Design and experiment of magnetorheological rotary damper for solar array vibration control

Aiming at the variable damping requirement of solar array vibration control, a hybrid-type rotary Magnetorheological(MR) damper was designed and tested. Based on the Bingham model, the torque of this hybrid-type mode was derived. Then, the method of finite element analysis was used for optimizing the damper structure. Finally, the design process of the rotary MR damper mechanical structure was presented. The prototype was manufactured for performance test on a test bench. The analysis indicated that hybrid-type mode might reduce the mass for the high material utilization rate. And the occurring of magnetic saturation could be postponed by chamfering the trunking corner felicitously, which might increase the damping torque by 31.29%. The test results showed that the torque adjustment region ranges from 0.3N·m to over 7N·m. And it was approximate speed uncorrelated in low rotational speed and feasible to use in solar array vibration control.