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Review
Advances in Mechanical Engineering
2017, Vol. 9(9) 1–15
ÓThe Author(s) 2017
DOI: 10.1177/1687814017719004
journals.sagepub.com/home/ade
Experimental study and analytical
model of bleed valve orifice influence
of a high-performance shock absorber
on vehicle dynamics
JL Chaco
´n, BL Boada, MJL Boada and V Dı
´az
Abstract
The aim of this study is to model the influence of the bleed orifice area of a high-performance damper on the
dynamic behaviour of a vehicle. For this purpose, a mathematical model of a monotube high-performance damper is
developed, considering the presence of two regulation ways on the effect of bleed valve orifice of the damper. An
application of changes in damper setup in the field of practical enables to analyse the influence of the positions of
both rod and bottle selectors on the damping force. The proposed damper model is validated experimentally. The
analysis of the dynamic behaviour is performed through a quarter vehicle simulation under different conditions of
road roughness and speed regimes. In addition, an analysis of the frequency response of the sprung mass acceleration
by means of power spectral density was applied to obtain the dynamic response of the quarter vehicle model.
Results show that the influence of the bleed orifice is magnified for low speeds and for profile roads with few varia-
tions on surface. This effect is reduced for both the increasing vehicle speed and the profiles with greater difference
in irregularities.
Keywords
Dynamic, vehicle, high performance, shock absorber, bleed orifice, shim stack, stiffness
Date received: 22 February 2017; accepted: 1 June 2017
Academic Editor: Daxu Zhang
Introduction
When a vehicle moves over road irregularities, the
appearing oscillations on sprung and unsprung masses
affect negatively the driving and safety dynamics. The
suspension system plays an essential role on the vehicle
behaviour; it improves the car performance while driv-
ing, minimizing the risk of collisions, and also increas-
ing the control and the comfort of the vehicle.
1,2
In this
context, automobile manufacturers have been working
during years in the set of elements that conforms the
suspension; one of these components is the presence of
shock absorber and its influence on suspension system.
Several researches have modelled the damper beha-
viour under different conditions; however, changes in
the configuration of the damper and its effect on the
vehicle is an issue that remains unknown. Nowadays,
some shock absorbers have the possibility to change
their internal setup via external devices located on the
damper; this situation lead us to the necessity to know
the characteristic damping force of the shock absorber
Mechanical Engineering Department, Universidad Carlos III de Madrid,
Legane
´s, Spain
Corresponding author:
Juan Luis Chaco
´n Ferreira, Mechanical Engineering Department,
Universidad Carlos III de Madrid, Avda de la Universidad 30, 28911
Legane
´s, Madrid, Spain.
Email: jlchacon@ing.uc3m.es
Creative Commons CC-BY: This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License
(http://www.creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) which permits any use, reproduction and distribution of the work without
further permission provided the original work is attributed as specified on the SAGE and Open Access pages (https://us.sagepub.com/en-us/nam/
open-access-at-sage).
for each configuration and the effects of setup changes
on vehicle’s behaviour. This research proposes an ana-
lytical model considering the influence of bleed valve
changes in the damping force of a monotube damper.
Also, the influence of bleed valve changes on a quarter-
car simulation is modelled. This research proposes an
analytical model considering the influence of the bleed
valve changes in the damping force of a monotube
damper. Also, the influence of the bleed valve changes
on a quarter-car simulation is studied.
Background
One of the major advances in the automotive area has
been the ability to evaluate the performance of the
vehicle dynamics while driving; however, despite tech-
nological advances, the inclusion of a suspension sys-
tem within the vehicle evaluation systems is one aspect
that is still in development nowadays, obtaining good
results in some cases.
1–3
Nevertheless, given the com-
plexity of its operation and the wide variety of config-
urations, it has not yet been possible to continually
evaluate the behaviour of the suspension while driving.
This is mainly due to the operation of the damper, so it
is necessary for the evaluation system to be capable of
predicting the behaviour of the damper when its specifi-
cations and performance are similar to the work
conditions.
Lang
4
and Duym and Reybrouck
5
carry out studies
of parametric models for dampers. Their researches got
successful results; however, these models are very com-
plex using many parameters, some of which are difficult
to determine. There are many researches
3,6–16
based on
the works of Lang and Duym, among them, the one
presented by Talbott,
6
who designed a mathematical
model of a monotube high-performance shock absorber
that included a detailed model of the influence of piston
valves and specially the presence of a bleed orifice, can
be highlighted.
However, Talbott
6
only describes the behaviour of
the damper when one external adjusting is considered
(rod selector). Thus, results of this model present an
insufficient adjustment when two different external sys-
tems of adjusting are used (Rod/Gas bottle selector).
