A New Generic Model for Adaptive Shock Absorbers

Adaptive shock absorbers improve the ride quality by changing the damping characteristic depending on road excitation. An adjustable bypass valve allows to switch between different force characteristics. This paper introduces a new generic damper model which uses a modular damping function (MDF) to adapt the resulting force output through position-, stroke- and frequency-dependent adjustments. The piston motion is used to determine the shock absorber’s basic force and the state-dependent force difference, which results from the adjustable bypass. In contrast to established modeling approaches that are used for digital performance predictions in the early stage of the development process, MDF includes both the maximum and the minimum force characteristic, thus allowing the implementation of adaptive shock absorbers. Few additional parameters are required to specify both hysteresis and the adjustable bypass effect. In later stages, measurement data can be used to fit the model quality to the increasing maturity level of the described shock absorber.