Bulletin of the Transilvania University of Braşov

Series I: Engineering Sciences • Vol. 6 (55) No. 2 - 2013

CFD PREDICTION OF THE FLOW INSIDE

THE DAMPER BY THE USE OF LES
MODEL

M. DIUDEA1 V. HODOR1 R. BĂLAN1 M. BARA1

Abstract: There are two sources that contribute to the definition of the
excitation spectrum in the privacy of the dynamic behavior of the suspension
level. One of the case concerns with the induced due to the asperities effect of
the tread in contact with the tire. A second source of disturbance comes from
the turbulence effect coming from the vehicle shell aerodynamic
imperfection. The analysis refers to the behavior of fluid flow within the
damper, at the interstitial area of the passage and the pilot floating pill. For
this it was necessary that the area of interest to be treated in an unsteady
regime, with moving wall and deformable mesh.

Key words: vehicle rolling, damper, flow, CFD, LES, deformable mash,
spectral analyze.

1. Introduction system is to use the semiactive suspension

system. The semiactive suspension system
Normally, vehicle suspension is used to offers a desirable performance generally
attenuate unwanted vibrations from various enhanced in the active mode without
road conditions. This can be accomplished requiring large power sources and
by employing suspension system. So far, expensive hardware [1].
three types of suspension system have been Vehicle shock absorber design involves
proposed and successfully implemented; an analysis of the flow through the
passive, active, and semiactive. The telescope accurately by CFD prediction.
passive suspension system featuring oil When driving vehicles, there are two
damper provides design simplicity and sources that contribute to the definition of
cost-effectiveness. However, the the excitation spectrum in the privacy of
performance limitations are inevitable the dynamic behavior of the suspension
owing to the lack of controllability. level. One of the case concerns with the
The active suspension system provides induced due to the asperities effect of the
high-control performance in wide tread in contact with the tire.
frequency range. However, this type may A second source of disturbance comes
require high-power sources, many sensors, from the turbulence effect coming from the
servovalves and sophisticated control vehicle shell aerodynamic imperfection.
logic. One way to resolve these This accurate analysis of the flow
requirements of the active suspension conditions inside damper, is imposed by

1
Dept. of Mechanisms, Precision Mechanics and Mechatronics, Technical University of Cluj-Napoca.
8 Bulletin of the Transilvania University of Braşov • Series I • Vol. 6 (55) No. 2 - 2013

the mixed effect coming from the pattern, discharge coefficients, and
compressibility changes in the fluid flow pressure distribution for various shock
and the reaction of the spring spacer. This absorber components on the “A Shock
spring runoff opposing fluctuating Absorber Model Using CFD Analysis and
demands, continuous modify the position Easy5” Herr, F., Mallin, T., Lane, J., and
of a pilot pill floating in relative positions Roth, S., SAE Technical Paper 1999-01-
more or less close (eights) to the holes 1322, 1999 [4].
manufactured to in the piston to pass/join Present studies, involves the monitoring
the two damper chambers. of the continuous variation in terms of
Accuracy in pressure reading, imply to pressure (force resisting) related to the
identify specific spectrum at monitoring relative positioning of the piston
points distributed in the critical flowing (depending on the specific down force).
path (constrained at: compressibility changes Shock absorbers play a role in the
and dynamics of the flow reversal), was suspension of the car, the main function is
possible only with the use of LES model. to reduce vibration damper body and the
In this paper, it is shown only the wheel, thereby maintaining a firm and
research on specific CFD approach, constant contact between wheel and road.
following that in the second, to present the Working principle of the hydraulic
technique of processing pressure values/ damper is based on the transformation of
strengths, monitored in critical areas. mechanical energy into thermal energy of
Shock absorbers play a role in the oscillation. Most dampers are double
suspension of the car, the main function is acting, working in both directions near the
to reduce vibration damper body and the front wheel, the body opposes less
wheel, thereby maintaining a firm and resistance, and that the removal of
constant contact between wheel and road. bodywork wheels oppose more resistance,
Working principle of the hydraulic to cushion vibrations. At the same time this
damper is based on the transformation of is accomplished by maintaining a contact
mechanical energy into thermal energy of with the ground.
oscillation. The state of art in hydraulic In building a car, correct dimensioning
damper is a major issue in the Vehicle of package spring-Shock has a great
System Dynamics, as it is to be seen in importance. When passing over a bump,
papers like: Valve performance can be the energy resulting from motion
predicted by coupling the valve deflection compression is stored in the spring. It will
with CFD pressure results. try to release by extension, the energy
This technique involves sequential stored in compression. This phenomenon
geometry and simulation updating, while would produce body movements,
varying both the geometry and flow-rate. movements that would lead to the
The valve deflection is calculated by post- destabilization of the vehicle.
processing the pressure distribution" from Driving will become unsafe and
“Investigation of Damper Valve Dynamics uncomfortable. Behavior of the spring-
Using Parametric Numerical Methods” damper package is designed depending on
F.G. Guzzomi, P.L. O’Neill and A.C.R. several parameters: the weight of the
Tavner, 16th Australasian Fluid Mechanics vehicle, driving conditions, gauge, axle
Conference Crown Plaza, Gold Coast, spacing, the comfort that you need to meet
Australia 2-7 December 2007 [3]. this class of vehicle. In order to increase
Herr et al. made a CFD component safety in running vehicles, many
analysis showing unique features of flow researches have been conducted in the
Diudea, M., et al.: CFD Prediction of the Flow inside the Damper by the Use of LES Model 9

