This document is a project report submitted by five students at Symbiosis Skills and Open University in partial fulfillment of their B.Tech in Automobile Engineering. The project analyzes shock absorbers through modeling a quarter car suspension system in MATLAB Simulink. The report includes an introduction outlining the objectives to study suspension parameters and their effects. It also provides a literature review on shock absorbers and their importance for vehicle safety, stability, and comfort. The project was conducted from May to July 2019 focusing on simulation.
This document is a project report submitted by five students at Symbiosis Skills and Open University in partial fulfillment of their B.Tech in Automobile Engineering. The project analyzes shock absorbers through modeling a quarter car suspension system in MATLAB Simulink. The report includes an introduction outlining the objectives to study suspension parameters and their effects. It also provides a literature review on shock absorbers and their importance for vehicle safety, stability, and comfort. The project was conducted from May to July 2019 focusing on simulation.
This document is a project report submitted by five students at Symbiosis Skills and Open University in partial fulfillment of their B.Tech in Automobile Engineering. The project analyzes shock absorbers through modeling a quarter car suspension system in MATLAB Simulink. The report includes an introduction outlining the objectives to study suspension parameters and their effects. It also provides a literature review on shock absorbers and their importance for vehicle safety, stability, and comfort. The project was conducted from May to July 2019 focusing on simulation.
This document is a project report submitted by five students at Symbiosis Skills and Open University in partial fulfillment of their B.Tech in Automobile Engineering. The project analyzes shock absorbers through modeling a quarter car suspension system in MATLAB Simulink. The report includes an introduction outlining the objectives to study suspension parameters and their effects. It also provides a literature review on shock absorbers and their importance for vehicle safety, stability, and comfort. The project was conducted from May to July 2019 focusing on simulation.
This is to certify that the project work embodied in this report entitled, “ANALYSIS OF SHOCK ABSORBER” submitted by students of second year. For the award of in house internship in the subject of Automobile Engineering, is a work carried out by them under my guidance and supervision within the institute. The work described in this project report is carried out by the concerned students and has not been submitted for the award of any other than SSOU, Kiwale.
Further, it is to certify that the students were regular during the academic year and have worked under the guidance of concerned faculty until the submission of this project work at the Symbiosis Skills and Open University.
NAME PRN
ARISH SYED 1700501038
VIKAS GUPTA 1700501052
KHOZEMA KADIANI 1700501017
VIRAJ BHOR 1700501052
DANISH INAMDAR 1700501014
__________________ ___________________ Signature of the Guide Signature of Vice-Chancellor (Dr. Vaijanti Deshpande) (Dr. Charudutta Pathak) Student Declaration
We, the students involved in this in-house internship project (namely: Khozema Kadiani,
Danish Inamdar, Arish Syed, Viraj Vhor and Vikas Gupta) hereby declare, that the project
work entitled “ANALYSIS OF SHOCK ABSORBER” submitted to the Symbiosis Skills and Open
University is a record of an original work done by us under the guide of Dr. Charudutta
Pathak, Vice-Chancellor and Dr. Vaijanti Deshpande, professor in Department of
Mechatronics and this project work is submitted in the partial fulfillment of the
requirements of the degree of B.Tech in Automobile Engineering .
The results embodied in the thesis have not been submitted to any other university or
institute for the reward of any degree or diploma.
Acknowledgement
This project is an outcome of a great deal of dedication, hard work, enthusiasm and
commitment of an industrious team without which this project could not have been brought
into book.
First and foremost, I offer my sincere gratitude to Dr. Charudutta Pathak and Dr. Vaijanti
Deshpande for their whole-hearted support, encouragement, guidance and valuable input
they provided us, without it, this work would not have been possible.
In all successful work, a lot of people work behind the curtains whose contribution cannot
be neglected. Here we would like to express gratitude to all the respondents, my friends and
all the connected persons who directly or indirectly supported us in this work and guided it
towards its completion.
