The Case for Shaft Displacement Damping and Shaft Displaced Fluid Power

Although we consider many ways to make better dampers, we continue to develop dampers that generate damping forces using fluid movement caused by shaft displacement. Since we lack adequate tools to precisely analyze dampers mathematically, incremental progress is driven by common sense and experience at the race track with racecars, engineers, and drivers.

This article is an overview of the relative benefits of a nitrogen-separator type remote-reservoir damper with external adjustments of compression forces at both high- and low-speed flows. We also present some examples of the use of the fluid power generated by shaft movement as a form of input to achieve an output response to another part of the suspension.