The Shock Absorber Handbook 2e (Wiley-professional Engineering Publishing Series)

Excellent

A pretty exhaustive look at dampers with one glaring omission - the discussion of the ratio of compression to extension damping force is woefully inadequate. Dixon refers to this as "damper asymmetry". Dixon provides a variety of hypotheses and concludes "to the author, the explanations given above are tentative at best." This reader concurs. It was this very question that prompted me to buy this supposedly authoritative book, so the complete lack of any credible discussion of how to optimize the degree of asymmetry in various applications is a serious omission.

Do not buy this book if you want to tune the suspension of your race car, or if you are looking for brand-name recommendations. This is an engineering book, full of information that will be as true in 20 years as it was when the shock absorber (damper) was invented. But if you do read the book, you will be well equipped to to read the data sheets and the understand manufacturer's claims when doing those projects.The history of dampers is well presented here. A lot of thought has gotten us where we are; lots old ideas that may again become new. The central theme is of the forces generated by a damper and how they can be controlled. The single most important concept is that simple hydraulic damping is governed by Bernoulli's principle, and that no amount of manual adjustment will keep it from being too soft on slow motions and too stiff of sharp motions. Much of the book describes the various progressive valving schemes used to corrected this, which made the modern "self adjusting" damper available in the 50's.In some ways the book is too practical; the cutaways of used dampers add little. And I wish a deeper analysis was made of compliant (usually rubber) damper mountings, which are not just a necessary detail but an important part of the damper function.

A comprehensive and readable review of vehicle-suspension dampers, different types and theoretical analyses. This includes not only why dampers are necessary but why different damping characteristics are needed for different applications and vehicle speed potentials. What it doesn't cover is the practical way dampers are chosen and "tuned" to particular vehicles. See "Car Suspension and Handling" Fourth Edition for some outline explanation of such practical issues.

Graet book, very deep in to theory