Shock absorbers are mechanical devices that smooth out shock impulses and dissipate kinetic energy. They commonly take the form of a cylinder with a sliding piston inside filled with fluid or air. Shock absorbers are an important part of vehicle suspensions, absorbing energy from bumps in the road to provide improved ride quality and comfort. They allow vehicles to use softer springs while still controlling excessive suspension movement. Shock absorbers are also used in aircraft, machinery, bridges, and buildings to reduce vibration and absorb resonant energy.
Shock absorbers are mechanical devices that smooth out shock impulses and dissipate kinetic energy. They commonly take the form of a cylinder with a sliding piston inside filled with fluid or air. Shock absorbers are an important part of vehicle suspensions, absorbing energy from bumps in the road to provide improved ride quality and comfort. They allow vehicles to use softer springs while still controlling excessive suspension movement. Shock absorbers are also used in aircraft, machinery, bridges, and buildings to reduce vibration and absorb resonant energy.
Shock absorbers are mechanical devices that smooth out shock impulses and dissipate kinetic energy. They commonly take the form of a cylinder with a sliding piston inside filled with fluid or air. Shock absorbers are an important part of vehicle suspensions, absorbing energy from bumps in the road to provide improved ride quality and comfort. They allow vehicles to use softer springs while still controlling excessive suspension movement. Shock absorbers are also used in aircraft, machinery, bridges, and buildings to reduce vibration and absorb resonant energy.
Shock absorbers are mechanical devices that smooth out shock impulses and dissipate kinetic energy. They commonly take the form of a cylinder with a sliding piston inside filled with fluid or air. Shock absorbers are an important part of vehicle suspensions, absorbing energy from bumps in the road to provide improved ride quality and comfort. They allow vehicles to use softer springs while still controlling excessive suspension movement. Shock absorbers are also used in aircraft, machinery, bridges, and buildings to reduce vibration and absorb resonant energy.
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Shock absorber
INTRODUCTION
A shock absorber or damper is a mechanical device designed to
smooth out ordampshock impulse, and dissipatekinetic energy.
Description
Pneumaticand hydraulic shock absorbers commonly take the form of
a cylinder with a slidingpistoninside. The cylinder is filled with a fluid (such as hydraulic fluid) or air. This fluid-filledpiston/cylinder combination is adashpot.
Explanation
The shock absorbers duty is to absorb or dissipate energy. One
design consideration, whendesigning or choosing a shock absorber, is where that energy will go. In most dashpots, energy isconverted to heat inside the viscous fluid. Inhydraulic cylinders,the hydraulicfluidwill heat up,while in air cylinders, the hot air is usually exhausted to the atmosphere. In other types of dashpots, such aselectromagneticones, the dissipated energy can be stored and used later. Ingeneral terms, shock absorbers help cushion cars on uneven roads.
Applications
Shock absorbers are an important part of
automobileandmotorcyclesuspensions,aircraftlanding gear,and the supports for many industrialmachines.Large shock absorbers have alsobeen used instructural engineeringto reduce the susceptibility of structures toearthquakedamage andresonance.A transverse mounted shock absorber, called ayaw damper,helps keeprailcarsfrom swaying excessively from side to side and are important inpassenger railroads, commuter railandrapid transitsystems because they prevent railcars from damaging stationplatforms. The success of passive damping technologies in suppressing vibration amplitudescould be ascertained with the fact that it has a market size of around $ 4.5 billion.
Vehicle suspension
In a vehicle, it reduces the effect of traveling over rough ground,
leading to improvedridequality,and increase in comfort due to substantially reduced amplitude of disturbances. Withoutshock absorbers, the vehicle would have a bouncing ride, as energy is stored in the spring andthen released to the vehicle, possibly exceeding the allowed range of suspensionmovement.Control of excessive suspension movement without shock absorption requires stiffer (higherrate) springs, which would in turn give a harsh ride. Shock absorbers allow the use of soft (lowerrate) springs while controlling the rate of suspension movement in response to bumps. They also,along withhysteresisin the tire itself, damp the motion of theunsprung weightup and down onthe springiness of the tire. Since the tire is not as soft as the springs, effective wheel bouncedamping may require stiffer shocks than would be ideal for the vehicle motion alone.Spring-based shock absorbers commonly usecoil springsorleaf springs,thoughtorsion barscanbe used intorsionalshocks as well. Ideal springs alone, however, are not shock absorbers assprings only store and do not dissipate or absorb energy. Vehicles typically employ both springsor torsion bars as well as hydraulic shock absorbers. In this combination, "shock absorber" isreserved specifically for the hydraulic piston that absorbs and dissipates vibration.