The presence of an extra adjusting area changes the
behaviour of the damper and its interaction with the
valve. Research with a double regulation is still unde-
fined and remains an open question mainly because of
the complexity of the models developed: the variety of
settings that the damper can be set up in and the many
operating conditions which can be subjected to shock
absorbers. The novelty of this research is to take this
situation into consideration, modelling the influence of
the double regulation of the bleed orifice and how this
affects the performance of the damper.
Proposed model
The proposed model in this research has been inspired
by the work of Talbott,
6
but in contrast, it has been
contemplated in detail in the study of valve body, spe-
cifically the bleed orifice area. The information of
changes in this area is necessary to determine the influ-
ence of the setting of the piston on the behaviour of the
damper, specifically on the damping force generated by
this element. The model proposed is based on the oper-
ation of a high-performance monotube shock absorber
with a reserve gas chamber.
The basic physical elements necessary for the mathe-
matical model of the damper is shown in Figure 1. In
the scheme, only the compression stroke is reflected,
where the valve is open showing compression flows
passing through the piston orifice, the bleed orifice and
the slack present between the piston and the cylinder
wall. The gas piston movement (z) is proportional to
the stroke of the rod during the movement (x). It is
notable that the rebound stroke is inverse to the com-
pression stroke, so Figure 1 describes a compression
movement.
Most of the damping force acting on the shock
absorber is generated in the piston; for this reason, it is
necessary to analyse the acting forces on the piston via
Figure 1. Flow diagram during the compression stroke.
2Advances in Mechanical Engineering
a free-body diagram of the rod–piston as shown in
Figure 2.
The free-body diagram shows the forces acting on
the rod–piston assembly, the damping force (Fdamper),
the pressure force differential through piston
(prArpcAc) and the friction which is the result of the
addition of the piston–ring tube and the rod–seal (Ff).
The acceleration of the set is obtained from the input
movement, and the mass of each of the elements of the
set (mp) is determined. From the balance of forces
defined in Figure 1, equation (1) is obtained; this equa-
tion is used for expressing the damping force created
by the shock absorber as a function of its motion
Fdamper =mp€
xprAr+pcAc+Ffsin g_
xðÞ ð1Þ
Tot a l oi l fl ow
The phenomenon which generates the most damping
force is the resistance of the hydraulic fluid through a
series of paths. In literature,
4,5,7,9
it has been shown that
chamber pressure depends on numerous parameters,
including total flow between chambers, shock absorber
stroke and velocity. Figure 3(a) and (b) shows the total
flow of oil through piston valve divided into three pos-
sible paths. The first flow passage is through piston
valves. Labels (1) and (2) represent the flow of fluid
through the rebound valve and compression valve,
respectively. The second flow is the one that flows
through the bleed orifice located at the end of the rod
(see label 3), while the third and final flow paths are
between the seal around the piston and the wall of the
damper tube.
As mentioned, the total flow of oil flowing into the
damper is the sum of three flows (equation (2)), through
the bleed orifice (Qb), the flow through the valve piston
(Qv) and passing between the piston and the tube wall
(Qlp). In the proposed model, oil is considered as an
incompressible fluid and its properties do not change
by temperature effects, so that
Q=Qv+Qb+Qlp ð2Þ
Due to the presence of the rod in the rebound cham-
ber, the area of the piston that faces the rebound cham-
ber (Ar) will be less than the area of the piston located
in the compression chamber (Ac) (see Figure 4).
To characterize flows through the bleed orifice and
valve piston, Bernoulli’s equation for flow passing
through an area Aiis used. This area is defined by the
cross section of the path where the fluid passes through,
considering that Abis the area for flow via bleed orifice
(Qb), while Avcorresponds to the flow area through the
shim stack valve (Qv). Keep in mind that for this type
of shock absorber, the magnitude of Abvaries in the
number of clicks established in the configuration while
the area Avdepends on the deflection of the valve (y);
therefore, flow through valve variation depends on the
differential pressure between the chambers. The result-
ing expression is represented by equation (3)
Qi=CDAiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffi
2Dp
r
sð3Þ
where
Figure 3. Cutting view of a damper tube, the flow path by
rebound valve (1)–(2) and through the bleed orifice (3) during
the (a) compression and (b) rebound stroke.
Figure 2. Piston–rod free-body diagram.
Figure 4. Diagram of compression stroke.
Chaco
´n Ferreira et al. 3
CDi =u
al
v2,m
rvl ,bv2r,s
l
The differential pressure (Dp) is generated through
the valve and defined by the compression pressure (pc)
and rebound pressure (pr); the CDi parameter is charac-
terized by Lang,
4
this variable is a number depending
on the magnitude of acceleration, the Reynolds num-
ber, the Cauchy number and the relationship between
thickness and length; and ris the oil density.
Flow through the piston wall
To determine the volume of flow pass between the pis-
ton and the cylinder wall (see Figure 5), Lang
4
uses a
model assuming a laminar flow between two parallel
plates because the distance between the two surfaces is
very small.
