Originally Posted by BobW

Increasing the volume of the chamber above the bladder would reduce the pressure change in the air chamber above the shock bladder. Try it and see what happens. Doubtful you will see much change though.

If I remember correctly from the shock dyno testing that the RC3 model was validated against the performance difference between a vented and unvented shock cap was negligible. That is why I didn't include it in the model. The pressure in the chamber just doesn't change that much. In full scale gas pressurized shocks the purpose of the pressurized nitrogen is to increase the operating pressure of the shock to avoid the shock oil from vaporizing on the low pressure side of the piston when moving at high speed. When that happens the oil turns into an emulsion of oil and oil/air bubbles which makes the normally incompressible oil into a compressible one. Not a good thing normally but then the offroad guys depend on that happening in their shocks to provide the volume compensation needed.