Experimental investigation on the interaction between magnetorheological fluid damper and stay cable

Control devices can be used to dissipate the energy of a civil structure subjected to dynamic loading, thus reducing structural damage and preventing failure. Semiactive control devices have received significant attention in recent years. The magneto-rheological (MR) fluid damper is a promising type of semiactive device for civil structures due to its mechanical simplicity, inherent stability, high dynamic range, large temperature operating range, robust performance, and low power requirements. The MR damper is intrinsically nonlinear and rate-dependent, both as a function of the displacement across the MR damper and the command current being supplied to the MR damper. As such, to develop control algorithms that take maximum advantage of the unique features of the MR damper, accurate models must be developed to describe its behavior for both displacement and current. In this paper, a new MR damper model that includes a model of the pulse-width modulated (PWM) power amplifier providing current to the damper, a proposed model of the time varying inductance of the large-scale 200 kN MR dampers coils and surrounding MR fluid—a dynamic behavior that is not typically modeled—and a hyperbolic tangent model of the controllable force behavior of the MR damper is presented. Validation experimental tests are conducted with two 200 kN large-scale MR dampers located at the Smart Structures Technology Laboratory (SSTL) at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and the Lehigh University Network for Earthquake Engineering Simulation (NEES) facility. Comparison with experimental test results for both prescribed motion and current and real-time hybrid simulation of semiactive control of the MR damper shows that the proposed MR damper model can accurately predict the fully dynamic behavior of the large-scale 200 kN MR damper.

Magnetorheological fluid technology has gained significant development during the past decades. The application of magnetorheological fluids has grown rapidly in civil engineering, safety engineering, transportation, and life science with the development of magnetorheological fluid–based devices, especially magnetorheological fluid dampers. The magnetorheological fluid dampers could offer an outstanding capability in semiactive vibration control due to excellent dynamical features such as fast response, environmentally robust characteristics, large force capacity, low power consumption, and simple interfaces between electronic input and mechanical output. To address the fast growing demand on magnetorheological fluid damping technology in extensive engineering practices, the state-of-the-art development is presented in this article, which provides a comprehensive review on the structure design and its analysis of magnetorheological fluid dampers (or systems). This can be regarded as a useful complement to several existing reviews in the recent literature on magnetorheological fluids technology, magnetorheological fluid applications, modeling of magnetorheological fluids and dampers, control strategies of magnetorheological fluid systems, and so on. The review begins with an introduction of the basic features and relevant applications of magnetorheological fluids. Then several basic structure design issues of magnetorheological fluid dampers are introduced. Following this, typical magnetorheological dampers are discussed according to the arrangement configurations of magnetorheological fluid cylinders and magnetorheological fluid control valves. Furthermore, reinforced structure designs of magnetorheological fluid dampers are provided, which focus on coil configuration, fluid resistance channel design, and electromagnetic design. Thereafter, design issues of magnetorheological fluid damper systems are discussed, which involves sensor-based magnetorheological fluid damper systems, self-powered magnetorheological fluid damper systems, fail-safe magnetorheological fluid damper systems, and integrated spring magnetorheological fluid damper systems. Importantly, to have a systematic quantitative viewpoint of the analysis and design of magnetorheological fluid dampers, the review ends with a summary of performance analysis issues, including performance specification, analytical modeling, parameter optimization, and so on.

Magneto-rheological (MR) fluid dampers are often characterized by their field-dependent yield stress. This fielddependent yield stress and their fast response time make MR fluid dampers attractive alternatives to conventional viscous dampers. In comparing passive dampers with MR dampers, an equivalent viscous damping coefficient is often found from the energy dissipated by the MR damper. This study considers the energy dissipated by the MR damper under semi-active control. A hybrid control policy for semi-active vehicle suspensions is considered. A quarter car rig was used to evaluate the dynamics of the hybrid suspension using an MR damper. The steady-state performance of hybrid control is investigated with regard to the RMS displacements and accelerations of the sprung and unsprung masses. A frequency domain analysis is also presented. The transmissibilities of the sprung and unsprung masses are found using a range specific chirp signal. Results indicate that hybrid control with equal contributions from skyhook and groundhook can offer benefits to both the sprung and unsprung masses. With the performance of the hybrid semi-active suspension known, the study then considers the energy dissipated by the MR damper under hybrid control. An investigation into the possible correlation between performance and the energy dissipated by the MR damper is presented. Force-displacement curves are generated and an energy ratio is introduced. The energy ratio is the energy metric used to evaluate the energy dissipation of the MR damper. The energy ratio is defined as the ratio of the energy dissipated by the MR damper and the energy input into the system. The results indicate that the MR damper under hybrid control can dissipate nearly 70% of the energy input to the system.

