Statistical modeling of a magneto-rheological fluid damper using the design of experimentsapproach

Abstract

In this work, a through-rod-type magneto-rheological (MR) test damper has been designed andfabricated for experimental study. Various factors, such as the magnetic field strength, volumefraction of particles in the MR fluid, shearing gap between piston and cylinder, vibrationfrequency and amplitude, have been considered as input factors, and the root-mean-square(RMS) damping force as the output factor (response variable). These input factors arevaried in two levels (low and high) during the initial phase of experimentation using25 factorial design; the motivation is to identify the most influential factors. In the secondphase of experimentation, the response surface method has been used to identify themodeling equation and to plot the response surfaces. Further, force versus displacementdiagrams have been plotted at these factor levels; these give an insight into the dampingbehaviour of the MR damper.