A Study on the Outside Adjustable Damper of Hydro-Pneumatic Suspension for Vehicles

A new outside adjustable damper is developed. The characteristic of the outside damper can be controlled by operating on the adjustable valve. The working principle, elements construction and valve behaviors of the developed valve are studied. The damping characteristics is studied depending on the continuity equation, and differential equations of motion, as well as Bernoulli equation and others. The valve parameters influence on the damping characteristic is studied by simulation. A new numerical model of the outside adjustable damper is built up. The results of both simulation and test on the bench are compared. The result shows that the developed outside adjustable damper can be adjusted on three stages. It can meet the requirement of the dynamic characteristic of the vehicle suspension system. Also, the simulation results tallies well with the test results on the bench, it indicates that the new numerical model is suitable for the developed damper.