To explore the addressed issue of closed-loop vibration control using semi-active magneto-rheological (MR) fluid damper, an innovative control algorithm based on feedback of acceleration response at several points along stay cable for active/semi-active control of stay cables is firstly proposed in the present paper. Theoretical analysis, laboratory investigation, and in-situ tests are conducted in this study to verify the proposed control algorithm. Moreover, this paper presents the negative stiffness characteristic of the combined stay cable/semi-active MR damper system. These investigations indicate that the semi-active MR damper can achieve much better mitigation efficacy than the other passive MR dampers and the proposed control algorithm is proved to be practical. The effect of the negative stiffness on response reduction is demonstrated by the improved energy dissipation ability of the damper due to the enhanced displacement of the stay cable at the location attached with the damper. Introduction In the past few decades, many control methods have been proposed and some have been implemented to mitigate the unaccepted stay cable vibration (Johnson, 2003). At present, semi-active dampers have been proven to be effective in many applications and can potentially achieve performance levels that are almost the same as comparable active devices. For stay cables vibration control incorporated with semi-active dampers, most of the existing control strategies are based on full-state feedback of generalized coordinates. However, the generalized displacements and velocities of the stay cable cannot be measured directly. Since accelerometers can readily provide reliable and inexpensive measurements of the stay cable accelerations at strategic points on a stay cable, development of control method based on acceleration feedback at limited locations along stay cable is an ideal solution to solve the addressed practical problem. Moreover, even though the characteristic of negative stiffness of active control of stay cable vibration has been observed by some researchers(Johnson, 2003), the effects of negative stiffness on the stay cable vibration control using active/semi-active dampers 2 has not been fully researched in the present literatures. In this paper, a control algorithm based on feedback of acceleration response at several points for active and semi-active control of mass-distributed dynamic systems, e.g. stay cables is firstly proposed. Using the proposed control algorithm, the vibration control for the stay cable model attached with one MR damper and a series of field tests are carried out to investigate the control efficacy achieved by different control strategies. These investigations address that the semi-active MR damper can achieve much better mitigation efficacy than other passive MR dampers and the proposed control algorithm is proved to be practicable and available. Moreover, the effect of the negative stiffness provided by semi-active MR dampers on response reduction of cables is theoretically and numerically demonstrated by the improved energy dissipation ability of the damper due to the enhanced displacement of the cable at the location attached with the damper. Control Algorithm Based on Acceleration Feedback at Several Locations Governing equation of the combined stay cable/MR damper system shown in Figure 1 is given as (Irvine, 1981) ) ( ) ( ) , ( ) , ( ) , ( ) , ( d s x x t u t x f t x v c t x v T t x v m − + = + ′ ′ − δ & & & (1) with the boundary conditions v(0,t)=v(l,t)=0 for all t .where v(x,t) is the transverse deflection of the cable, l is the length of the cable, T is the cable tension, m and c are the cable mass and viscous damping per unit length, respectively, xd is the distance of the installed MR damper position from the left end, us(t) is the transverse control force provided by the MR damper at location x= xd, f(x,t) is the distributed load along the cable. δ(.) is the Dirac delta function. Figure1. Combined stay cable/MR damper system The transverse deflection could be approximated using a finite series ) ( ) ( ) , ( ∑ = = r j j j x t q t x v 1 φ (2) where the φj(x) is a set of shape modal functions and continuous with piecewise continuous slope to satisfy the geometric boundary conditionsφj(0)= φj(l)=0. Utilizing the approximate series solution and a standard Galerkin approach, the motion equation of the cable-MR damper system in matrix form is written as ) ( ) ( f Kq q C q M q t u x s d φ + = + + & & & (3)

