Numerical simulation of flow inside a shock absorber 2007-01-2709

This work presents a simulation of the oil flow inside a shock absorber using Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) techniques with the software ANSYS CFX. The main objective of this study is to evaluate the flow pattern inside the shock absorber in a fixed position, using one or more bleeds (oil flow passage) and to analyze the tolerance deviation effects of the bleed, comparing pressure and velocity fields when increasing or decreasing the dimension of the bleed. The model built was a 3D axi-symmetric part of the original shock absorber. To evaluate the pressure and velocity fields, three different tolerance deviation values were simulated: one with nominal size and two others with a fixed tolerance deviation. For all three models the same pressure level as inlet boundary condition was applied. The study presented a comparison between these results, in order to better understand the shock absorber flow field at the bleed region.