field, and also there were developed many

applications that allow determining the
response of the suspension to a specific
external stimulus.

2. Description of Principle of Operation

of the Damper

Behavior of the spring-damper package

is designed depending on several
parameters: the weight of the vehicle,
driving conditions, gauge, axle spacing, the
comfort that you need to meet this class of
vehicle. In order to increase safety in
running vehicles, many researches have
been conducted in the field, and also there
were developed many applications that
allow determining the response of the
suspension to a specific external stimulus.
In Figure 1 is represented schematic Fig. 1. Conceptual design for a double
diagram of the hydraulic damper chamber damper [2]
telescopic-pipe. In the course of detente,
the liquid from the top of the piston is To simplify the operation of the damper
compressed and sent the rebound valve on can define four modes: low speed and high
the bottom. speed piston plunger for each stage
The value generated by the piston at the compression or rebound. In low speed flow
bottom is greater than the volume of liquid regime due to slow movement of the
pushed down, the rod coming out of the piston, the fluid flow is not large enough to
tube volume. The difference is added to the force the valve open clearing. Thus, at the
liquid in the compression chamber (the relaxation phase, all the fluid flows
space between the tube and the inner tube through the piston, and through the valve
tank) that penetrates through the intake openings compensation.
valve. This occurs due to the depression At the stage of compression due to the
created in piston and air cushion in the shutter plate located on the piston, some of
upper chamber of compensation. the holes are blocked, leading to reduced
In the compression stroke, under surface hat route. The second case is when
reciprocating fluid communication passes high-speed, where the compression phase
through the valve at the top of the tube. A of the compensation valve is open. The
part of the liquid (equal to the volume rod relaxation phase, it allows the passage of
inserted into the tube) through the large quantities of fluid, due to the
compression valve in compensation increased surface area of passage.
chamber. The tube is used to protect the
piston rod and the ring to seal the piston. 3. Method of Study
Calibrated orifice that controls the
viscous resistance of the liquid to drain its The four operating modes of shock,
slits are made in the form of disks or varies depending on the remoteness or
directly in piston valves. proximity to the body of the wheel, and the
10 Bulletin of the Transilvania University of Braşov • Series I • Vol. 6 (55) No. 2 - 2013

