Bypass Rotary Magnetorheological Damper for Automotive Applications

Abstract

A novel concept of bypass rotary Magneto-rheological (MR) damper is studied in the automotive suspension application. The proposed design is developed based on a vane-type damper structure with an MR control valve located outside of the damper. The design is intended to enhance the ease of maintenance and to reduce the thermal effect from the coil to the MR fluid. The valve is the key component of the damper that exploits the advance characteristics of MR fluid in which have sensitive rheological properties to magnetic field. The ability of the valve to modify the strength of magnetic field has given an advantage that the valve can be operated without any moving parts. The elimination of these parts in the throttling mechanism of the valve will provide benefit in terms of product lifetime and responsiveness. The main objective of this paper is to elaborate the advantages of the bypass rotary MR damper and to demonstrate the damper performance through force-velocity characteristics. The analytical model of the damper is developed and used in the determination of the force-velocity curves and the equivalent damping coefficients.