The equation for flow between two parallel walls is
derived from the Navier–Stokes equation
Qlp =Dpb3
12ml+
_
xb
2
pDpð4Þ
where band lare, respectively, the width and length of
the gap between the piston and the cylinder wall; Dpis
the piston diameter; and mis the dynamic viscosity of
oil.
Calculation of pressure
Taking into consideration the work of Duym and
Reybrouck,
5,8
the pressures are defined in the compres-
sion chamber and the gas chamber of the damper
(remember that rebound pressure is obtained by per-
forming the same analysis of the compression section,
taking into consideration the changes on the coordinate
system and the acting friction). Also, the oil inside the
damper is considered as incompressible, so gas pressure
is a function of piston displacement. In Figure 6, the
relationship between the pressure in the compression
chamber and the pressure in the gas chamber is shown.
Using the ideal gas law, it is possible to deduct the
expression of the pressure inside the gas chamber,
which assumes a constant temperature, Agp being the
floating piston area and Lgthe length of the gas
chamber
pg=pgi
AgpLg
AgpLgArod xð5Þ
Finally, knowing both the mass of gas piston mgp
and the pressure inside the gas bottle pgi and applying
the balance of forces on the floating piston of gas cham-
ber (Figure 5), the pressure in the compression chamber
is determined, assuming the incompressibility of oil
pc=Arodmgp
Agp
2
€
x+pgi
AgpLg
AgpLgArod xð6Þ
Bleed valve modelization
As mentioned in section ‘Total oil flow’, the magnitude
of Abrepresents the value of bleed orifice area of the
valve body in the damper. The influence of this para-
meter is highly important because in this area, most
part of the damping force is generated during the start
and end of each stroke. However, one aspect that
deserves attention is the fact that the bleed orifice area
varies between each setting in the system, changes in
bleed orifice area are set through a selector located on
the shaft and its configuration is measured by clicks,
also presence of gas bottle selector is considered. This
implies that for a certain number of clicks, an area
value for the flow passage is obtained, and the magni-
tude of this area is different for both compression and
rebound since the bleed orifice is affected by the pres-
ence of a needle valve (see Figure 7).
The needle valve regulates the bleed area; this element
is moved by a dial regulator at the rod that controls the
position of the needle in the bleed orifice path, and
changes in selector also permits increase or decrease in
the area through the oil pass from one chamber to the
other. The configuration can be set through a number of
clicks. Zero clicks correspond to a completely closed
bleed orifice, while the number of clicks is increased till
moment when the bleed orifice is completely open. The
effect of variation of opening the bleed orifice means
that the larger the area is for passage of the fluid, the
softer the damper will be and therefore less rigid, while
Figure 5. Leakage flow through the piston and the cylinder
wall.
Figure 6. Diagram of forces on the floating piston of the gas
chamber.
4Advances in Mechanical Engineering
the opposite case is when the area is decreased, both
rigidity and hardness will increase.
When an external regulation on damper is used, the
bleed orifice area has a different magnitude in the com-
pression and rebound area, mainly due to changes in
the geometric dimensions of these areas inside the rod.
Also, the behaviour of the rebound stroke is influenced
by the reservoir gas bottle affecting the behaviour of
the bleed valve. Then, the need arises to consider the
bleed valve area Abas two different areas (Abc for com-
pression and Abt for rebound); this situation is taken
into consideration during this work. Therefore, equa-
tion (3) will be modified to the following expression
Qbi =CDAbi ffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffi
2Dp
r
sð7Þ
where the area changes is a function of the number of
clicks defined on the damper
Abi =fno of clicksðÞ
However, due to the geometry and the type of valve
that regulate the flow of the fluid and the possibility of
changing the area via clicks, it is not easy to determine
the effective area allowing oil to flow between the com-
pression and the rebound chambers. For this reason, it
is evident the necessity to use optimizations tools for
determining the magnitude of Abc and Abt. Genetic
algorithms (GAs) have shown a useful technique in
cases where optimization of parameters is needed, and
they are applicable to a wide range of problem, provid-
ing good solutions within an acceptable time limit;
17
for these reasons, the GAs’ toolbox of MATLAB is
used for determining the corresponding Abfor each of
the damper strokes (Abc,Abt ). The optimization of these
parameters is obtained using an objective function
defined as the difference between the experimental
damping force Fexp and the damping force obtained
with the proposed model Fmodel
Fobjetive =X
m
i=1
Fmodel,iFexp , i
ð8Þ
The parameters used for setting the toolbox of GAs
are defined in Table 1.
Figure 8 shows a process diagram of the operations
of GAs within the bleed valve modelization; for this
purpose, the damping force (F) generated by the shock
absorber, velocity (V) and displacement (D) of piston
are used as input parameters. Then, a comparison
between the experimental data and the results obtained
by simulation from the proposed model is described.