compression of the damper or constructive combined effect with the behavior of the
relaxation natural elements. Professional spring spacer. This spring runoff opposing
code ANSYS CFX is useful for studies in fluctuating demands, continuous modify
which it wants to capture the effect of the position of a pilot pill floating in
changing the damping coefficient to relative position more or less close (eights)
change the direction of travel of the piston. to the holes manufactured to pass the front
Consider the case of a low speed travel of face of the piston. To simplify the
the piston, when the critical speed is not simulation, the piston was considered fixed
exceeded, so the compression valve passes and floating ring is considered mobile,
only the amount of liquid required volume which is pressed by a spring piston with an
compensation piston rod. This study being elasticity coefficient ka.
necessary for a properly sized hole in the In sectioning plane of the piston are
piston or rings calibrated. For the present only four 1 mm diameter holes,
simulation model was used silencer in 3D, two of which are closed by floating ring,
which is represented in Figure 2. where it is in contact with the piston.
The mash was performed following areas
of interest, i.e. the interstitial space
between the holes in the piston and
floating ring to highlight the fluid
dynamics and pressure of the field and hit
on him, forcing the piston on the distance.
All this is happening because the floating
ring moves relative to the piston, and it
was necessary to use a dynamic mesh
witch are represented in Figure 3 and
Figure 4.
The dynamic mesh model uses the
ANSYS FLUENT solver to move
Fig. 2. Definition of the interest boundaries and/or objects, and to adjust
the mesh accordingly. The dynamic mesh
Present studies, involves the monitoring model is used when boundaries move
of the continuous variation in terms of rigidly (linear or rotating) with respect to
pressure (i.e. force resisting) related to the each other With respect to dynamic
relative positioning of the piston meshes, the integral form of the
(depending on the specific down force). conservation equation for a general
This sequential analysis of flow conditions scalar, ϕ, on an arbitrary control volume
(at the certain changing interstitial fluid V, whose boundary is moving can be
compressibility) is required by the written as:

d   
dt V  dV  V (u  ug ) d A  V  d A  V S d V , (1)


where ρ is the fluid density, v - the flow Here ӘV is used to represent the
velocity vector, ug - the mesh velocity of boundary of the control volume V.
the moving mesh, Γ - the diffusion The time derivative term in Equation (1)
coefficient, Sϕ - the source term of ϕ. can be written, using a first-order
Diudea, M., et al.: CFD Prediction of the Flow inside the Damper by the Use of LES Model 11

backward difference formula, as follows: Equation (2) can now be expressed as

follows:
d (V ) n 1  (V ) n
V  d V  , (2)
dt t d [() n 1  () n ]V
 d V  . (6)
d t V t
where n and n+1 denote the respective
quantity at the current and next time level. 4. Problem Description
The (n + 1) the time level volume Vn+1 is
computed from: In this problem it has been used -
modeling a moving wall on a tank. The
dV assumption that the wall motion is known
V n 1  V n  t , (3)
dt will be made and supplied to the CFX in a
comma separated value (CSV) format Set-
dV up. The geometry was generated with two
where is the volume time derivative of bodies combined in one part. The one
dt
the control volume. domain, hereafter called the port, is the
In order to satisfy the mesh conservation domain where the mesh is going to be
law, the volume time derivative of the deformed because of the moving wall.
control volume is computed: The other domain is the tank to which
the fluid is being ejected. The mesh in this
 nf region will not be deformed. So we move
dV along to opening the mesh file in CFX and
  u g  d A   u gj  A j , (4)
dt V
j we begin by changing it over to a transient
run. The next step would be to opening the
where nf is the number of faces on the control Default Domain and in the panel change
volume and A j is the j face area vector. the Mesh Deformation option to Regions
of Motion Specified.
The dot product ug  j  A j on each The next step is to create a sub-domain for
control volume face is calculated from: the port region under the Default Domain. In
the sub-domain panel, select the port region
V j for the location and move over to the Mesh
u gj  A j  , (5) Motion tab. It was used a specified mesh
t motion using ccl. In the current case the
motion is in the z-direction, specifying a
where Vj is the volume swept out by the name of the ccl expression Mesh Motion
control volume face j over the time step Δt which was define next. A key point is going
[5].
to be used is that we want to compress the
In the case of the sliding mesh, the mesh in the entire domain evenly to maintain
motion of moving zones is tracked relative the best quality mesh we can.
to the stationary frame. Therefore, no
moving reference frames are attached to
Defining a temporal functions from CSV file
the computational domain, simplifying the
flux transfers across the interfaces. In the Assuming that it is known the movement
sliding mesh formulation, the control of the wall, we are going to read it in using
volume remains constant, therefore from a CSV file.
dV Then the data should be a function of
Equation (3), and Vn+1 = Vn. time. We import it as a spatial variable. We
dt
12 Bulletin of the Transilvania University of Braşov • Series I • Vol. 6 (55) No. 2 - 2013

