Proceedings of the Institution of Mechanical

Engineers, Part C: Journal of Mechanical

Engineering Science
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Design and test of annular discharge orifice of shock transmission unit

Liang Jie
Proceedings of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers, Part C: Journal of Mechanical Engineering Science 2014 228:
1391 originally published online 8 October 2013
DOI: 10.1177/0954406213507703

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Original Article

Proc IMechE Part C:

J Mechanical Engineering Science
Design and test of annular discharge 2014, Vol. 228(8) 13911397
! IMechE 2013

orifice of shock transmission unit Reprints and permissions:

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DOI: 10.1177/0954406213507703
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Liang Jie

Abstract
The annular discharge orifice is a key parameter for the design of a shock transmission unit (STU). The proper dimension
of the annular discharge orifice can make the stiffness difference of STU maximum in different conditions. Making use of
three laws of fluid mechanics, the mathematical model for designing annular discharge orifice was developed. The STUs
were subjected to the slow movement test, the fast movement test and the simulated dynamic test. During the slow
movement test, the resistance force does not exceed 10% of the nominal rated force; during the simulated dynamic test,
the deflection between the point of zero load and the point of maximum load does not exceed 12 mm, and the deflection
during the sustained load portion of the test does not exceed 12 mm; during the fast movement test, the force can
maintain the nominal rated force. The validity of the mathematical model is verified by these testing, and the mathem-
atical model can instruct the design of annular discharge orifice of STU.

Keywords
Shock transmission unit, silicone-based putty, annular discharge orifice, design, test

Date received: 12 March 2013; accepted: 10 September 2013

Introduction rstly to establish the mathematical model for design-

The shock transmission unit (STU) is developed for
structural protection, and its structure looks like vis-
cous damper. However, their operate mode is dier-
ent. The viscous damper decreases the shock eect by
means of passive energy dissipation, while the STU
decreases the shock eect by means of increasing the
path of force transmission. The STU can be regarded
as a binary stiness link, and its stiness changes
along with the relative velocity between the structure
components. When the relative velocity is slow, the
stiness of the STU is very small, so it cannot produce
harmful restriction to resist the structure normal
movement, such as thermal movements, creep and
shrinkage. On the contrary, when the structural mem-
bers suer braking, seismic, storm or other sudden
applied loads, the STU can provide a temporary
rigid link to realize the energy distribution. Due to
the characteristic, the STU is widely used in the eld
of structural protection, like bridge,15 building2 and
so on. The layout of the STU can be seen in Figure 1.
The research about the STU focuses on the antiseis-
mic application and the antiseismic analysis.68 But
the concerned knowledge of design work for the
STU is lacking,3 especially about the design of annu-
lar discharge orice. The purpose of this study was
ing of annular discharge orice, and then the test of
STU was carried out. The test results indirectly verify
the validity of the mathematical model.
The design of annular discharge orifice
The orice style of the STU may be annular discharge
only, restrictor orice only, or a combination of both.
The silicone-based putty was chosen as the owing
medium in the study, so the annular discharge orice
was used in design of the STU.3
The cutaway drawing of the STU is shown in
Figure 2. As the piston moves in the cylinder lled
with silicone-based putty, the silicone-based putty
ow from one side of the piston to the other by annu-
lar discharge orice. The silicone-based putty is a non-
Newtonian uid, which oers ease of movement
School of Mechanical Engineering, Zhengzhou University, Zhengzhou,
China
Corresponding author:
Liang Jie, School of Mechanical Engineering, Zhengzhou University,
Zhengzhou 450001, China.
Email: liangjie812@163.com