In this paper, experimental investigation on vibration control is carried out on a stay cable model incorporated with one small size magnetorheological fluid (MR) damper. The control efficiency of the MR dampers to reduce the cable vibration under sinusoidal excitation using passive control strategy is firstly tested. The dynamic coupling between the cable and MR damper with the passive control strategy is obviously observed. Dynamic coupling models between stay cable and MR damper with constant and fluctuating current input are proposed respectively. The proposed dynamic coupling model corresponding to the MR damper with constant current input is validated by the numerical simulations of the measured experimental data. Furthermore, using the proposed dynamic coupling corresponding to the MR damper with fluctuating current input, experimental investigation on the cable vibration control subjected to sinusoidal excitation using semi-active control strategy is then conducted. Experimental results demonstrate that the semi-active MR damper can achieve much better mitigation efficacy than the passive MR dampers with different constant current inputs due to negative stiffness provided by the semi-active MR damper.

Magnetorheological (MR) fluid damper is a high quality semi-active vibration damping device based on magnetorheological effect. However, one of the key factors restricting its development and application is the sedimentation of magnetic particles in MR fluids at present, which affects the working stability and service life of the damper, while there is a lack of effective method for monitoring sedimentation state of MR fluid inside the device in real time. A new structure of MR fluid damper for improving and monitoring the sedimentation stability of MR fluid is developed in this study based on the sedimentation principle and work characteristics of MR damper. Firstly, the theoretical analysis of the new MR fluid damper is carried out, then the prototype is designed and processed, the appropriate MR fluid is selected, finally the performance of the prototype is tested. The results of experiment show that the force of the new damper can be adjusted in both directions, and the output force can meet the requirements of working conditions. The resistance of MR fluid decreases and the conductivity of MR fluid increases in the middle of the damping channel, and the partial voltage at both ends of the non-inductive resistance increases gradually, which verifies the feasibility of the monitoring device for sedimentation. The voltage at both ends of the non-inductive resistance decreases slightly after placement for 24 weeks, so it can be judged that the sedimentation of MR fluid is weak in the new MR damper, which verifies the effectiveness of the new structure for improving sedimentation stability.

The Shandong Binzhou Yellow River Highway Bridge is a three-tower, cable-stayed bridge in Shandong Province, China. Because the stay cables are prone to vibration, 40 magnetorheological (MR) fluid dampers were attached to the 20 longest cables of this bridge to suppress possible vibration. An innovative control algorithm for active and semiactive control of mass-distributed dynamic systems, e.g., stay cables, was proposed. The frequencies and modal damping ratios of the unimpeded tested cable were identified through an ambient vibration test and free vibration tests, respectively. Subsequently, a series of field tests were carried out to investigate the control efficacy of the free cable vibrations achieved by semiactive MR dampers, “Passive-off” MR dampers and “Passive-on” MR dampers. The first three modal damping ratios of the cable incorporated with the MR dampers were also identified from the in situ experiments. The field experiment results indicated that the semiactive MR dampers can provide significantly greater supplemental damping for the cable than either the Passive-off or the Passive-on MR dampers because of the pseudonegative stiffness generated by the semiactive MR dampers.

Magnetorheological (MR) damper is one of the most advanced applications of semi active damper in controlling vibration. Due to its continuous controllability in both on and off state its practice is increasing day by day in the vehicle suspension system. MR damper’s damping force can be controlled by changing the viscosity of its internal magnetorheological fluids (MRF). But still there are some problems with this damper such as MR fluid’s sedimentation, optimal design configuration considering all components of the damper. In this paper both 2-D Axisymmetric and 3-D model of MR Damper is built and finite element analysis is done for design optimization. Different configurations of MR damper piston, MR fluid gap, air gap and Dampers housing are simulated for comparing the Dampers performance variation. From the analytical results it is observed that among different configurations single coil MR damper with linear plastic air gap, top and bottom chamfered piston end and medium MR fluid gap shows better performance than other configurations by maintaining the same input current and piston velocity. Further an experimental analysis is performed by using RD-8041-1 MR Damper. These results are compared with the optimized MR Damper’s simulation results, which are clearly validating the simulated results.

