher J., Pavendhan R. , Design and Analysis of Two Wheeler Shock Absorber Coil
Spring, International Journal Of Modern Engineering Research, pp 133-140.
[3]. R.Kannan, C.Rajaganapathy, Finite Element Analysis of Shock Absorber for Spring Steel and Carbon Fibre,
International Journal of Engineering Sciences & Research Technology, 3(5), 2014, pp 579-584.
[4]. Dr. abdul Budan and T.S. Manjunatha, Investigation on the Feasibility of Composite Coil Spring for
Automotive Applications, International Journal of Mechanical, Aerospace, Industrial, Mechatronic and
Manufacturing Engineering, 2010,PP 1035 -1039.
[5]. C. Madan Mohan Reddy, D. Ravindra Naik, Dr. M. Lakshmi Kantha Reddy, Analysis And Testing Of Two
Wheeler Suspension Helical Compression Spring, International Organization Of Scientific Research journal
Of Engineering, June 2014, pp 55-60.
[6]. Piotr Czop, A high-frequency first-principle model of a shock absorber and servo-hydraulic tester, A Journal
of Mechanical Systems and Signal Processing 2010.
[7]. Kim D., Analysis of Hydraulic Shock – Absorber and Implementation on the Vehicle Suspension Systems,
M.S. Thesis, Seoul National University, S. Korea, 1993.

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