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1392 Proc IMechE Part C: J Mechanical Engineering Science 228(8)

under slowly applied load and yet exhibits excellent
resistance to ow when at rest. The STU can achieve
the change of the stiness, which is just making use of
annular discharge orice to control the rheological
behavior of the silicone-based putty. Therefore, the
annular discharge orice is a key design parameter
of STU. The proper dimension of the annular dis-
charge orice can make the stiness dierence of
STU maximum in dierent conditions.
The parameters of the mathematical model for
designing of annular discharge orice can be seen in
Figure 3.
When the load applied to the STU from zero to the
rated value, the distribution of the pressure in the
cylinder will obey Pascal Principle. The nominal
load of the STU in this study is 200 kN. According
to the constraint conditions such as the maximum
working pressure of the seal components, the strength
of the piston rod material and so forth, the values of
the r, Ri and L are 25 mm, 43 mm and 10 mm, respect-
ively. The pressure in the cylinder can be expressed as
F F
p 2
1
SP Ri  r2

Figure 1. The application and layout of the STU. STU: shock transmission unit.

Figure 2. The cutaway drawing of the STU. STU: shock transmission unit.

Figure 3. The parameters for mathematical model.

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Jie
Where SP is the area of piston and F is the nominal
load of the STU.
The annular discharge orice are dened as
d RO  Ri
Then the applied force in the cross section of the
annular discharge orice is expressed as follow
FC 2Ri dp
According to equation (3), the shear stress of the
silicone-based putty in the annular discharge orice is
given by
FC dp
S
4Ri L 2L
Assuming that the silicone-based putty is incom-
pressible, the volume ow rate generated by the
piston movement is equal to the volume ow rate in
the annular discharge orice. Namely,
SP vP SC vC
Based on equation (5), the average ow velocity of
the silicone-based putty in the annular discharge ori-
ce can be obtained as
SP 1  f 22
vC vP vP
SC 2f1
Where f2 Rri , f1 Rdi , SC is the area of the annular
discharge orice, vP is the velocity of the piston.
Because of the value of the annular discharge ori-
ce and the value of the velocity of the piston are
much smaller than the radius of the piston and the
average ow velocity of the silicone-based putty in the
annular discharge orice, respectively, the ow of the
silicone-based putty in the annular discharge orice
can be approximately considered as pressure-driven
ow between parallel plates. The velocity prole v is
parabolic (see Figure 3), and the maximum ow vel-
ocity can be written as
vmax 1:5vC
Therefore, the shear rate is expressed as
dv 3vC
0
dy RO  Ri
And then another expression of the shear stress of
the silicone-based putty in the annular discharge ori-
ce is given by
F  0
where  is the viscosity of the silicone-based putty.
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1393
When the STU is fast movement, it must meet the
following requirement:
S 4F 10
2
When the STU is in slow movement, it must meet
the following requirement:
S 5F 11
3
Combining the above two sets of inequations, the
expression of the annular discharge orice can be
expressed as follows:
s s
6LS vCS 6LF vCF
4d4 12
4 pS pF
Where S ,vCS and pS are the viscosity of the silicone-
based putty, the average ow velocity of the silicone-
based putty in the annular discharge orice and the
pressure in the cylinder when the piston moves slowly,
respectively; F ,vCF and pF are the viscosity of the
5 silicone-based putty, the average ow velocity of the
silicone-based putty in the annular discharge orice
and the pressure in the cylinder when the piston
moves fast, respectively.
According to the application of bridge enhance-
ment for Da-Qin Heavy Haul Railway, the velocity
vP is 0.005 mm/s when the STU moves slowly, the
6 velocity vP is 0.2 mm/s when the STU moves fast.
The viscosity of the silicone-based putty under dier-
ent shear rate is acquired by dynamic frequency
sweeps. A parallel-plate rheometer (TA Instrument
AR2000ex) was used to conduct the test. The testing
temperature was at 25 C, the diameter of the parallel
plate is 8 mm and the thickness is set as 0.6 mm.
Figure 4 shows the complex viscosity versus angular
frequency. Making use of cross model
  b=a  b 1
 d to t to the experimental
1c 
data, and it can be seen in Figure 4. The standard
error of one tting curve is 7.61 and the other is
7.741, which are both smaller than 20, so the tting
is reasonable.
7 The computational process for the value of the
annular discharge orice depends on iterative
method. For the STU prototype, rstly, it is assumed
that the value of the annular discharge orice is
0.5 mm. When the piston moves slowly, the vP is
8
0.005 mm/s and the F is 20 kN. When the piston
moves fast, the vP is 0.2 mm/s and the F is 200 kN.
According to equation (1), equation (6), equation (8)
and Figure 4, the value of pS , vCS and S are 5.2 MPa,
0.143 mm/s and 140,000 Pa.s, respectively. And the
value of pF , vCF and F are 52 MPa, 5.72 mm/s and
9 42,400 Pa.s, respectively. Finally, substituting these
values and the value of L into equation (12), the
result 0:5 2 0:48, 0:53 will be obtained, so the
1394 Proc IMechE Part C: J Mechanical Engineering Science 228(8)

