Cause–effect relationship between model parameters and damping performance of hydraulic shock absorbers

Despite long-term research and development of modern shock absorbers, the effect of variations of several crucial material and model parameters still remains dubious. The goal of this work is therefore a study of the changes of shock absorber dynamics with respect to typical parameter ranges in a realistic model. We study the impact of shim properties, as well as geometric features such as discharge coefficients and bleed orifice cross section. We derive cause–effect relationships by nonlinear parameter fitting of the differential equations of the model and show digressive and progressive quadratic damping curves for shim number and thickness, sharp exponential curves for discharge coefficients, and leakage width, as well as a linear decrease of damping properties with bleed orifice area. Temperature increase affecting material properties, such as density and viscosity of the mineral oil, is found to have a mostly linear relationship with damping and pressure losses. Our results are not only significant for the general understanding of shock absorber dynamics, but also serve as a guidance for the development of specific models by following the proposed methodology.