An innovative design of fast current controller circuit for MR dampers

Nowadays MR dampers are used widely in vibration isolation and motion control applications. These actuators had lots of advantages in comparison to old shock absorbers such as controllability and adaption to vibrations with variable frequencies. One major problem of MR dampers which limits their performance in high frequency vibration applications is dullness and high response time. This dullness is caused by electrical circuit and mechanical delays. In this paper a theoretical and experimental investigation has been done to reduce electrical response time of MR dampers. Different solutions for driving MR dampers have been analyzed. An extra fast method for charging and discharging MR damper is proposed in this paper. The suggested method has been tested on a prototype MR damper. The experimental results are compared with simulation results and other current control methods. The proposed method can reduce response time of MR dampers from a few milliseconds to a few micro seconds.