Cross
a: zero-rate viscosity: 50440 Pa.s
b: infinite-rate viscosity: 0.01547 Pa.s
c: consistency: 0.03255 s
5 d: rate index: 0.9722
10
standard error: 7.741
Cross
a: zero-rate viscosity:
||(Pa.s)

1.226E9 Pa.s
b: infinite-rate viscosity:
4 41950 Pa.s
10 c: consistency:
1.740E6 s
d: rate index: 0.7652
standard error: 7.614

3
10
0.01 0.1 1 10 100
ang. frequency(rad/s)

Figure 4. Complex viscosity versus angular frequencies at 0.05% strain amplitude.

q
hypothesis is correct. If d 5 6LpSSvCS , the next iteration
should increase the value of the annular discharge ori-
q
ce. If d 4 6LpFFvCF , the next iteration should decrease
the value of the annular discharge orice.

The test of the STU

According to the aforementioned mathematical
model, the dimension of the annular discharge orice
can be taken as 0.5 mm. Based on the value, the STU
prototype was developed. The slow movement test
(refer to AASHTO LRFD Bridge Construction
Specications (3rd ed, 2010)), the fast movement
test, the simulated dynamic test (refer to AASHTO
LRFD Bridge Construction Specications (3rd ed,
2010)) and the velocity-resistance test were carried
out on the STU prototype. These tests were con-
ducted with MTS high-force servohydraulic test sys-
tems model 311.31. The testing of the STU is shown in
Figure 5 (at 25 C).
The displacement control diagram of the slow
movement test is shown in Figure 6(a), and the experi-
mental result can be seen in Figure 6 (b). As can be
seen from Figure 6(b), the force does not exceed
20 kN (the requirement of AASHTO LRFD Bridge
Construction Specications is 10% of the nominal
rated force). Figure 7(a) shows the force load diagram
of the simulated dynamic test, and Figure 7(b) shows
the displacement versus time in the simulated dynamic
test. From Figure 7(b), it is observed that the deec-
tion between the point of zero load and the point of
maximum load does not exceed 12 mm (the require-
ment of AASHTO LRFD Bridge Construction
Specications is 12 mm) in either the initial loading
stage or in the force reversal stage, and the deection Figure 5. Testing of the STU prototype. STU: shock trans-
during the sustained load portion of the test also does mission unit.

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Jie 1395

(a) 6
(b)
10
4
Displacement (mm)

Force (kN)
0 0

4
10

6
0 1000 2000 3000 4000 0 1000 2000 3000 4000
Time (s) Time(s)

Figure 6. Slow movement test for the 200 kN STU. (a) Displacement control diagram. (b) Force monitoring curve. STU: shock
transmission unit.