To advance the state of the art of physical-principle-enhanced hybrid artificial neural network (ANN) modeling, network configurations with parallel modules (PMNN) reflecting the structural information of the physical principles have been developed (Cao, 2001). In this paper, the PMNN configuration is applied to develop a scalable and invertible dynamic magneto-rheological (MR) fluid damper model. To advance the state of the art and address issues of the current ANN-based MR damper models found in the open literature, two ANN-based MR damper models are developed in this study. The first one is a conventional first-principle-enhanced hybrid neural network model (defined as the baseline model in the current study) that improves upon the previous ANN-based MR damper models by introducing feedback loops to represent the dynamic behaviors of the MR damper. A PMNN-based MR damper model is then derived to further improve the control-input-output scalability and realize the invertible model concept. “Input-output scalability” refers to the model's capability to accurately estimate the system response with input profiles significantly different from the training data. “Invertible model” means that the resultant forward model can be directly transformed into an inverse model through a simple algebraic operation. The network training/testing results indicate that while both models provide satisfactory performance, the PMNN model outperforms the baseline model by showing superior control-input-output scalability. The candidacy of PMNN as a control-oriented actuator modeling tool is further strengthened by the fact that it is invertible, in other words, the inverse model with desired force as input and the control signal—voltage as output can be easily established by algebraically manipulating the forward model. This study indicates that PMNN, as a scalable and invertible dynamic modeling tool, is feasible for developing system-design-oriented models of vibration control purposes.

Vibration isolation methods that vary damping and stiffness have demonstrated excellent authority over system vibration, thus, potentially making them attractive for many applications. However, conventional devices for controlling variable stiffness are typically complicated and difficult to implement in most applications. To address this issue, a new method is proposed that requires two magnetorheological (MR) fluid dampers placed in series. With this configuration, variable damping and stiffness vibration control is simultaneously achieved by varying a small current to the MR dampers. This paper presents a theoretical and experimental analysis of a two degree-of-freedom system that is controlled by the MR dampers. Five different control schemes involving the variable damping and stiffness are explored. The time and frequency responses of the two degree-of-freedom system to a random input show that combined variable damping and stiffness control provides the best vibration isolation over a frequency range spanning the system’s two structural vibration modes. The experimental results agree well with the theoretical analysis.

최근 인접 건축물의 진동제어와 관련된 연구가 몇몇 연구자에 의하여 수행되고 있으며 그리고 구조물의 지진동 제어를 위하여 준능동 감쇠기의 일종인 MR 감쇠기가 적용되고 있다. 본 논문에서는 MR 감쇠기의 위치에 따른 인접 건축물의 지진동 제어성능을 분석하여 MR 감쇠기의 설치에 대한 최적의 위치를 선정하고자 한다. 본 연구를 위하여 인접한 20층과 15층 건축물을 예제 구조물로 사용하였으며 이 예제 구조물은 서로 다른 고유진동수를 갖게 하였으며 예제 구조물의 지진동 제어를 위하여 Groundhook 제어기법을 적용하였다. 예제 구조물의 수치해석에 의한 지진응답 분석결과, 변위응답 제어를 위하여 인접 건축물의 최상층에 MR 감쇠기를 설치하는 것이 제어성능에 있어서 우수하며 가속도응답을 제어하기 위해서는 인접 건축물의 중간층에 MR 감쇠기를 설치하는 것이 우수한 제어성능을 보이고 있다. MR 감쇠기를 중간층에 설치할 경우에, 변위응답과 가속도응답을 동시에 제어가 가능하다. 따라서 건축물의 제어 목표에 따라서 MR 감쇠기 설치위치를 적절하게 선정해야 할 것이다. In recently, the vibration control of adjacent buildings have been studied and magneto-rheological(MR) fluid dampers have been applied to seismic response control. MR dampers can be controlled with small power supplies and the dynamic range of this damping force is quite large. This MR damper is one of semi-active dampers as a new class of smart dampers. In this study, vibration control effect according to the installation location of the MR damper connected adjacent buildings has been investigated. Adjacent building structures with different natural frequencies were used as example structures. Groundhook control model is applied to determinate control force of MR damper. In this numerical analysis, it has been shown that displacement responses can be effectively controlled as adjacent buildings are connected at roof floors by MR damper. And acceleration responses can be effectively reduced when two buildings are connected at the mid-stories of adjacent buildings by MR damper. Therefore, the installation floor of the MR damper should be selected with seismic response control target.

