Simulation of a Shock Absorber

by Stephen Zaffiri

Submitted : Spring 2010

For this project an equation was used to model the effects of a shock absorber on a small car. For the model the car was moving at a velocity of 4 m/s and drove over a bump with a height of 0.1m. First the spring constant of the spring used on the shock was calculated. Then using Excel columns were created for the position of the vehicle (z), the position of the road surface (U(z)), and the time(t). From there central differencing and Euler’s method was used to calculate the vertical position of the car (x), the vertical velocity of the car (x’), and finally the vertical acceleration of the car (x’’) was derived. From there a system of guess and check was used to find a dampening coefficient that allowed the vertical acceleration to have a maximum value of 4m/s.

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