(b) 10
(a) 200
8

100
Displacement (mm)

6
Force (kN)

0 4

2
100
0

200
2
0 2 4 6 8 10 12 14 0 2 4 6 8 10 12 14
Time (s) Time (s)

Figure 7. Simulated dynamic test for the 200 kN STU. (a) Force load diagram. (b) Displacement monitoring curve. STU: shock
transmission unit.

not exceed 12 mm (the requirement of AASHTO displacement versus time in the simulated dynamic
LRFD Bridge Construction Specications is 12 mm). test. From this gure, it is observed that the deection
In other words, the STU can become a rigid connec- between the point of zero load and the point of max-
tion under the action of shock. The displacement con- imum load does not exceed 12 mm in either the initial
trol diagram of the fast movement test is shown in loading stage or in the force reversal stage, and the
Figure 8(a), and the experimental result of the fast deection during the sustained load portion of the test
movement test is shown in Figure 8(b). From Figure also does not exceed 12 mm. All testing results of two
8(b), it can be seen that the force can maintain the prototypes show the validity of the mathematical
value of 200 kN. model.
At the same time, in order to further check the The velocity-resistance testing of the 200 kN STU at
validity of the mathematical model, we develop eight dierent velocities (0.01 mm/s, 0.02 mm/s,
another prototype which has 300 kN nominal rated 0.05 mm/s, 0.1 mm/s, 0.2 mm/s, 0.5 mm/s, 1 mm/s,
force. The velocity of slow movement and fast move- 2 mm/s) were carried out to reveal the relationship
ment are 0.01 mm/s and 0.3 mm/s, respectively. between the velocity and the resistance. The results of
According to the mathematical model, the value of these tests are shown in Figure 11. According to the
the annular discharge orice is taken as 0.6 mm. The measured value, the tting curve can be expressed as
experimental result of the slow movement test is
shown in Figure 9. As can be seen from this gure, F 320  v0:48 13
the force does not exceed 30 kN. Figure 10 shows the

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1396 Proc IMechE Part C: J Mechanical Engineering Science 228(8)

(a) (b) 200

45

30
100
Displacement (mm)

15

Force (kN)
0 0

15
100
30

45
200

0 200 400 600 800 1000 0 200 400 600 800 1000
Time (s) Time (s)

Figure 8. Fast movement test for the 200 kN STU. (a) Displacement control diagram. (b) Force monitoring curve. STU: shock
transmission unit.

30

20

10
Force (kN)

10

20

30
0 1000 2000 3000 4000
Time (s)

Figure 9. Force monitoring curve in slow movement test for Figure 11. The relationship between the velocity and the
the 300 kN STU. STU: shock transmission unit. resistance.

When the piston velocity is 2 mm/s, the shear rate will

attain 341.6. In that case, the storage modulus will
exceed the loss modulus, and the silicone-based
14
putty is predominantly elastic. Therefore, the resistant
12 force will have a rapidly increase at 2 mm/s.
10
Displacement (mm)

8
Conclusions
6

4 The annular discharge orice is a key parameter for

2
the design of a STU. In this study, we establish the
mathematical model for designing of annular dis-
0
charge orice. Based on the model, we design a
-2
STU prototype. The slow movement test, the fast
-4 movement test and the simulated dynamic test were
0 2 4 6 8 10 12 14 carried out on the STU prototype. These testing
Time (s) results show the validity of the mathematical model.
If the nominal load of the STU is changed, both
Figure 10. Displacement monitoring curve in simulated the diameters of the rod and piston should change in
dynamic test for the 300 kN STU. STU: shock transmission order to ensure the pressure in the cylinder is same.
unit. The aim of this doing can decrease the design variable.

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Jie 1397

Besides, the maximum of the velocity of the slow
movement and the minimum velocity of the fast
movement need to be made clear based on the appli-
cation environment.
Declaration of conflicting interest
None declared.
7. Xu G and Yan WM. Improvement of analytical model
on lock-up devices for long span continuous girder
bridge. J Disaster Prev Mitigation Eng 2007;
27(Suppl.): 292296.
8. Wang ZQ and Ge JP. Application of viscous damper and
Lock-up devices in the seismic design of continuous
girder bridges. J Shi Jiazhuang Railway Inst 2006; 19:
59.

Funding
This research received no specic grant from any funding
agency in the public, commercial, or not-for-prot sectors. Appendix 1
Notation
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