Vibration testing and dynamic modeling of automotive shock absorbers

This paper is a continuation of previously presented research work involving the dynamic characterization of automotive shock absorbers (1). The objective was to develop new testing and analysis methodologies for obtaining equivalent linear stiffness and damping of the shock absorbers for use in CAE-NVH low- to- mid frequency chassis models. It is well known that a hydraulic actuated elastomer test machine is not suitable for testing shocks in the mid-to-high frequency range where the typical road input displacements fall within the noise floor of the hydraulic machine. Hence, initially in this project, an electrodynamic shaker was used for exciting the shock absorbers under displacements less than 0.05 mm up to 500 Hz. Furthermore, instead of the swept sine technique, actual road data were used to excite the shocks. Equivalent linear spring-damper models were developed based on least-squares curve-fitting of the test data. The type of road profile did not influence the stiffness and damping values significantly for the range of amplitudes and frequencies considered. The success of the characterization of shock absorbers on the electrodynamic shaker using non-sinusoidal input has led to the development of a similar methodology to be employed on the hydraulic actuated elastomer test machine.