Advanced approaches to flow visualisation techniques for vehicle damper performance and safety enhancement

Flow visualisation techniques have become indispensable tools for evaluating vehicle dampers and enhancing performance and safety in automotive engineering applications. Although useful for fundamental performance parameters, conventional methods, such as pressure transducers and displacement measurements, offer limited insight into the internal fluid flow dynamics. To rectify this deficiency, advanced flow visualisation techniques such as Particle Image Velocimetry (PIV), Laser-Induced Fluorescence (LIF), and Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) simulations provide a more comprehensive and detailed examination of internal fluid dynamics, vortex generation, turbulence, and cavitation phenomena within dampers. This study presents a comparative assessment of experimental and computational flow visualisation techniques, highlighting their contributions, practical applications, and limitations in damper development. This study emphasises that integrating these techniques into the development pipeline enhances ride comfort, handling, and overall vehicle safety.