International Journal of Civil Engineering and Technology (IJCIET)

Volume 8, Issue 10, October 2017, pp. 395–404, Article ID: IJCIET_08_10_041
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ISSN Print: 0976-6308 and ISSN Online: 0976-6316

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DESIGN AND ANALYSIS OF DAMPER SPRING

AND ITS STRUCTURAL COMPONENTS
C. Rajkumar, S. Jayavelu, R. Ramesh Kumar
Department of Mechanical Engineering, Vel Tech University,
Avadi, Chennai, India, Tamilnadu, India

ABSTRACT
The main functions of automobile suspension systems are to isolate the structure
and the occupants from shocks and vibrations generated by the road surface. The
suspension systems basically consist of all the elements that provide the connection
between the tyres and the vehicle body. A spring is an elastic object used to store
mechanical energy. It is an elastic body that can be twisted, pulled, or stretched by
some force. It can return to their original shape when the force is released. It is a
flexible element used to exert a force or a torque and, at the same time, to store
energy. The force can be a linear push or pull, or it can be radial, acting similarly to a
rubber band around a roll of drawings. The torque can be used to cause a rotation.
The design of spring in suspension system is very important. In this project a shock
absorber is designed and a 3D model is created using CATIA V5. The model is also
changed by changing the coil radius of the spring. Structural analysis and
optimization are done in ANSYS 11.0 of the shock absorber by varying coil radius and
spring radius. The analysis is done by considering loads, bike weight, and single
person. Structural analysis is done to validate the strength and optimization is done to
determine the better dimension of spring to carry applied load. Optimization is done
for different dimensions to verify best size for spring in Shock absorber.
Key words: Damper Spring, Suspension Systems, Catia V5, Ansys, Optimization,
Adams.
Cite this Article: C. Rajkumar, S. Jayavelu and R. Ramesh Kumar, Design and
Analysis of Damper Spring and its Structural Components. International Journal of
Civil Engineering and Technology, 8(10), 2017, pp. 395–404.
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1. INTRODUCTION
Suspension systems have been widely applied to vehicles, from the horse-drawn carriage with
flexible leaf springs fixed in the four corners, to the modern automobile with complex control
algorithms. The suspension of a road vehicle is usually designed with two objectives; to
isolate the vehicle body from road irregularities and to maintain contact of the wheels with the
roadway. Isolation is achieved by the use of springs and dampers and by rubber mountings at
the connections of the individual suspension components. From a system design point of

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 Design and Analysis of Damper Spring and its Structural Components

view, there are two main categories of disturbances on a vehicle, namely road and load
disturbances.
Therefore, a good suspension design is concerned with disturbance rejection from these
disturbances to the outputs. Roughly speaking, a conventional suspension needs to be “soft”
to insulate against road disturbances and “hard” to insulate against load disturbances.
Therefore, suspension design is an art of compromise between these two goals (Wang
2001).Today, nearly all passenger cars and light trucks use independent front suspensions,
because of the better resistance to vibrations [1].
The main functions of a vehicle’s suspension systems are to isolate the structure and the
occupants from shocks and vibrations generated by the road surface. The suspension systems
basically consist of all the elements that provide the connection between the tires and the
vehicle body. The suspension system requires an elastic resistance to absorb the road shocks
and this job is fulfilled by the suspension springs to accomplish all functions, the suspension
system requires an elastic resistance to absorb the road shocks and this job is fulfilled by the
suspension springs [2].
A spring is defined as an elastic machine element, which deflects under the action of the
load & returns to its original shape when the load is removed [3]. Mechanical springs are used
in machine designs to exert force, provide flexibility, and to store or absorb energy. Springs
are manufactured for many different applications such as compression, extension, torsion,
power, and constant force. Depending on the application, a spring may be in a static, cyclic or
dynamic operating mode. A spring is usually considered to be static if a change in deflection
or load occurs only a few times, such as less than 10,000 cycles during the expected life of the
spring. A static spring may remain loaded for very long periods of time. The failure modes of
interest for static springs include spring relaxation, set and creep.

