Design Process of suspension systems

Step 1: Decide the thickness of damper cylinder

Basic Assumptions:
1. Material: Structural Steel [ductile]
2. Maximum pressure inside cylinder: 53 MPa
3. Outside Cylinder diameter: 53 mm
4. Tensile stress of structural steel: 215 MPa
5. Poisson ratio: 0.29
For finding out inner diameter of cylinder, considering it as pressure vessel,
Max pressure > Cavitation pressure

Putting Do = 53 mm,
= 215 MPa
Pi = 53 MPa
= 0.29
we get, Di = 44 mm

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Now, Thickness of the cylinder,

Putting Do = 53 mm
Di = 44 mm
We get,

T = 4.5 mm

Step 2: Diameter of piston

Piston diameter = Inner cylinder diameter - 2
= 44 -2
= 42 mm
Therefore, Diameter of Piston = 42 mm

Step 3: Piston rod diameter

From literature survey about piston rod diameter, the usual piston rod diameter for mono
tube dampers is 25 mm.

Step 4: Estimation of Damping Force according to loading

The reference used for estimating damping force was Dictator Technik Selecting the
right damper.
The equation used for finding the damping force was,

Damping force =

]
[

]
[eqn 1]

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1. For finding out damping force, first you need to find Energy per stroke in N.m
Considering equation for inclined loading, energy per stroke is given by;

Energy per stroke, E = m*g*h + m*g*s

[eqn 2]

m = impact mass [kg]

g = acceleration due to gravity [m/s2] = 9.81
s = acceleration height [m]
h = damping distance [m]
In our case, impact mass, m = 200 kg [designing suspension for 200 kg load]
Acceleration height = 0 m
Damping distance = 0.04 sin 26 = 0.017 m
Putting the above values in equation, we get,
Energy per stroke = 34.40 N.m

2. Damper Correction Factor

For finding out the damper correction factor, the equation used was the one proposed by
Priestley in 2003.
The equation is,
DCF = [

]0.25

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For underdamped system, = 0.4

Putting it in above equation, we get DCF = 1.17
3. Stroke
From the literature survey about FZ suspension system, we found out the free length, i.e
180 mm.
We took the length of outer cylinder as 70 mm.
From this we calculated stroke = 40 mm

Putting all the values of 1,2 and 3 in equation of damping force, we get

Damping force =
= 1006.2 N
Considering 1010 N damping force.
Now, finding out the force due to gas pressure, which is given by the equation,

Fgas = Pgas * Arod

[Reference used is Damper basic calculations by KAZ technologies]
In mono tube damper, the gas filled in a gas chamber is nitrogen. The pressure ranges
between 50 70 psi.
Considering 70 psi, i.e. 4.823 bar
Arod =

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Arod =

= 0.000491 m2

Putting this in equation of Gas pressure force,

Fgas = 236. 62 N
Considering 240 N.
Therefore, total damping force considered for analysis in ANSYS is,
= 1010 + 240
= 1250 N

Step 5: Estimation of force acting on spring and finding out

stiffness of spring
Assuming 2000 N load acting on the suspension system and damping force = 1010 N and
force of gas = 240 N,
Load acting on spring = 2000 [

= 1260 N

Stiffness of the spring , K

Considering displacement of spring = 20 mm,

Stiffness of spring =

= 63 N/mm

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Step 6: Design of spring

1. Free length = 180 mm
2. Compressed length = free length
= 180 20
= 160 mm
3. Material: Cold drawn steel wire
4. Permissible Shear stress induced inside spring,
= 0.5 Sut
For cold drawn steel wire, Sut = 1050 N/ mm2
Therefore, = 525 N/mm2
5. Spring Index, C = 6 [Assumption]
6. Wahl Factor,

Kw =
Therefore, Kw = 1.2525
7. Mean coil diameter,
Permissible shear stress induced is also given by,

=
Putting values of Kw , P , C and , we get mean coil diameter,

d = 10 mm

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8. Mean diameter of spring

Spring Index is given by,

C=
Putting the values of C and d, we get D = 60 mm
9. No. of active coils
Deflection,

=
Putting the values of , P, D, d and G = 81370 N/mm2 for cold drawn wire, we get
number of active coils,
Nt = 8 (approx)
Assuming plane end spring,
No. of active coils = Total no of coils
Therefore, Inactive coils = 0
10. Solid length
Solid length = Nt * d = 80 mm
11. Gap
Total gap = compressed length solid length
= 160 80 = 80 mm
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Gap between 2 coils =

=
= 11.42 mm
12. Pitch

Pitch =

=
= 25.71 mm
Step 7: Selection of fluid for damper
We are going to select the fluid inside damper based on the viscosity of fluid that is
obtained from equation of laminar flow of fluid.
[Reference: fluid mechanics]
Damping force inside damper is given by,
F = (P1 P2) * A

Therefore, (P1 P2) =

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Equation of pressure difference for laminar flow is given by,

[eqn 3]

P1 P2 =

D = Equivalent diameter of flow

= Dynamic viscosity
l = length of the flow
Vavg = velocity of piston
Equivalent diameter,
4[

]=

D = 2d
Replacing value of D in equation 3, we get

P1 P2 =

Putting F = 1250 N, A = 0.00145 m2, Vavg = 2 m/s, l = 0.04 m , d = 0.01 m in above

equation we get viscosity,
= 0.45 Ns/m2
From this amount of viscosity Sasol oil damper 37 can be selected.
Datasheet of sasol oil damper]

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[ reference used-