Structures
Applied to a structure such as abuildingorbridgeit may be part of
aseismic retrofitor as part of new,earthquake resistant construction.In this application it allows yet restrains motion andabsorbsresonant energy,which can cause excessive motion and eventualstructural failure. Types of shock absorbers
There are several commonly-used approaches to shock absorption:
Hysteresis of structural material, for example
thecompressionof rubberdisks,stretchingof rubber bands and cords,bendingof steelsprings,or twisting of torsion bars.Hysteresisis the tendency for otherwiseelasticmaterials to rebound with less force than wasrequired to deform them. Simple vehicles with no separate shock absorbers are damped,to some extent, by the hysteresis of their springs and frames. Dry friction used in wheelbrakes,by using disks (classically made of leather)at thepivot of a lever, with friction forced by springs. Used in early automobiles such as theFord Model T,up through some British cars of the 1940s. Although now consideredobsolete, an advantage of this system is its mechanical simplicity; the degree of dampingcan be easily adjusted by tightening or loosening the screw clamping the disks, and it canbe easily rebuilt with simple hand tools. A disadvantage is that the damping force tendsnot to increase with the speed of the vertical motion.
Solid state, tapered chain shock absorbers, using one or more
tapered, axial alignment of granularspheres, typically made of metals such asnitinol,in a casing.
Fluid friction, for example the flow of fluid through a narrow
orifice(hydraulics),constitute the vast majority of automotive shock absorbers. An advantage of this type isthat using special internal valving the absorber may be made relatively soft tocompression (allowing a soft response to a bump) and relatively stiff to extension,controlling "jounce", which is the vehicle response to energy stored in the springs;similarly, a series of valves controlled by springs can change the degree of stiffnessaccording to the velocity of the impact or rebound. Specialized shock absorbers for racingpurposes may allow the front end of adragsterto rise with minimal resistance underacceleration, then strongly resist letting it settle, thereby maintaining a desirable rearwardweight distribution for enhanced traction. Some shock absorbers allow tuning of the ridevia control of the valve by a manual adjustment provided at the shock absorber. In moreexpensive vehicles the valves may be remotely adjustable, offering the driver control of the ride at will while the vehicle is operated. The ultimate control is provided by dynamicvalve control via computer in response to sensors, giving both a smooth ride and a firmsuspension when needed. Many shock absorbers contain compressednitrogen,to reducethe tendency for the oil tofoamunder heavy use. Foaming temporarily reduces thedamping ability of the unit. In very heavy duty units used for racing and/or off- road use,there may even be a secondary cylinder connected to the shock absorber to act as areservoir for the oil and pressurized gas. Another variation is theMagneto rheologicaldamperwhich changes its fluid characteristics through anelectromagnet.
Compression of a gas, for examplepneumaticshock absorbers,
which can act like springsas the air pressure is building to resist the force on it. Once the air pressure reaches thenecessary maximum, air dashpots will act like hydraulic dashpots. Inaircraftlanding gearair dashpots may be combined with hydraulic damping to reduce bounce. Such struts arecalled oleo struts. Magnetic effects.Eddy currentdampers aredashpotsthat are constructed out of a largemagnet inside of a non-magnetic, electrically conductive tube.
Composite hydropneumatic devices which combine in a
single device spring action,shock absorption, and often also ride- height control, as in some models of theCitroënautomobile.
Conventional shock absorbers combined with composite
pneumatic springs with whichallow ride height adjustment or even ride height control, seen in some large trucks andluxury sedans such as certainLincolnand most Land Rover automobiles. Ride heightcontrol is especially desirable in highway vehicles intended for occasional rough roaduse, as a means of improvinghandlingand reducing aerodynamic drag by lowering thevehicle when operating on improved high speed road
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