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MAGNETO-RHEOLOGICAL DAMPER
Technical Report · November 2015
DOI: 10.13140/RG.2.1.2127.5604
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MODELLING & TESTING OF MR
DAMPERS
Bhushan Dalvi | MSc in Mechanical Engineering | October 26, 2015
Table of Contents
1.0 INTRODUCTION ....................................................................................................................................2
1.1 Background .......................................................................................................................................2
1.2 Magneto-rheological dampers ...................................................................................................... 3
1.3 Modelling and simulation ...............................................................................................................5
2.0 LITERATURE REVIEW ....................................................................................................................... 6
REFERENCES ............................................................................................................................................ 10
Table of figures
Figure 1: Working principle (Truongand and Ahn. 2012) .......................................................... 4
Figure 2: MR Damper (Truongand and Ahn, 2012) ..................................................................... 4
Figure 3: MR damper (Tesla Motors, 2014) ................................................................................ 6
Figure 4: MR Damper section (Liao and Chen, 2015) ................................................................ 8
Figure 5: Adaptive MR damper (Liao and Chen, 2015) .............................................................. 8
Figure 6: Adaptive suspension system (Extreme Tech, 2011) ................................................. 9
PAGE 1
1.0 INTRODUCTION
1.1 BACKGROUND
Today, a large number of automobiles manufacturers rely on many different types of the
control systems when it comes to the performance optimization. Out of them some are
independent, adaptive and some that can fulfill a particular function from the automobile
point of view while some of the others are designed with a high level authentic logic. The
examples of the type of logical control system used in the automobile are traction control,
adaptive cruise control, ABS systems, electronic stability program and many more. These
types of systems assist to enhance the ride and handling, safety, driving comfort and most
importantly it gives the best driving pleasure. The ride quality, driving pleasure and the
driving comfort are directly related with the comfort of the passenger and the driver of what
he (driver or the passenger) perceives while the vehicle is in motion. The main issue that
hampers the performance of an automobile is due to the most unanticipated cause and
that is vibration. The vibrations that originate in an automobile are due to a number of
causes some of which are the road unevenness, the aerodynamic forces and the
vibrations that are induced due to the engine and the powertrain. Road unevenness are
the major causes of the vibration.
So, one of the major challenges that is faced by the design engineers is to provide a
suspension system that can be useful in all driving conditions. Also, vibration suppression
being the key fact in the field of mechanical engineering is to ensure the safety and comfort
of the occupants. The most basic goal for the automobiles suspension system is to isolate
the respective vehicle from the forces that are transmitted from the external excitation.
The major problem due to the mechanical vibration is tackles by placing a spring-type
element between the structure and the source of the vibration. This spring-type element
is usually in parallel in the dissipative element that consists of a viscous fluid. In these
types of elements the damping action is obtained by forcing the viscous fluid through a
small orifice and the damping action in this case truly depends on the viscosity of the fluid
and also on the geometry of the orifice and the damper. Ever since the first automobile
was invented, the manufacturers and the designers have always thought of building a
suspension system that can render the high speed performance with the best in class
driving comfort. The built in drawbacks of the classical suspension system has stimulated
PAGE 2
for the examination of the controlled suspension systems, both in active and semi-active
mode. Magneto-rheological fluids referred as MR fluids, are the members of the family of
fluids whose properties depends on the strength of the electrical or the magnetic field. This
family includes the ferro-fluids, electrorheological fluids and also the magneto-rheological
fluids. Ferro fluids are mixtures of smaller magnetic particles (smaller than 10nm)
suspended in the carrier liquid (Emanuele et. al., 2008)
1.2 MAGNETO-RHEOLOGICAL DAMPERS
Magneto-rheological fluids, ever since it was discovered by Jacob Rabinow in the 1940’s
have in recent years has been known to the researchers as a multi-functional fluid for its
property of getting magnetized on the application of magnetic field. The MR dampers are
not very different from the conventional fluid dampers the only difference being the
magneto-rheological oil and the firmly placed solenoid that produces magnetic field on the
applying the electric current. MR dampers are well known for their energy dissipating
characteristic on the application of the magnetic field. The properties of the MR fluids can
be instantly and reversibly modified or reorganized within milliseconds when a magnetic
field is applied. In the absence of the applied field, the MR fluids behave like the Newtonian
fluid. When a field is applied the suspended particles become polarized which further
move so as to reduce the energy stored in the group (Emanuele et al., 2008). The energy
configuration being at a minimum level consists of the particles that are aligned in the
chain like format of the applied external field. The figure below shows how exactly the
suspended particles acquire dipole moment that helps align the particles in chainlike
structures after the external fields that is applied. These chain-like format of the modifies
the motion of the fluid there by changing its rheological properties by changing the
viscosity of the fluid drastically which further increases it yield stress depending on the
magnitude and the direction of the field applied. The mechanical energy that is required
to yield these chain like structure increases with the increase in the applied field. The
rheological behavior of these types of fluids are characterized separately into two distinct
pre-yield and post-yield regimes (Emanuele et al., 2008).