The process is repeated according to the population
size and the number of generation; the results of para-
meters with best fitness are introduced into the pro-
posed damper model to obtain the damping force. The
full process is repeated for each configuration in the
rod selector of the damper, while gas bottle selector in
defined in a unique position.
Figure 8. Schematic operation of the genetic algorithm in the
damper model.
Figure 7. Bleed valve: (a) ensemble of valve body and
(b) cutting view of ensemble valve body.
Table 1. Configuration parameters for toolbox (GA’s).
Parameter Configuration
Number of variables 2
Range of variables [0–1]
Initial population 50
Population size 50
Selection Stochastic uniform
Crossover Scattered
Mutation Gaussian
Stopping criteria 150 generations
GA: genetic algorithm.
Chaco
´n Ferreira et al. 5
Experimental results
For the experimental results, a hydraulic telescopic
monotube shock absorber is used, specifically O
¨hlins
S46WR1C1 damper, as shown in Figure 9(a). The main
advantage of this type of damper is that it can be assem-
bled and disassembled as many times as necessary
depending on the setup defined. This allows any varia-
tion of the setup to be measured into the internal struc-
ture of the damper.
Possible changes contemplate on the damper struc-
ture are set mainly via changes in four elements (see
Figure 9(b)); the first and second elements are shaft
and gas bottle selectors, respectively, and the third ele-
ment is the piston valve. The configuration in this ele-
ment is shown in Figure 10. Finally, the last element to
set is the gas pressure inside the reservoir gas bottle;
this parameter was defined in 16 bars.
18
In order to determine the performance of O
¨hlins
S46WR1C1 damper, a sinusoidal controlled damper
piston displacement for different number of clicks on
the rod selector is introduced. Figure 11 shows the
O
¨hlins shock absorber installed on the damper test
machine. In the machine, a hydraulic actuator is
employed to drive the shock absorber from sinusoidal
displacement cycles with amplitude of 0.03 mm and fre-
quencies of 0.5, 1 and 1.5 Hz. These values allow the
damper to work in similar conditions of a vehicle sus-
pension due to the road irregularities.
19
The damper
stroke was positioned at its centre before the test was
carried out to avoid the extreme positions of the dam-
per stroke. The damper test machine is equipped with a
displacement sensor to measure the displacement of the
damper piston and a load cell to measure the output
force. The signals of displacement and force are
sampled at the rate of 1 kHz, while the velocity of the
test is obtained from the derivative of displacement
with respect to time.
The nominal parameters of the tested shock absor-
ber and its configuration are provided in Tables 2 and
3. The configuration of the bleed valve orifice is set for
different positions in the rod selector (from 0 to 21
clicks). Number of clicks corresponds to the range of
options when the orifice with the needle is fully opened
(to fully open the orifice, 21 clicks are needed) and
when the orifice with the needle is fully closed (0 clicks).
Then, it is necessary to test each configuration on rod
selector in order to determine the influence of these
changes in the bleed orifice area on the damping force.
In relation to the shim stack configuration, as detailed
in Table 2, the damper setting is included in the list of
options of the manufacturer.
18,20
During tests, the damper operating conditions are
taken into consideration, and the initial and final tem-
peratures are controlled; changes in damper tempera-
ture during each test did not exceed 2°between the start
and end of each test. This information allows us to con-
sider that for a specific number of cycles, the influence
of temperature can be neglected as indicated by Baez
15
and Ramos.
16
Bleed valve results
Using the process described in Figure 8, the values Abi
are obtained corresponding to the setting of the
Figure 9. (a) O
¨hlins monotube damper and (b) section view of
O
¨hlins monotube damper, piston valve, gas bottle selector and
shaft selector.
Figure 10. Piston installed on the damper rod: (a) compression area, (b) rebound area and (c) shims.
6Advances in Mechanical Engineering
damper used during the test. The use of GAs deter-
mines the magnitude of Abc and Abt for each bleed ori-
fice configuration according to the objective function
defined in equation (7). When these parameters are
used in the proposed model for the shock absorber, it
allows the best adjustment to experimental values
obtained during the test. Figure 12(a) and (b) shows
the results of parameters Abc and Abt for different set-
ting of the damper calculated through GAs. Both fig-
ures show the dispersion of results and the trendline.
