The Outer Performance Degradation of Shock Absorber and Its Effect on Ride Comfort and Driving Safety

Based on the well-known quarter car representation of the automobile suspension,this paper deals with the effect of shock absorber outer performance degradation(OPD)on vehicle ride comfort and driving safety.Based on an elastici-ty model of a flat circular plate having a central hole,a program for the determina-tion of shock absorber outer performance(SOP)has been developed. Based on a hy-drodynamic theory,principles for the inter performance design of shock absorbers are presented to ensure expected SOP and the concept of critical velocity for the pre-vention of OPD is studied.By analysing the mechanism of degradation,a method for the elimination of shock absorber degradation is offered for practical structural design,i.e,the structural design of dual-tube gas charge shock absorbers.A good deal of experimental data,are presented to prove the theoreticaly studies.