Shock Absorber Systems

The Shock Absorber system models a conventional shock absorber and the bushings at the top and bottom of the shock.

The system has is modeled with two rigid bodies, a rod and a tube. Force in the shock is modeled using the spring damper element in MotionView. Forces generated by the shock are normally a function of the velocity between the two bodies. Shock data is normally measured on a shock dynamometer. Shock absorber force is normally non-linear and the extension direction normally generates more force than the compression direction. A wide variety of shock forces can be described using the expression builder and the force element found in the shock absorber system.
Figure 1.


The shock absorber resolves into two different joint types based on the selection in the Assembly Wizard.

Shock Absorber with Inline Joints

The inline joints represent the joints at the piston to tube location and at the rod to top of tube location.
Figure 2.


Shock Absorber with Cylindrical Joints

In a cylindrical joint type shock, the two inline joints are replaced with a single cylindrical joint and located at the top of the shock tube.
Figure 3.


Auto Damper

The AutoDamper is a force-velocity model designed to easily simulate a shock absorber used in ground vehicles. The damper force generated is positive during compression and negative during expansion.
Figure 4.