2. OBJECTIVES OF SPRING
• To apply force: A majority industrial, e.g. To provide the operating force in brakes and
clutches, to provide a clamping force, to provide a return load, to keep rotational mechanisms
in contact, make electrical contacts, counterbalance loading, etc.
• To control motion: Typically storing energy, e.g. wind-up springs for motor, constant torque
applications, torsion control, position control, etc.
• To control vibration: used in essence for noise and vibration control, e.g. flexible couplings,
isolation mounts, spring and dampers, etc.
• To reduce impact: Used to reduce the magnitude of the transmitted force due to impact or
shock loading, e.g. buffers, end stops, bump stops etc. In practical situations, springs are used
to provide more than one of the above functions at the same time. Because of superior strength
and endurance characteristics under load, most springs are metallic

3. SHOCK ABSORBER TYPES

There are a number of different methods of converting an impact /collision into relatively
smooth cushioned contact.
• Metal Spring
• Rubber Buffer
• Hydraulic Dashpot
• Collapsing safety Shock Absorbers

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 C. Rajkumar, S. Jayavelu and R. Ramesh Kumar

• Pneumatic Cylinders
• Self compensating Hydraulic

4. FAILURE MODES OF SPRINGS IN SUSPENSION

• Raw materials defect
• Surface imperfections
• Improper heat treatment
• Sudden impact load created by the pit road
• Over load of rider
• Improper damper system
• Large pitch gap between the coil turn

4.1. Materials used in Suspension Springs

Table 1 Material Properties of Suspension System

5. PROBLEM DESCRIPTION
A shock absorber or damper is a mechanical device designed to smooth out or damp shock
impulse, and dissipate kinetic energy. Pneumatic and hydraulic shock absorbers commonly
take the form of a cylinder with a sliding piston inside. The cylinder is filled with a fluid
(such as hydraulic fluid) or air. This fluid-filled piston/cylinder combination is a dashpot. The
shock absorbers duty is to absorb or dissipate energy. One design consideration, when
designing or choosing a shock absorber, is where that energy will go. In most dashpots,
energy is converted to heat inside the viscous fluid. In hydraulic cylinders, the hydraulic fluid

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 Design and Analysis of Damper Spring and its Structural Components

will heat up, while in air cylinders, the hot air is usually exhausted to the atmosphere. In other
types of dashpots, such as electromagnetic ones, the dissipated energy can be store.

Model Diagram

Figure 1 Model diagram

6. INTRODUCTION TO CATIA V5
CATIA V5 is a feature based, parametric solid modeling program. As such, it's use is
significantly different from conventional drafting programs. In conventional drafting (either
manual or computer assisted), various views of a part are created in an attempt to describe the
geometry. Each view incorporates aspects of various features (surfaces, cuts, radii, holes,
protrusions) but the features are not individually defined. In feature based modeling, each
feature is individually described then integrated into the part. However, other resilient
materials, e.g. polymers, where special properties such as a low modulus and high internal
damping capacity are required used later. In general terms, shock absorbers help cushion cars
on uneven roads.

6.1. Different views in CATIA V5

Part Design
Top eye

Figure 2 Top eye of damper spring

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 C. Rajkumar, S. Jayavelu and R. Ramesh Kumar

Spring part

Figure 3 Spring part

Bottom eye

Figure 4 Bottom eye of damper spring

Assembly

Figure 5 Assembly model

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 Design and Analysis of Damper Spring and its Structural Components

7. FORCE FLOW DIAGRAM OF THE PROBLEM

Figure 7 Force flow

7.1. Load Carrying Forces Are Determined By Using Adams

In kinematics and dynamics of machinery, were kinematics involves in finding out the results
of body in motion without considering the forces and dynamics involves in finding the result
of the body in motion with considering the forces. These analyses are carried out by graphical,
analytical and numerical method. The choice of approach to the solution is depend on the
problem at hand and the available data.
In general mechanisms are used to obtain various types of motion, one of the motion is
intermittent motion, to obtain the intermittent motion various type of mechanisms are used out
of which cam mechanism provides the best intermittent motion is been explained in the adams
by comparing the advantage of cam over the other mechanism.
Data value found from the Adams software
• Load acting in the top eye = 1617 N

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 C. Rajkumar, S. Jayavelu and R. Ramesh Kumar

• Pressure transmitted to the spring per unit area = 34 N/mm

Because the force applied to both eye of the shock absorber are fully transmitted to the
spring and the damper

8. DESIGN ANALYSIS
FEA consists of a computer model of a material or design that is stressed and analyzed for
specific results. It is used in new product design, and existing product refinement. A company
is able to verify a proposed design will be able to perform to the client's specifications prior to
manufacturing or construction. Modifying an existing product or structure is utilized to
qualify the product or structure for a new service condition. In case of structural failure, FEA
may be used to help determine the design modifications to meet the new condition. There are
generally two types of analysis that are used in industry: 2-D modeling, and 3-D modeling.
While 2-D modeling conserves simplicity and allows the analysis to be run on a relatively
normal computer, it tends to yield less accurate results. 3-D modeling, however, produces
more accurate results while sacrificing the ability to run on all but the fastest computers
effectively. Within each of these modeling schemes, the programmer can insert numerous
algorithms (functions) which may make the system behave linearly or non-linearly. Linear
systems are far less complex and generally do not take into account plastic deformation. Non-
linear systems do account for plastic deformation, and many also are capable of testing a
material all the way to fracture.

