Analysis of pressure drop and response characteristics of an enhanced radial magnetorheological valve based on magneto-fluidic coupling

Abstract

To analyze the pressure drop characteristics of MR valves more realistically, a simulation method of coupling electromagnetic field and flow field was proposed in this paper. An enhanced radial MR valve with radial and annular compound paths was proposed, and its structure and working principle were also elaborated. Next, the mathematical equation of pressure drop was established using the non-Newtonian constitutive model of MR fluid Bingham-Papanastasiou. The dual physical model was completed by the sequential coupling way based on Maxwell equation and Naiver stokes equation. The distribution law of electromagnetic field and flow field in the process of mutual coupling was numerically simulated by COMSOL software. Furthermore, a series of pressure drop and response characteristics tests were performed for the proposed MR valve. Through the experimental analysis, it could be seen that the pressure drop and response time of the MR valve hardly change with the applied load and flow rate, while the pressure drop increases significantly and the dynamic response time basically decreases with the augment of the applied current. At an excitation current of 1.6 A, the maximum pressure drop of the experiment and simulation was 4.46 MPa and 4.84 MPa, respectively. Consequently, all the maximum relative errors were less than 7.9 %.