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Vehicle suspension systems are designed keeping in mind the requirement for vehicle articulations and load transfer between chassis & tires. Another factor which is given due importance is the avoidance of extremities with end cushions. As such extremities result in generation of impact loads which could eventually lead to failure of end cushions and the vehicle chassis. Number of occurrences of these extremities is an indication of how good a vehicle suspension design is. This paper presents a methodology developed that converts a shock absorber to a potential sensor, that not only measures the travel and velocity, but also the different kind of loads generated at different events. It includes instrumentation, data acquisition and its analysis for evaluating the performance of the shock absorber and also to provide additional insights into its design.

Ride comfort and handling present conflicting requirements on damping properties of a suspension system. While ride comfort demands a softer damping, a higher damping force makes the ride handling better. Conventional dampers, being solely velocity dependent, are always a compromise between these two requirements. A damper can be made position sensitive, in addition to its velocity dependence, in order to obtain the best of both the worlds. A position-sensitive damper can have a softer damping force for low amplitude road excitations, as observed on highways and a higher damping force for higher amplitude road excitations, as observed in off-road conditions. Thus such a damper can be optimized not only for a good comfort, but for a good handling performance also. General designs for a position sensitive damper involve a bypass arrangement around the piston. This paper discusses an alternate arrangement for achieving position sensitive damping and its benefits.