PAGE 3
Figure 1: Working principle (Truongand and Ahn. 2012)
In the pre-yield regime, the fluid behaves like an elastic solid due to the chain-like
structures stretching along the length with some of fractures in it while in the case of the
post-yield regime, their exists an equilibrium where the chain fractures and the chain
formations behave like a viscous Newtonian fluid.
Figure 2: MR Damper (Truongand and Ahn, 2012)
Owing to the exceptional behavior of the MR fluids, it has been used in large number of
applications such as: rotary brakes, clutches, prosthetic devices, polishing & grinding
devices and many more. Amid them, the MR fluid dampers are semi active control devices
that are used many industrial applications today. A characteristic damper includes the MR
PAGE 4
fluid, a housing, a piston, a magnetic coil, an accumulator and some pair of wire as shown
in the figure 2a above. In the above figure, the MR fluid is composed in the cylinder and
flows through a small orifice. The piston or the housing are in built with the magnetic coils.
Depending on the current applied, the controlling damping force is produced. Also, as per
the research conducted by Carlson J. D and Weiss K. D, a high reliability operation can
be obtained from these devices and their function remains almost uninterrupted due to the
temperature fluctuations or due to any impurities in the fluid. Nevertheless, the
considerable drawback that hampers the MR fluid damper is it’s non-linear characteristic
which involves force vs displacement and the hysteresis force vs the velocity. So, creating
the MR fluid damper with the maximum efficiency is a major challenge, especially when it
is concerned to make an accurate model to take the full advantage of this special device
and further to design a the most efficient algorithm that in turn improves the system
performance.
1.3 MODELLING AND SIMULATION
These days, modelling and simulation have become the most inevitable part through
which the engineering problems can be solved in order to find the optimum design
solutions. In other words, it can be also said that modelling and simulations play an
important role when it comes to the development in the field of science and engineering.
Additionally, due to the fast increase in the application of the magneto-rheological fluids in
many engineering fields, it has gained more interest from the researchers apart from the
fact that the modelling and the simulation of these fluids is a challenging task. Researchers
in this field designate that still there is no distinctive and clear process for the modelling
and the simulation of the magneto-rheological fluids (A. Suresh et al., 2015). So, it
becomes crucially important to find out the effective parameters for studying the modelling
and the simulation of the magneto-rheological fluids. The main effective parameters are
as follows: size and types of the dispersed particles, properties of the carrier fluid, the
intensity and the direction of the applied magnetic field and the operational conditions.
Even slight variation in the above properties of the magneto-rheological fluid may hamper
its performance drastically.
