Engineering Design of a Shock Absorber Using Finite Element Analysis

             

 

A shock absorber was designed using finite element analysis. The absorber is intended for use as a connecting attachment between chassis and lower arm of a car as a steel column, which will allow load to be carried on a two end holes. The shock absorber was analyzed with FEA, and adaptive analysis was used to ensure accurate results. Two design variables. The diameter of a spring cross section and the upper mount of the Damper, wereconsidered for design. The part was optimized to minimize mass with a limit on allowable stress to prevent yielding of the material in service. A final adaptive analysis was performed to verify that the stress for the optimized shape is accurate.

                                                                Model with Spot-weld

Deformed spot weld comparing with beam

                              Here we assembled two dampers and spring in which they met at non-mated surface, with a Spot weld which used to enforce compatibility at the interface. Here we estimate a small contact region on both the damper and the spring and then use a spot weld between the two contact regions created between damper and spring without doing a detailed analysis. a contact surface is located on the damper and the spring as shown in the following figure and a spot weld  has been created between them.  The figure shows how the local surface area has been created on both the damper and the spring. A spot weld was used to connect the two localized regions. All the material properties have been assigned and a load of 1000lbs has been applied to check the deformation and a static analysis is carried out on the shock absorber. The Damper had been constrained on the other end. Analysis was carried out, Run was completed without any errors and the max stress in the model was 2.137e+03. The deformed shape of the assembly is shown in the figure. The deformed assembly with beam elements is also shown in the figure, the scale was too small to visualize in the picture. Figure shows the comparison between the solid elements of the assembly and beam elements of the assembly.