The behaviour of the parameter Abc describes the
polynomial function, as shown in Figure 12(a); as the
number of clicks on rod selector increased, the bigger is
the magnitude of bleed orifice area, and this change has
a maximum value of 46.36% between 3 and 4 clicks. In
the range of 0–4 clicks, the bleed area is influenced
mainly by the magnitude of piston acceleration. The Abc
variation between clicks decreased as the total number
of clicks increased; this result agrees with the fact that
the needle moves away from the bleed orifice area till
moment of its influence becomes insignificant (over 15
clicks) and damping force is not affected by the changes
in rod selector. Equation (9) describes the behaviour of
Abc for modelled shock absorber
Abc115 =2x109n2+23106n+23106ð9Þ
where nrepresents the number of clicks on the rod
selector. With respect to the behaviour of the para-
meter Abt, results obtained in Figure 12(b) describes a
lineal function with value close to constant area for all
changes on rod selector. The reason of this situation is
because the rebound stroke is affected principally by
variations in the gas bottle selector. Equation (10)
describes the behaviour of Abt
Abt115 =33107n+13107ð10Þ
Model validation
Once the parameters Abc and Abt are obtained via GAs
from the previous section, the results of the damping
force modelled and the experimental damping force
obtained from the tested shock absorber were com-
pared in order to simulate real working conditions; the
input signal used during tests (displacement and velo-
city) was introduced as input signal for simulation of
proposed model. Then, a good level of agreement was
obtained between both results. The behaviour of the
damper obtained by mathematical modelling and
experimental tests coincides for each stroke and for
each bleed valve configuration. Experimental results are
also compared with the model presented by Talbott,
Table 2. Nominal parameters of damper setup.
Monotube
shock absorber
Compression shim
stack configuration
Rebound shim
stack configuration
Shim thickness (mm) Gas bottle
pressure (bar)
Oil characteristics
Number/diameter
7 x 40 mm 7 x 36 mm 0.25 15 1304-01 11 Cst at 40ºC
Figure 11. S46WR1C1 O
¨hlins damper installed on a damper
test machine.
Table 3. Nominal parameter of damper test.
Piston Diameter (mm) Frequency (Hz) Amplitude (m) Rod clicks Gas bottle clicks Bleed valve diameter (mm)
40 0.5–1–1.5 0.03 0–21 0 9
Chaco
´n Ferreira et al. 7
and then a greater difference of damping force is evi-
dent. As expected, the consideration of parameters Abc
and Abt is necessary to model the damping force on the
rod selector. Figures 13–15 show the comparison
between experimental results, the proposed model in
this research and Talbott model; plots used for this pur-
pose are the damping force versus piston displacement
(F-d) and the damping force versus piston velocity (F-
v) for different configurations of rod selector clicks and
signal inputs.
From Figures 13–15, it is possible to see how the
damping force obtained from the proposed model has
a similar behaviour to the experimental results for all
damper configurations tested; in particular for
Figure 13, the presence of a hysterical behaviour is also
simulated. The noise obtained for the proposed model
is produced for the real input signal used for simula-
tions. Comparing the results from Talbott model, two
adjustment regions are clearly presented. The first
region is observed during the compression strokes
where the results obtained by the model are similar to
the experimental results for most of the stroke. The sec-
ond region represents the rebound stroke. A discre-
pancy is reflected during the whole stroke between the
experimental results and the results of the Talbott
model.
In addition to the superiority of the graphical results
obtained from the proposed model, an analysis of
errors for different excitation conditions has been
accomplished. The following equations were used to
represent the errors as a function of time, displacement
and velocity, respectively
21,22
Et=et
sF
ð11Þ
Ex=ex
sF
ð12Þ
E_x=e_x
sF
ð13Þ
Figure 12. (a) Determination by AG’s of compression bleed area: (a) Abc and (b) Abt as a function of the number of clicks on rod
selector (1–15) clicks.
8Advances in Mechanical Engineering
Figure 13. Comparison of experimental results vs model proposed for a damper with 7C-7R configuration, range = 0.03 m,
frequency = 0.5 Hz, 5 clicks. Experimental results (red), results obtained from model proposed in this work (blue) and results using
Taboltt’s model (green).
Figure 14. Comparison of experimental results vs model proposed for a damper with 7C-7R configuration, range = 0.03 m,
frequency = 1 Hz, 10 clicks. Experimental results (red), results obtained from model proposed in this work (blue) and results using
Taboltt’s model (green).
Figure 15. Comparison of experimental results vs model proposed for a damper with 7C-7R configuration, range = 0.03 m,
frequency = 1.5 Hz, 15 clicks. Experimental results (red), results obtained from model proposed in this work (blue) and results using
Taboltt’s model (green).
Chaco
´n Ferreira et al. 9
where
e2
t=ð
T
0
Fexp Fmodel
2dt ð14Þ
e2
x=ð
T
0
Fexp Fmodel
2dx
dt
dt ð15Þ
e2
_
x=ð
T
0
Fexp Fmodel
2d_
x
dt
dt ð16Þ
s2
F=ð
T
0
Fexp mF
2dt ð17Þ
where Fexp represents the measured or experimental
force, Fmodel is the forced estimated by the model pro-
posed by this work and mFis the mean value of the
experimental force during the period T.
The error results are shown in Table 4. The error
results are also compared with the errors in the
Talbott model. It can be seen that a good perfor-
mance of the model proposed by this work exists
comparing with the model proposed by Talbott.
