I. Basic Structure and Principle of Air Suspension
Air suspension is an advanced automobile suspension system that uses inflatable airbags as elastic elements. Its basic technical solution mainly includes two parts: air springs with compressed air inside and shock absorbers with variable damping. The air spring adjusts the elastic coefficient and suspension travel by inflating and deflating the airbags. The driver can manually adjust the height and stiffness of the air bag by issuing instructions through the control system such as the central control screen, and the reflection time of this complex adjustment process in the entire system is only tens of microseconds, which enables the air suspension system to respond promptly and appropriately to every tiny movement of the wheel.
II. The role of shock absorbers in air suspension
1. Damping adjustment
- Although air springs can adjust the elastic coefficient, air springs alone cannot fully and effectively control the vibration of the vehicle during driving. Shock absorbers play a key role in damping adjustment. When the vehicle is driving on an uneven road, the shock absorber suppresses the excessive expansion and contraction of the air spring through the damping force, thereby making the vehicle drive more smoothly. For example, when passing over speed bumps or potholes, the air spring will expand and contract due to the impact of the road surface. Without the damping effect of the shock absorber, the vehicle body may shake up and down excessively, affecting ride comfort and driving safety.
2. Energy absorption and dissipation
- During the driving process of the vehicle, the wheels will continue to be impacted by the road surface, and these impacts contain a lot of energy. The shock absorber can absorb and dissipate this energy to prevent it from being transmitted to the vehicle body. In the air suspension system, the air spring mainly provides elastic support, while the shock absorber is responsible for handling energy absorption and conversion. Without the shock absorber, the energy transmitted from the wheel to the vehicle body cannot be effectively processed, which will cause adverse phenomena such as resonance in the vehicle body, further affecting the vehicle's handling performance and ride comfort.
III. The difference between air suspension and traditional suspension in shock absorption requirements
1. Adjustment method of elastic coefficient
- The spring elastic coefficient of the traditional suspension system is generally fixed, while the air spring of the air suspension can automatically adjust the elastic coefficient according to different driving conditions. For example, when driving at high speed, the air suspension can become harder to improve the stability of the vehicle body; when driving at low speed for a long time, the air spring will become softer to improve the shock absorption comfort. Although the air spring has this adjustable advantage, it still needs shock absorbers to work together. The shock absorbers in the traditional suspension system are mainly to cooperate with the springs with fixed elastic coefficients, while the shock absorbers in the air suspension must adapt to the dynamic changes of the air springs.
2. The relationship between vehicle height adjustment and shock absorption
- The air suspension also has the function of chassis lifting. When driving at high speed, the height of the vehicle body is automatically lowered to improve the ground performance, ensure good high-speed driving stability and reduce wind resistance and fuel consumption; when passing through bumpy roads at a slow speed, the chassis automatically rises to improve the passing performance. In this process, the role of shock absorbers is still indispensable. Because no matter how the height of the vehicle body changes, the vibration generated during the vehicle driving process requires shock absorbers to effectively damp the vibration to ensure the stability of the vehicle body.
IV. Conclusion
In summary, air suspension requires shock absorbers. Air springs and shock absorbers each play an irreplaceable role in the air suspension system. Only when the two work together can the air suspension system achieve better handling limits, ride comfort and the ability to cope with various driving conditions.