PAGE 5
2.0 LITERATURE REVIEW
The purpose of this chapter is to provide a comprehensive literature review that will
summarize the previous work that has been published with relevance to the points
discussed in chapter 1. This chapter starts with a small description on the behavior of the
magneto-rheological (MR) fluids and the design of MR dampers. The following literature
search is conducted to determine the current and the past research related to the
magneto-rheological dampers and its different engineering applications. With relevance
to the data that has been discussed in the above section, the magneto-rheological fluids
should be very stable when it comes to settling at the bottom and should also have a high
level of magnetic saturation (Ali Ghaffari et al., 2015). Also the main point of discussion
that can be taken into consideration is that the MR fluid should be highly corrosion resistant
as it handles that most vulnerable components of any automobile. Considering this point,
many different types of magnetic material have been tested by the researchers depending
on its emulsions with different carrier fluids like the magnetic material made of the
polystyrene particles with the addition of the magnetite (Lemaire et al., 1993), the nano-
sized ferrite particles coated with a polymer (Kormann et al., 1996), meso-scale carbonyl
iron and nickel zinc ferrite ferrite (Phule and Ginder, 1999), iron oxide or magnetite (Fe3O4)
nanoparticles (Zafarani-Moattar M and Majdan-Cegincara R., 2013). The MR dampers
from their inventions has been used in many industrial applications. Linear dampers
(Sapinski and Goldasz, 2012), rotary brakes (Farjoud et al., 2008).
Figure 3: MR damper (Tesla Motors, 2014)
PAGE 6
In a study at the University of Sakarya, the experimental and the theoretical analysis was
carried out that predicted the behavior of a linear magneto-rheological damper. A
magnetorheological damper was designed and fabricated for testing the dynamic behavior
on a mechanical type shock machine that was under sinusoidal excitation. A theoretical
flow analysis was done on the prototype MR damper that was based on the Bingham
plastic consecutive model and a parametric algebra model was analyzed to check the
hysteresis behavior of the MR damper. The final observation was that the algebraic model
was very successful at the highest excitation velocity of 0.2 m/s (Sevki and Tahsin, 2010).
Mr. John W Gravatt in 2003 conducted an experiment for a super sports motorcycle using
a combination of the suspension and the MR damper. The final results obtained were
surprising showing that by reducing the suspension displacement, the settling time and
the suspension oscillations the MR dampers were quite successful in reducing the
instability caused due to the suspension geometry.
Owing to the large force controllable capacity, the magnetorheological dampers have been
used for avoiding the seismic effects that are caused due to the earthquakes to the civil
structures. In an experiment that was conducted, the dynamic capacity of the damper was
examined with the dynamic excitation test which was further compared with two different
types of magneto-rheological fluids. The two different types of magneto-rheological fluids
are 132LD manufactured by Lord Corporation and the other is a trial product #104 that
was made on experimental basis by the Bando Chemical Industries (Fujitani et al., 2008).
Same as the above experiment, a model MR fluid was developed using a silicon oil OKS
1050 which was further mixed with the carbonyl powder. Moreover, in order to reduce the
sedimentation Aerosi200 was added as a stabilizer. Further, the magnetic field due to the
magneto-rheological fluids were modelled using the finite element method. The obtained
model was then analyzed using the ANSYS software and was found that the presented
model fully satisfied the dynamic properties of the mechanical system (Kciuk et al., 2010).
PAGE 7
Figure 4: MR Damper section (Liao and Chen, 2015)
The performance of the MR dampers was built to examine and investigate the 2-D axi-
symmetric MR damper. In this experiment, six different configurations of the MR damper
piston was simulated that could give a clear idea of the maximum pressure drop that the
particular damper can provide. In further investigation, the piston velocity and the input
current to the coil were varied to assess for the magnetic flux density and the pressure
drop along the damper (Md. Sadak et al., 2012). An experiment conducted at the Coventry
University Coventry campus was much more concerned on designing a an actuator that
could more expertly monitor the roads excitation based on the travel of the suspension
arm based on smart algorithms and that could adapt the suspension system accordingly.