9. GENERIC STEPS TO SOLVING PROBLEM IN ANSYS

9.1. Build Geometry
Construct a three dimensional representation of the object to be modeled and tested using the
work plane coordinates system within ANSYS.

Figure 8 constructed model of spring

9.2. Selection of vsweep mesh

Fills an existing unmeshed volume with elements by sweeping the mesh from an adjacent area
through the volume. However, those commands create the volume and the volume mesh
simultaneously. In contrast, the VSWEEP command is intended for use in an existing
unmeshed volume. This makes VSWEEP particularly useful when you have imported a solid
model that was created in another program, and you want to mesh it in ANSYS.
For related information, see the description of volume sweeping options, it does not affect
element spacing. Also see the detailed discussion of volume sweeping in Meshing Your Solid
Model of the Modeling and Meshing Guide.

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 Design and Analysis of Damper Spring and its Structural Components

Figure 9 Meshed model

9.3. Stress Analysis

This is actually a step, because ANSYS needs to understand within what state (steady state,
transient… etc.) the problem must be solved. The linear static analysis was performed to
determine the stress and strain results from the finite element model. The material utilized in
this work consists of a linear elastic, isotropic material. The choice of the linear elastic
material model is essentially mandated. Model loading consist of the applied mechanical load,
which is modeled as the load control and the displacement control. From the analysis, the
inner side of the coil is found to experience the largest stresses. The maximum shear stress
distribution of the coil spring is shown in figure. From the result, the maximum pressure
applied in a spring per unit area on inner side of the top coil.

Figure 10 vonmiss stress acting in the spring

10. DESIGN OF OPTIMIZATION

10.1. Introduction to Design Optimization
The optimization module (/OPT) is an integral part of the ANSYS program that can be
employed to determine the optimum design. This optimum design is the best design in some
predefined sense. Among many examples, the optimum design for a frame structure may be
the one with minimum weight or maximum frequency; in heat transfer, the minimum
temperature; or in magnetic motor design, the maximum peak torque. In many other situations
minimization of a single function may not be the only goal and attention must also be directed
to the satisfaction of predefined constraints placed on the design (e.g., limits on stress,
geometry, displacement, heat flow).

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 C. Rajkumar, S. Jayavelu and R. Ramesh Kumar

11. RESULTS
11.1. Graph drawn from optimization result

11.2. Optimization result table

Table 2 Result table

12. CONCLUSIONS
Shock absorber 3D model is created using CATIA V5. The parameterized spring dimension
was modeled in ANSYS APDL. Structural analysis and optimization are done on the shock
absorber by varying coil radius and spring radius. The analysis is done by considering loads,
bike weight and single person. Structural analysis is done to validate the strength and
optimization is done to determine the better dimension of spring to carry applied load.
Initial range of spring parameters
Coil radius of the spring = 3.00 mm to 8.00 mm
Spring radius of the system = 40.00 mm to50.00 mm
We get the optimized value of the spring to carry a load of sudden impact are

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 Design and Analysis of Damper Spring and its Structural Components

Coil radius of the spring = 5.00 mm

Spring radius of the system = 45.00 mm

REFERENCES
[1] F. Wang (2001), “Passive suspensions in design and synthesis of active and passive
vehicle suspensions”, PhD Thesis, control group department of engineering university of
Cambridge, pp.85.
[2] T.D. Gillespie (1992), “Suspensions in fundamentals of vehicle dynamics”, society of
automotive engineers, USA, pp.97-117 & pp.237-247.
[3] V. B. Bhandari (1994), “Design of machine elements”, New York, Tata McGraw-Hill.
[4] R.S. Khurmi & J.K Gupta (2003), “A textbook of machine design”, S. Chand & company.
[5] J. Shigley (1989), “Mechanical engineering design”, New York, McGraw-Hill; Fifth
Edition.
[6] P.C. Sharma and D.K. Aggarwal, (2005), “Machine design”, S.K. Kataria & Sons.
[7] K. Mahadevan & K. Balaveera Reddy (2004), “Design data hand book”, CBS Distributor
& Publisher, table 11.8, pp. 153-155
[8] B. Rohith Raju, K.P.V.S. Raja Rao, V.V Suraj and P. Ratna Prasad, Double Wishbone
Suspension System, International Journal of Mechanical Engineering and Technology ,
8(5), 2017, pp. 249-264.
[9] Aditya Shahane, Manasi Kathale, Pratik Rathi and Ashank Gujar , Kinematics of Rear
Suspension System for A Baja All - Terrain Vehicle , International Journal of Mechanical
Engineering and Technology 8(8), 2017, pp. 164 – 171.

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