We wish to express our gratitude to the whole staff of the Automobile department for their
co-operative & considerate approach and wish to thank the university for giving us a great
opportunity to grasp knowledge.
Furthermore, we would like to extend my heartiest thanks to the parents who stood beside
us as a wall and protecting us from every problem and gave us all the support by which we
were able to complete this project
Preface
The main objective of any automobile engineering student is to get as much practical
knowledge as possible. Being able to have knowledge on how to perform analysis on an
automobile system is vital for working in the industry. We are thankful to have such an
opportunity to learn.
Through the development of the project, we had a great experience of various strategies
that are applied in development of projects. Completing the project helped us know more
about the concepts of suspension. Working with other team members taught us the
importance of cooperation, coordination, and synergy.
We are pleased to present this project. We have taken proper care while organizing the
project so it may be easy to comprehend. We hope you will find our project report
interesting. All constructive criticism and feedback is cordially invited.
Index
Chapter Title of the Chapter/s
Chapter 1 Introduction
1.1 Introduction of the project title
1.2 Objectives of the study
1.3 Background of the study
1.4 Period and Scope
1.5 Significance of study
Chapter 2 Literature review
Chapter 3 Suspension Mechanism Modelling
3.1 Design of suspension mechanism
3.2 MATLAB model
3.3 Quarter car suspension model used
Chapter 4 Data Result
Chapter 6 Conclusion
1, Introduction
This project aims to analyze a suspension model and the various parameters considered in
their design.
Our aim was to study these parameters and the effects in changes of these parameters to
changes in the suspension system with respect to performance over a standard bump.
Typically, these parameters are: spring stiffness, damping coefficient, un-sprung and sprung
mass.
The suspension model we have chosen is a shock absorber. A shock absorber is made up of
a spring coiled around a damper. The ends of the damper are connected to the chassis and
the wheel knuckle. We have chosen this model as it is quite widely used in the industry and
is simple, easy-to-understand and duplicate.
Invented by Maurice Houdaille in 1907, the shock absorbers were a revolution in the
automobile and transport industry, with Houdaille’s equipment (now called rotary/lever
arm shock absorbers) becoming standard on the immensely popular Ford Model A in 1927.
Various improvements and evolutions have been made in the system but the principle
largely remains the same, a hydraulic device designed to absorb and damp shock impulses
to the chassis, and ensure maximum contact of wheels to the ground. It does this by
converting the kinetic energy of the shock into another form of energy (typically heat) which
is then dissipated. Hence, it is quite important to understand, in depth the characteristics to such a vital system
of the industry; which we hope to have done in this project.
The study was conducted from 27 May 2019 to 27 July 2019, focusing on the simulation of a
quarter car suspension system. We have used MATLAB Simulink, MSc. Adams View and
Adams Car for this purpose due to their simplicity and accuracy, along with ease in making
required changes to the systems.
Literature Review
A shock absorber is defined as a device on a vehicle, especially a car or an aircraft, that
reduces the effects of travelling over rough ground or helps it to land more smoothly.
Most vehicles now employ vertical telescopic shock absorbers over Houdaille’s lever arm
shock absorber. The telescopic shock absorber dissipates heat more effectively, owing to its
larger working volume of fluid and also the better ratio of surface area to fluid volume. In
most suspension systems they come paired with a spring, which is what we have analysed
here.
1927 Ford Model A 1999 Mitsubishi Eclipse
The major benefits of employing a shock absorber are: - safety, stability, and comfort. Their major role in vehicle safety is to provide steering stability and complete vehicle safety.
Thanks to them, our cars do not veer to the sides when it is windy and have no trouble
stopping. Proper shock absorbers provide the capacity required to control the car and can
reduce about twenty percent of a vehicle’s stopping distance.