Quarter-car model simulation
Once the model proposed in this work is validated, the
integration of the shock absorber model developed into
a simpler quarter-car model, which will let us to evalu-
ate two aspects of the suspension system. The shock
absorber model influences the sprung mass vertical
acceleration and the influence of bleed orifice of the
damper.
In the quarter-car model, the sprung mass and the
unsprung mass are rigid bodies with a defined mass m
s
and m
u
, respectively. The suspension between these
masses is modelled using both a spring element and a
mathematical algorithm which simulated the damper
behaviour. For this purpose, the shock absorber model
presented in this work is used; by this way, the setup of
the high-performance damper, the clicks of the bleed
orifice and the position of the rod during the stroke are
parameter taken into account (Figure 16).
The representative parameter values for the quarter-
car model simulation are shown in Table 5.
The assumptions of a quarter-car modelling are as
follows: the tire is modelled as a linear spring without
damping, there is no rotational motion in wheel and
body, the behaviour of spring is considered linear while
the influence of the damper depends of its configura-
tion, the tire is always in contact with the road surface
and the effect of friction is neglected so that the
Table 4. Error results for both models, Talbott and proposed.
Frequency (Hz) Model EtExE_
x
0.5 Proposed 0.2968 0.0136 0.0873
Talbott 0.3788 0.0166 0.1274
Enhancement (%) 21.651 17.990 31.504
1 Proposed 0.2991 0.0133 0.0958
Talbott 0.4439 0.0209 0.1434
Enhancement (%) 32.606 36.190 33.182
1.5 Proposed 0.2487 0.0120 0.1076
Talbott 0.2749 0.0128 0.1182
Enhancement (%) 9.5162 6.3913 8.9455
Table 5. Parameter values for the quarter-car model
simulation.
m
s
Sprung mass 500 kg
m
u
Unsprung mass 60 kg
k
s
Spring stiffness 60,000 N/m
k
u
Tire stiffness 220,000 N/m
Figure 16. Coupling of quarter-car model with shock absorber
model.
10 Advances in Mechanical Engineering
residual structural damping is not considered into vehi-
cle modelling.
19
The equations of motion for the
sprung and the unsprung masses of the quarter-car
model are given as follows
mn€
xu+Fdamper +kuxux0
ðÞksxsxu
ðÞ=0ð18Þ
ms€
xsFdamper +ksxsxu
ðÞ
=0ð19Þ
where Fdamper represents the damping force generated
by the shock absorber due to the excitation of the sus-
pension system in the quarter vehicle model. This para-
meter is obtained from equation (1) and it depends on
the pressure force differential through piston, the mass
of the setup of the piston times, the acceleration of the
rod during each stroke and the internal friction between
the piston–ring tube and the rod–seal. Each configura-
tion in the number of clicks on rod selector modifies the
Fdamper generated into the shock absorber. So, this situa-
tion clearly demonstrates the necessity to analyse the
behaviour of the quarter-car simulation for each of the
defined configurations used in this research (5–10–15
clicks).
Road surface signal
The input signal to the quarter-car model simulation
will be the roughness of the road’s surface, which is the
main disturbance into a vehicle system. A typical road
is characterized by the existence of large isolated irregu-
larities, such as potholes or bumps, which are super-
posed to smaller but continuously distributed profile
irregularities. The ISO 8608 standard has proposed a
road roughness classification using the power spectral
density (PSD) values as shown in the Table 5. Typical
roads are grouped into classes A–H. However, paved
roads are generally considered to be among road
classes A–D. The signal from the road and its rough-
ness are modelled using the work presented by M
Agostinacchio.
23
This study simulates profile roads for
vehicles that travel with a constant horizontal speed
(v0) over a given road, where the forcing resulting from
the road irregularities can be simulated from the fol-
lowing series
xgtðÞ=X
N
n=1
Snsin nwt +un
ðÞð20Þ
where
Sn=ffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffi
2SgnDOðÞDO
qð21Þ
are the amplitudes of the excitation harmonics which
are evaluated from the road spectra selected,
DO=2p=L, where Lis the length of the road segment
considered. The value of the fundamental temporal fre-
quency (w) is determined from
w=2p
Lv0ð22Þ
Assuming that the road irregularities possess a
known single-side PSD, the parameter S
g
can be found.
The geometrical profile of typical roads fits sufficiently
and accurately the following simple analytical form
SgOðÞ=Ag
O
O0
d
ð23Þ
where O=2p=lis an angular spatial frequency, corre-
sponding to a harmonic irregularity with a known
wavelength l;O0=1is a reference spatial frequency;
and Ag=Sg(O0) and dare constants. The phases unare
treated as random variables, following a uniform distri-
bution in the interval (0,2p. In Table 6, the degree of
roughness expressed in terms of spatial frequency is
presented.