have changed it over when we define our interest and shutter blade movement under
cell expressions. the action of fluid pressure (see Figure 6).
The next step is to change the spatial
function into a temporal one. We have
done this by creating an expression called
Mesh Deformation. We have then defined
this as Specified Motion. Displacement (t *
1 m / 1 s) * Stroke Distance. Note we will
define Stroke Distance later.
First we generated a function that should
be used to make sure we compress the
entire sub-domain evenly. We do this by
generating a user-function we will call
Interpolation Location. We put unit of [m]
in the Argument Units and for the
Resulting Units. For the one-dimensional
function we will supply the data pairs 0, 0 Fig. 3. Generic mesh
and 4, 1. We do this because the port mesh
at 0 [m] will not be deformed and the port
mesh at 4 m will deform the full amount
we will specify (my port is 4 m long).
Next we create our Mesh Motion
expression. For this we define it at Mesh
Deformation * Interpolation Location (z-
Total Mesh Displacement Z). Note the
Interpolation Location is the function we
just defined and Total Mesh Displacement
Z is the predefined expression that outputs
the total mesh displacement in the z-
direction relative to the initial mesh. We
defined the Mesh Deformation expression
earlier. Fig. 4. Mesh detail
The final expression we need to define is
the Stroke Distance. We simply define this
through a ccl expression to be –4 m. The
negative sign indicates that displacement
will be in the –Z direction.
In order to perform simulations there
were fixed the conditions of motion of the
piston (i.e. input and output constrains) as
an alternating movements of the fluid
being sinusoidal velocity variation with a π
phase shift between input and output (see
Figure 5).
In the simulations were performed
several sets of initial data to see the
variation of the flow rate in areas of Fig. 5. Simulation settings
Diudea, M., et al.: CFD Prediction of the Flow inside the Damper by the Use of LES Model 13

Fig. 6. Root mean square Fig. 7. Speed spectrum

5. Conclusions

The design of the suspension should be

taken into account the need to maintain
contact with the road surface. Damper
must face the relatively high frequency
excitations and relatively small amplitude,
excitations from the type/quality of runway
roughness. Also suspension must face
MORE promptly to such stress in steps
(impact). On the other hand, the quality of
the suspension is appreciated through the
way in which attenuates vibrations from
body aerodynamics effect when running at
high speeds.
Fig. 8. Pressures spectrum
After analyzing the results it was
observed that for small displacements of
the piston and due viscosity working fluid,
solid shutter delay moves to the piston
design which imposes a fine passage of
surface area in relation to surface area is
covered by slide the compression phase
(see Figures 7-9). This directly implies the
significant improvement of the ride
comfort and the steering stability of the
vehicle system.
The results presented in this work are
quite self-explanatory justifying that the
proposed control methodology is very
effective for vibration isolation of the
suspension system subjected to parameter
variations and external disturbances. Fig. 9. Pressures spectrum
14 Bulletin of the Transilvania University of Braşov • Series I • Vol. 6 (55) No. 2 - 2013

Acknowledgments Fluid Flow Analysis of a Disc Valve

System. In: Journal of KONES Power
Authors gratefully acknowledge the Train and Transport 18 (2011) No. 1,
financial support of the National PN-II-PT- p. 118.
PCCA 2011-3.2.0512, 2012, 2015 for the 3. Guzzomi, F.G., O’Neill, P.L., Tavner,
“EQUATOR” “Advanced strategies for A.C.R.: Investigation of Damper Valve
high performance indoor Environmental Dynamics Using Parametric Numerical
Quality in Operating Rooms”. Methods. In: 16th Australasian Fluid
Mechanics Conference Crown Plaza,
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Semictive Suspension Control using Shock Absorber Model Using CFD
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