If shock absorbers are meant to absorb shock, why do we drive slower through pot holes?

Question

If shock absorbers are meant to absorb shock, why do we drive slower through pot holes?

In: Engineering

Answer 1

One hard blow (above the material’s elasticity, and already in the plastic deformation range) will break them immediately, but they can take hundreds of thousands small blows in the elastic range before the material wears out eventually.

So you’re better off driving slowly over potholes since you won’t know how hard the blow on your absorbers will be.

Source: I’m a mechanical engineer specialised in material science and technology