Figure 5: Adaptive MR damper (Liao and Chen, 2015)
PAGE 8
Figure 6: Adaptive suspension system (Extreme Tech, 2011)
This was the first time that an adaptive suspension system was presented (Kanarachos
and Kanarachos, 2015). However, due to the non-linear characteristic of the damper it
was really hard to find it. Perhaps, a hybrid genetic algorithm design improved the findings
for the best design (Stratis and Andreas, 2015). Whilst an experiment that was conducted
at the vehicle laboratory at the National Technical University of Athens, a method named
as special neural network (NN) technique was utilized to find the performance index of the
magneto-rheological dampers by keeping the parameters like the weight, the structure,
etc. predefined (Kanarachos et al., 2015).
PAGE 9
REFERENCES
A. Suresh, Khan Md. Sadak Ali, Ramaiah N. Seetha. (2012). Investigation on the
Performance of MR Damper with various Piston configurations. International Journal of
Scientific and Research Publications. 2 (12), NA.
Cesmeci Sevki, Engin Tahsin. (2010). Modeling and testing of a field-controllable
magnetorheological fluid damper. International Journal of Mechanical Sciences. 52 (1),
1036-1046.
Extreme Tech. (2011). Magnetis Suspension. Available:
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Farjoud A, Vahdati N and Fah YF. (2008). Mathematical model of drum-type MR brakes
using Herschel-Bulkley shear model. Journal of Intelligent Material Systems and
Structures. 19 (0), 565–572.
Fujitani Hideo, Katsuhiko Hata, Yutaka Komatsu, Norio Iwata, Katsuaki Sunakoda,
Satsuya Soda (2008) DYNAMIC PERFORMANCE EVALUATION OF 200kN MAGNETO-
RHEOLOGICAL DAMPER
Ghaffari Ali, Seyed Hassan Hashemabadi and Mahshid Ashtiani. (2015). A review on the
simulation and modeling of magnetorheological [Link] of Intelligent Material
Systems. 26 (8), 881–904.
Guglielmino Emanuele, Tudor Sireteanu, Charles W. Stammers, Gheorghe Ghita,
Marius Giuclea (2008). Semi-Active Suspension Control. London: Springer-Verlag
London Limited. 165-166.
Kanarachos, S.A., Koulocheris, D.V., Spentzas, K.N., (2005). Synthesis of nonlinear
dynamic systems using parameter optimization methods - A case study. WSEAS
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Kanarachos Stratis and Kanarachos Andreas, (2015). Intelligent road adaptive
suspension system design using an experts’ based hybrid genetic algorithm. Expert
Systems with Applications. 42 (1), 8232–8242.
Kciuk S., Turczyn R., Kciuk M. (2010). Experimental and numerical studies of MR damper
with prototype magnetorheological fluid. Journal of Achievements in Materials and
Manufacturing Engineering. 39 (1), 10-12.
Kormann C, Laun HM, Richter HJ. (1996). MR fluids with Nano-sized magnetic
particles. International Journal of Modern Physics. 10 (B), 3167-3172.
Lemaire E, Bossis G, Grasselli Y. (1993). Yield and stress structuration of magneto-
rheological suspensions. Journal of Magnetism and Magnetic Materials. 122 (1), 51-52.
PAGE 10
Liao, Chao Chen Wei-Hsin. (2015). IOP Science. Available:
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Phule P.P. and Ginder J.M.. (1999). Synthesis and properties of novel magneto-
rheological fluids. International Journal of Modern Physics. 13 (B), 2019-2027
Sapinski J and Goldasz B. (2012). Nondimensional characterization of flow-mode
magnetorheological/electrorheological fluid damper. Journal of Intelligent Material
Systems and Structures. 23 (0), 1545–1562.
Tesla Motors. (2014). Teslamotors. Available:
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Zafarani-Moattar M and Majdan-Cegincara R. (2013). Stability, rheological,
magnetorheological and volumetric characterizations of polymer based magnetic Nano
fluids. Colloidal and Polymer Science. 291 (1), 1977-1987.
PAGE 11
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