Another important role of shock absorbers is stability. They boost the friction between car
tires and road, enabling car stability on the road. If streets, highways and country roads
were perfectly flat, then shockers wouldn’t be necessary. But even recently paved roads
have subtle flaws that apply forces to the wheel, causing it to move up and down. Without
shock absorbers, all the vertical energy of wheels will shifts to the frame of the vehicle. This
can thus cause for the wheels to lose contact with the road surface for a moment and then,
due to gravity, slam back onto the road.
Comfort is the most common thing associated with shock absorbers. Since the invention of
the first car, the challenge of enhancing passengers’ comfort was a major part of the
manufacturing process. This is why absorbers were invented. Their job, apart from providing
vehicle stability, is to ensure the comfort of all passengers. They reduce the magnitude of
vibratory motions due to various road imperfections to provide a smooth and comfortable
ride.
Driver comfort is also an important criterion to consider for any automobile system. This is
mainly defined by the ISO standards.
Vibration intensity Comfort estimation
<0.315 m/s2 Not uncomfortable
0.315 -0.63 m/s2 A Little Uncomfortable
0.5 -1.0m/s2 Fairly Uncomfortable
0.8 -1.6 m/s2 Uncomfortable
1.25 -2.5 m/s2 Very Uncomfortable
>2 m/s2 Extremely Uncomfortable
Source: ISO 2631 Standard
With our project we aim to help understanding of how to optimize the parameters of the
suspension system to best meet these requirements.
Suspension System Modelling
The software we have chosen for the purpose of modelling our system in has primarily been
MATLAB, along with industry used MSc Adams. The reason for the choice was the ease of
modelling the suspension system with knowledge of required equations, as well as the
optimized graphs and data that can be extracted. Furthermore, functionality can be greatly
expanded by the addition of toolboxes. These are sets of specific functions that provided
more specialized functionality which we have taken advantage of in Simulink.
The governing equations of quarter car suspension can be represented by equations of
motions: -
Where:
xS = Vehicle body motion,
xu = Wheel body motion,
xr = Road velocity,
kS, kt = Suspension & Tire spring rates respectively,
cS, ct = Suspension & Tire damping respectively.
Parameter Value
Sprung Mass 160 kg
Un-sprung Mass 60 kg
Spring Stiffness 15280 N/m
Damping Coefficient 1385 Ns/m
These parameters were put into the Simulink model shown above, and the results were
taken from the scope graphs.
Data Results
The data procured from the program was extensively analysed, yielding the results
mentioned below.
The given conditions are: Displacement of 10 mm, given with a frequency of 0.477 rad/sec
in a sinusoidal wave.
In all graphs, the blue line is the standard value of the parameter; red line represents an
increase in the parameter’s standard value with a factor of ten and the black line represents
a decrease in the parameter’s standard value by a factor of ten.
All graphs contain data of displacement (mm) vs time (sec).
For the case of damping coefficient, the values are as follows: -
Line Type Parameter Value
Blue Line 1385 Ns/m
Red line, dashed 13850 Ns/m
Black line, dotted 138.5 Ns/m
Damping Coefficient In case of spring stiffness: -
Line Type Parameter Value
Blue Line 15280 N/m
Red line, dashed 152800 N/m
Black line, dotted 1528 N/m
Spring Stiffness And in the case of sprung mass: -
Line Type Parameter Value
Blue Line 160 kg
Red line, dashed 1600 kg
Black line, dotted 16 kg
Sprung Mass Conclusions
The results of the analysis presented in this paper enabled us to consider the effects of the
parameters in a suspension on the resultant behaviour of the quarter car suspension model.
It was found that changes in the suspension parameters have the following effect: -
The driving comfort was decreased as spring stiffness was increased for excitation
frequencies close to resonant frequencies of the system body.
Within the zone of resonant frequency of sprung mass, the deformation amplitudes
were increased as spring stiffness increased.
Higher shock absorber damping values provided better oscillatory comfort for the
driver at excitation frequencies close to the resonant frequency of the system body.
At excitation frequencies above resonance frequency, the shock absorber with lower
