Modeling, simulation and experimental validation of Magneto-Rheological damper

Semi-active control devices have received significant attention in recent years, because they offer the adaptability of active control devices. Magneto-Rheological (MR) dampers are semi- active control devices. They potentially offer highly reliable operation and can be viewed as fail-safe. The advantage of MR dampers over conventional dampers are that they are simple in construction, compromise between high frequency isolation and natural frequency isolation, they offer semi-active control, use very little power, have very quick response, has few moving parts, have a relax tolerances and direct interfacing with electronics. MR fluids are controllable fluids belonging to the class of active materials that have the unique ability to change dynamic yield stress when acted upon by an electric or magnetic field, while maintaining viscosity relatively constant. This property can be utilized in MR damper where the damping force is changed by changing the rheological properties of the fluid magnetically. MR fluids have a dynamic yield stress over Electro-Rheological (ER) fluids and a broader operational temperature range. The objective of this paper was to study the application of an MR damper to vibration control, design the vibration damper using MR fluids, test and evaluate its performance. This MR damper was tested and the results were obtained in the form of force vs. velocity. This damper is modeled in Ansys and analysis was carried out. And force vs. velocity graph is plotted. The graph obtained by simulation is validated with the experimental result. The results were encouraging and inspired further research on the topic.