Shock Absorbers: A Shock Absorber Is A Mechanical or A Hydraulic Device Designed To Absorb and Damp Impulses

Shock Absorbers
A shock absorber is a mechanical or a hydraulic device designed to absorb and

damp impulses.Shock absorbers, more properly called dampers, are mounted
alongside (or inside) the springs at each corner of the vehicle. A shock absorbers job
is to provide resistance to the movement of the spring. Technically speaking, it does
this by taking some of the energy that is being used to compress the spring and
turning it into heat. So whether the vehicle is bouncing up or down from a bump in
the road, that motion is held in check by the shock absorber, and once again some of
the kinetic energy released by the spring is changed into heat by the shock absorber.
This conversion of energy keeps the vehicles body from bouncing more than once or
twice, providing a controlled ride and helping to keep the vehicles tires safely in
contact with the ground.
The gravity of the situation

Strangely enough, despite their name, shock absorbers don’t absorb shocks. In
reality, that is the job of the springs in a vehicle’s suspension system. As a wheel
encounters a bump, the wheel moves upward, compressing and storing the energy
of the bump into the spring. This compression is actually what absorbs the shock of
the bump.
But now that the spring is compressed, it contains potential energy that must be
released. The spring does this by bouncing back to its original uncompressed length,
at the same time pushing the vehicle’s body upward. In an example of the old adage
“what goes up, must come down,” gravity pulls the weight of the body back down,
re-compressing the spring. If the shock absorbers are worn, the vehicle ends up
bouncing its way down the road after every bump until all of the energy is used up.
In the worst cases, this bouncing can actually pull a vehicle’s tires off the ground,
making the vehicle uncontrollable.
How do shock absorbers work?

If you have ever waved your hand back and forth through water, then, in principle,
you know how a shock absorber works. The resistance to motion you feel with your
hand changes with speed – the faster you move your hand, the more energy it takes
to push against the resistance of the water.
A shock absorber works much the same way. Inside the shock absorber there’s a
piston that moves inside a tube that is filled with oil. As the piston moves, the oil is
forced through tiny holes and valves within the piston, precisely controlling the
amount of resistance to movement. This resistance to the motion converts the
energy into heat. (Yes, a shock absorber that has been doing its job over a rough
road does get warm!)
Although there have been many different designs for shock absorbers over the
course of automotive history, today there are four basic types available:
 Twin-tube
 Mono-tube
 Gas-filled mono-tube
 External reservoir
Sometimes these types of shock absorbers are incorporated into a strut-type

suspension that uses the shock absorber as part of the spring support, but the basic
principles still apply.
Twin-tube shocks
The twin-tube design is the most common and often the least expensive. These are
the ordinary shock absorbers that typical passenger cars and trucks use, and they are
widely available at car dealerships, auto parts stores and repair facilities. As the
name implies, in a twin-tube shock, there are two actual tubes – one the outer shock
body and the other an inner cylinder in which the piston moves. Tiny holes or orifices
in the piston as well as special valves between the inner and outer tubes restrict the
flow of oil to control wheel motion.
The limitations of twin-tube shocks become apparent when they are used over very
bumpy roads. In this case, the rapid motion of the piston can cause the oil to
overheat and to foam, reducing the shock absorber’s ability to control wheel motion.
The result is a ride that becomes increasingly sloppy, especially when traveling over a
washboard surface. Heavy-duty twin-tube shock absorbers are usually stronger, with
more robust piston shafts and mounting points, and they may use oils that are more
resistant to foaming, but ultimately they still have the same limitations.
Mono-tube shocks
The heat generated in the twin-tube shock tends to get trapped within the walls of
the shock absorber body, reducing its effectiveness in controlling wheel motions. The
mono-tube shock absorber uses a piston traveling within a single tube that is
exposed more directly to the air. The general advantages and disadvantages of this
design are:
 By getting rid of heat more easily, mono-tube shocks are less susceptible to
overheating on rough roads.
 They are more expensive to manufacture, and the tolerances must be higher
and the seals better to keep the oil inside the shock body.
Gas-filled mono-tube shocks

To prevent foaming and bubbles in the oil, which degrades shock-absorber
performance, a gas-filled mono-tube shock has a chamber of high-pressure nitrogen
above the oil chamber. This high-pressure gas makes it difficult for bubbles to form
in the oil, even when the shock absorber moves in and out very quickly, as it might
while traveling rapidly on a very rough or washboard road.
Gas-filled shocks are expensive, since they require strict manufacturing tolerances,
but they are very resistant to fade and consequently are popular in off-road racing
and rallying. Gas-filled shocks, by the way, are not the same as “air shocks,” which
use an air chamber separate from the shock oil. An air shock is actually an air spring
that raises or lowers the vehicle when air is added or removed through a valve.
External reservoir shocks

The top of the line in shock absorbers is the external-reservoir design. These shocks,
primarily designed for ultra-high performance and racing applications, use a small,
lightweight shock body that is connected through a hose to a reservoir of oil
mounted in a different part of the vehicle. The goal of an external reservoir shock is
to:
 Reduce the weight at the wheel for better handling

 Provide better cooling for the oil in the reservoir
 Provide significant air space within the reservoir so that the hot oil can
expand without blowing out seals
 Allow superb adjustability as the oil flows to and from the shock body
External reservoir shocks are very expensive and are really only needed in extreme
high-performance applications.

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Shock Absorbers

A shock absorber is a mechanical or a hydraulic device designed to absorb and

The gravity of the situation

How do shock absorbers work?

Sometimes these types of shock absorbers are incorporated into a strut-type

Gas-filled mono-tube shocks

External reservoir shocks

 Reduce the weight at the wheel for better handling

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