Unsteady flow damping force prediction of MR dampers subjected to sinusoidal loading

Abstract

So far quasi-steady models are usually used to design magnetorheological (MR) dampers, but these models are not sufficient to describe the MR damper behavior under unsteady dynamic loading, for fluid inertia is neglected in quasi-steady models, which will bring more error between computer simulation and experimental results. Under unsteady flow model, the fluid inertia terms will bring error calculated upto 10%, so it is necessary to be considered in the governing equation. In this paper, force-stroke behavior of MR damper with flow mode due to sinusoidal loading excitation is mainly investigated, to simplify the analysis, the one-dimensional axisymmetric annular duct geometry of MR dampers is approximated as a rectangular duct. The rectangular duct can be divided into 3 regions for the velocity profile of the incompressible MR fluid flow, in each region, a partial differential equation is composed of by Navier-Stokes equations, boundary conditions and initial conditions to determine the velocity solution. In addition, in this work, not only Bingham plastic model but the Herschel—Bulkley model is adopted to analyze the MR damper performance. The damping force resulting from the pressure drop of unsteady MR dampers can be obtained and used to design or size MR dampers. Compared with the quasi-steady flow damping force, the damping force of unsteady MR dampers is more close to practice, particularly for the high-speed unsteady movement of MR dampers.