Abstract: The viscoelastic elastomer flowing in a shock absorber has a strong viscoelasticity, and the oscillating flow models for simulating and studying a viscoelastic elastomer in the orifice and gap of shock absorber have been rarely reported. A fractional Maxwell model with quasi-property is proposed to study the oscillating flow of a viscoelastic elastomer shock absorber. According to the actual operating conditions of viscoelastic elastomer shock absorber during periodic reciprocating motion, the oscillating flows in both the orifice and gap of a shock absorber were simplified. The real-world initial and boundary conditions were set, and then the numerical solution of the fractional Maxwell model was obtained using the finite difference method. The velocity distributions at different oscillation frequencies and the influences of the parameters on the stress-strain rate curves were analyzed by comparing the fractional Maxwell model with the Newtonian fluid model. The simulated and experimental results indicate that the non-linearity and frequency dependence of the fractional Maxwell model are stronger than those of the Newtonian fluid model; the stress-strain rate distribution curves of the fractional Maxwell model are all elliptic for different parameters; and the ellipse major axes of stress-strain rate curves of the fractional Maxwell model are counterclockwise rotated as fractional order exponents α and β as well as quasi-state property dimensionless coefficient η increase. The proposed fractional Maxwell model can be used to successfully simulate and predict the shapes and changing trends of hysteretic curves, and the relative average error of energy absorption rate is 3.60%. Key

Key words: shockabsorber, fractionalMaxwellmodel, viscoelasticelastomer, oscillatingflow, numericalsolution