Increase in Tuning Ability of a Car Shock Absorber Valve using CFD

The purpose of the investigation was to improve the hydraulic damper valve to meet the automotive customer requirements. The original design was not good enough to achieve the damping forces in the range demanded. The main goal was to lower the minimum achievable forces at the compression stroke by reducing flow restrictions of piston valve. CFD analysis was used to verify proposed variants without the expense of prototyping and experimental testing. Design restrictions of present components were measured on the flow test bench and compared with previously done CFD analysis to ensure a proper correlation with a numerical model. The model was used to predict pressure drop over developed designs.

Keywords:

Shock absorber , CFD analysis , Damping forces , Oil flow , Damper valve , Flow restriction