Design, modelling and testing of a novel high-torque magnetorheological damper

Abstract

To provide sufficient damping torque performance for heavy tracked vehicle’s suspensions, the design of a novel high-torque rotary magnetorheological (MR) damper with a parallel plate channel, referred to as PPCRMRD, is presented and the prototype of the PPCRMRD is manufactured. The theoretical model of the PPCRMRD considering the Hybrid magnetic fields effect and leakage effects is proposed. The max damping torque and controllable damping torque of the PPCRMRD are tested on the established experimental setup based on MTS rotary test system and compared with the theoretical results based on the proposed theoretical model, the theoretical model ignoring leakage effect and Bingham plastic model respectively. Under the sinusoidal excitation of 0.05 Hz and amplitude of 35°, compared with the theroetical model without considering the leakage gap and the Bingham plastic model, the maximum error of the proposed model is reduced by 11.08% and 40.66%. The tested max damping torque and controllable damping torque of the PPCRMRD under sinusoidal excitation with an amplitude of 35° and frequencies of 0.1 Hz are as high as 2677 and 1711 N m. The research results show that the principle of the PPCRMRD can provide sufficient damping torque as well as a wide range of controllable damping torque and the proposed theoretical model of the PPCRMRD can describe and predict its damping torque performance precisely.