Most magnetorheological (MR) fluid dampers are designed as fixed-pole valve mode devices, where the MR fluid is forced to flow through a magnetically active annular gap. This forced flow generates the damping force, which can be continuously regulated by controlling the strength of the applied magnetic field. Because the size of the annular gap is usually very small relative to the radii of the annulus, the flow of the MR fluid through this annulus is usually approximated by the flow of fluid through two infinitely wide parallel plates. This approximation, which is widely used in designing and modeling of MR dampers, is satisfactory for many engineering purposes. However, the model does not represent accurately the physical processes and, therefore, expressions that correctly describe the physical behavior are highly desirable. In this paper, a mathematical model based on the flow of MR fluids through an annular gap is developed. Central to the model is the solution for the flow of any fluid model with a yield stress (of which MR fluid is an example) through the annular gap inside the damper. The physical parameters of a MR damper designed and fabricated at the University of Manchester are used to evaluate the performance of the damper and to compare with the corresponding predictions of the parallel plate model. Simulation results incorporating the effects of fluid compressibility are presented, and it is shown that this model can describe the major characteristics of such a device—nonlinear, asymmetric, and hysteretic behaviors—successfully.

Magneto-rheological (MR) fluid technology has significantly developed during the past decades. The application of MR fluids has proliferated in various engineering fields with the development of MR fluid-based devices, especially MR fluid dampers. MR dampers are semi-active devices used for vibration reduction in many engineering applications. The MR dampers could offer an outstanding capability in semi-active vibration control due to excellent dynamical features such as fast response, low power consumption, and simple interfaces between electronic input and mechanical output. Modelling of MR damper is crucial in describing MR damper’s behaviour. It is critical to comprehend the dynamic behaviour of these devices, as nonlinear hysteresis is a rather complex phenomenon. The Modified Bouc-Wen model represents the MR damper mathematically since this model is capable of performing as precisely as the non-parametric model. The Modified Bouc-Wen model parameters are damper dependent and must be defined for further simulation studies before utilising the damper. Validation of MR damper experimentally is one of the tasks required to confirm the parametric model performance. The specified parameters are believed to be worthwhile for this MR damper’s use in further studies of real-time semi-active (SA) suspension systems. The small values of percentage difference for force (0.5-3.5%) indicate that the parameters implemented in the Modified Bouc-Wen model accurately portray the characteristics and behaviour of the MR damper.

Magnetorheological (MR) fluid damper is a kind of intelligent control device that can be used to reduce response of a vibrating member instantaneously with very few moving parts, which is essential in most of the mechanical systems, but challenging. In the present work, a prototype of smart damper using MR fluid (MR damper) is designed based on Bingham plastic model and fabricated to conduct vibration related tests. A sudden damping is obtained as a result of quick change in viscosity and shear stress of the MR fluid in response to the change in magnetic field. Biodegradable oil namely honge oil is proposed as carrier liquid of the MR fluid. The relation between yield stress and magnetic field of the proposed honge oil-based MR fluid is used while designing the MR damper. Then an experimental setup is designed to investigate the damping and vibration control characteristics of the fluid. Damping force at various frequencies, amplitudes and currents are obtained and their inter-relations are studied. Furth...

In recoil mechanisms applications the response time is an important characteristic for Magnetorheological (MR) fluid dampers, since the recoil cycle is very fast. Method for experimental testing the response time of MR dampers subjected to impact loading was promoted and impact tests were done. Since the viscose damping force of MR dampers is only related to the recoil velocity, which can not be controlled by the operating current, only the controllable damping force response to the input voltage was evaluated, and the viscose damping force were removed by the MR damper’s model. Two factors that may have effect on the response of MR dampers were considered the response of the electromagnetic circuit current of MR damper coils, and the response characteristic of MR fluid material. PI control algorithm was used to shorten the circuit current response. The results indicated that, compared with the much shorter delay of MR fluid, the driving circuit response has more significant effect on the MR dampers’ response time. What’s more, it was also verified that, it is feasible to improve the MR dampers’ response time subjected to impact loading by modifying the electromagnetic circuit through good control algorithms.