The ISO classes of considered profiles are A, B, C
and D which correspond to normal roads where high
speed can be reached and maintained by vehicles.
Beyond that value (in case of E profile), it is reasonable
to assume that this type of road surfaces are character-
ized by a damage degree high enough that they require
being travelled at very low speeds, and are so unsuitable
for the safe transit of vehicles. The vehicle behaviour
along a road section with a characterized roughness is
determined by the study of the forced oscillations. As
indicated in equation (22), the behaviour of the road
section depends on the velocity of the vehicle during the
simulation. Therefore, a range of speeds is defined 20–
120 km/h for each road class simulation.
The analysis of sprung mass acceleration and the effect
of the bleed valve orifice of the shock absorber on the
dynamic behaviour of the sprung mass are shown in
Figures 17 and 18. These results are obtained for the
same speed (20 and 120 km/h) and road profile (road
class A), while the configuration of the bleed valve (clicks
on the rod) is changed following the setup used during
the model validation in section ‘Model validation’.
Table 6. Parameter values for the quarter-car model
simulation.
Road class Lowe limit Geometric
mean
Upper limit
A (very good) – 1 2
B (good) 2 4 8
C (average) 8 16 32
D (poor) 32 64 128
E (very poor) 128 256 512
Chaco
´n Ferreira et al. 11
In Figures 17 and 18, the acceleration of sprung mass
in the quarter vehicle simulation changes for each bleed
valve configuration on the damper. The results show that
the acceleration of the sprung mass diminishes as the
number of clicks in the selector rod decreased. As it was
previously demonstrated during experimental results, the
performance of damper changes according to the clicks
established in the rod selector. Consequently, the damp-
ing force produced by the damper increased as the clicks
on the rod selector decreased.
PSD and root mean square analysis
The vehicle behaviour along a road section with a char-
acterized roughness is determined by the study of the
forced oscillations. Then, the frequency analysis of
sprung mass acceleration shows the effect of the bleed
valve orifice of the shock absorber on the dynamic
behaviour of the sprung mass. A comparison between
the spectral density functions (PSDs) of the sprung
mass is presented in Figure 19. Plots contain simula-
tions for the same velocity and road class, but different
damper configuration according to the tested quarter-
car model (5–10–15 clicks). PSD function is considered
for frequencies between 0 and 20 Hz, while the total
range of acceleration changes in each plot according to
the velocity of the simulation and road class introduced
in the model.
Results of sprung mass acceleration spectrum led to
the same conclusion (Figure 19); changes in bleed ori-
fice area via rod selector affect the behaviour of vehicle
suspension. With respect to the road range of excitation
considered, for each road class, the lowest values of the
PSD of sprung mass acceleration were ensured by the
shock absorber with the lowest number of clicks on rod
selector.
Figure 17. Sprung mass acceleration for 5, 10 and 15 clicks on the rod selector. Road class A and velocity 20 km/h.
Figure 18. Sprung mass acceleration for 5, 10 and 15 clicks on the rod selector. Road class A and velocity 120 km/h.
12 Advances in Mechanical Engineering
In Figure 19(a)–(c), the representation of the charac-
teristic frequency is close to 10 Hz, where the signal
gain depends on the configuration of the number of
clicks on the damper for all cases modeled; the lower
peak of gain is obtained for a configuration of 5 clicks.
Also, new frequencies between 0 and 8 Hz correspond-
ing to excitation frequencies appear, as the speed of the
vehicle on the road increases. The magnitude of these
frequencies is lower than the characteristic frequency of
the system. According to the ISO 2631-1 norm,
24
pas-
senger comfort principally depends on root mean
square (RMS) value of acceleration and the frequency
of vibrations acted on his or her body. So, the RMS
value of the sprung mass acceleration is determined by
means of equation (24)
RMS =ffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffi
1
NX
n
i=1
€
x2
s
!
v
u
u
tð24Þ
where €
xsrepresents the acceleration of sprung mass
obtained from simulations. Results of RMS simulations
for velocities of 20, 60, 80 and 120km/s with road pro-
files from A to E are shown in Table 7.
The RMS results of the quarter vehicle simulation
increases with a mean value from 0.031 to 0.323 for
20 km/h and from 0.055 to 0.563 for 120 km/h, as the
road class used for input signal is intensified. In the
same way, for the same road profile, the RMS
increases, as the vehicle speed increases; however, the
variation of the RMS for the latter case is lower com-
pared to the variation obtained for different road pro-
files. These results are contrasted with the work
presented by D. Sekulic
´.
25
As an example from results
and a way to analyse both cases is to compare the
RMS obtained between simulation of 120 km/h with
Road A and 20 km/h with road B; this magnitude is
similar (0.061), so despite being in different conditions
of velocity and road profile, the comfort of passengers
on both cases can be considered the same in terms of
RMS.
