For the Georgia Tech Senior Design capstone project, a group of 6 of us built a shock dynamometer targeted towards university and grassroots motorsports teams. Shock dynamometers in the current market are, at a minimum, $10,000, making it almost impossible for teams to purchase one. The final prototype was designed and built for under $1,000, while providing the necessary information for teams to make design decisions for their suspension system.

 

The system was built using a motor and flywheel system, with a linkage that sinusoidally puts the shock in rebound and compression. The test data is output live to a MATLAB script that can be accessed easily by the user, allowing them to analyze the condition of the shock, as well as the damping characteristics. This allows motorsports teams to make tuning adjustments and other design decisions to optimize the performance of the car.