Figure 20 graphically shows a comparison between
RMS obtained from simulations for each speed; the
magnitude of RMS increases as the speed of simulation
increases. However, for all cases at speeds between 80
and 120 km/h, the system presents variations in RMS
behaviour. This situation is generated by the presence
of resonance frequencies as shown in Figure 20(a) and
(b).
The influence of changes in the number of clicks of
bleed orifice is evident for both cases: increasing speed
and changing of road profile. During simulations, the
value of RMS decreases as clicks on the rod selector
diminishes. These changes are significant at high-speed
regimens and for roads with high irregularities; the
maximum variation is close to 8% corresponding to
road class type E and a velocity of 80 km/h. However,
to evaluate the influence of bleed orifice on damper per-
formance, it is necessary to compare the RMS obtained
Figure 19. Sprung mass acceleration for 5, 10 and 15 clicks on
the rod selector. Road profile type (A); (a) 20 km/h, (b) 60 km/h
and (c) 120 km/h.
Table 7. Root mean square (RMS) at different velocities, road
profiles and bleed valve configurations.
Velocity
(km/h)
Rod
clicks
Road profile (%)
ABCDE
20 5 0.028 0.049 0.087 0.165 0.309
10 0.031 0.056 0.099 0.173 0.327
15 0.034 0.061 0.105 0.181 0.332
60 5 0.036 0.061 0.112 0.217 0.400
10 0.043 0.069 0.117 0.220 0.418
15 0.046 0.075 0.124 0.222 0.424
80 5 0.046 0.079 0.172 0.328 0.596
10 0.049 0.081 0.176 0.339 0.638
15 0.049 0.091 0.179 0.341 0.659
120 5 0.048 0.084 0.157 0.291 0.542
10 0.055 0.091 0.163 0.308 0.567
15 0.061 0.098 0.169 0.314 0.581
Chaco
´n Ferreira et al. 13
for each damper configuration during the same signal
inputs. Therefore, after analysing the results obtained
from Table 4, the lowest magnitude of RMS is obtained
for a configuration of 5 clicks corresponding to the
configuration with highest damping force; for this rea-
son, a comparison between RMS results of 5 clicks is
carried out with respect to 10 and 15 clicks.
RMS results at different road class and for the
same velocity show that maximum difference in RMS
was 28% corresponding to the simulation at 60 km/h
and road profile type C. This difference decreases
between the configurations (5, 10 and 15 clicks) as the
variation on the profile road grows. For all cases
(road profiles and velocities of simulations), the var-
iation at E profile does not exceed 8%. Also, RMS
results at different speed regimens and for the same
road profile show that maximum difference obtained
was 30% corresponding to the simulation at 60 km/h
and road profile type C. In this case, RMS difference
between the configurations (5, 10 and 15 clicks)
decreases as the variation in the profile road grows.
For both comparatives, RMS differences decrease for
increasing speed, where variations between configura-
tions clearly indicate that variations are inversely pro-
portional to the speed of vehicle.
Conclusion
This work presents a new damper model based on
Talbott’s model. The novelty of the proposed model is
that it takes into account the influence of the bleed ori-
fice area for both rebound and compression strokes.
The bleed orifice area changes for each configuration
of rod and gas bottle selectors, where the setting of
each selector can be done separately. The estimation of
this area is carried out through GAs using experimental
data for different damper configurations. Results show
that the proposed model has a better accuracy in com-
parison with Talbotts’s model. The enhancement per-
cent with respect to Talbott’s model is obtained with
errors as function of time, displacement and velocity.
Errors are reduced with a mean value of 21%, 20%
and 24%, respectively.
The combination of both, proposed model and
quarter-car simulation, allow us to analyse the influ-
ence of bleed valve area in the vehicle dynamics. The
results show that the acceleration of the sprung mass
diminishes as the number of clicks in the selector rod
decreases. The reason of the sprung mass acceleration
changes is due to the variation in the damping force
generated by damper with each tested configuration.
The effect of changes in the bleed orifice area can affect
the sprung mass acceleration about 20%. For all cases
of quarter-car simulation, lowest values of the PSD of
sprung mass acceleration were obtained by the shock
absorber with the lowest number of clicks on rod selec-
tor corresponding to 5 clicks. By contrary, highest
value of PSD were obtained for the configuration of 15
clicks. The maximum difference between those config-
urations was 60% corresponding to the road class E
and velocity of 120 km/h.
Declaration of conflicting interests
The author(s) declared no potential conflicts of interest with
respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this
article.
Figure 20. RMS value in function of velocity for 5, 10 and 15
clicks on the rod selector. Road profiles: (a) ISO A, (b) ISO C
and (c) ISO E.
14 Advances in Mechanical Engineering
Funding
The author(s) received no financial support for the research,
authorship, and/or publication of this article.
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