Development of a novel magnetorheological fluids transmission device for high-power applications

A novel magnetorheological (MR) fluids transmission device for high-power applications is designed, simulated and experimented. The transmission device is implemented of multi-hollow drive disc with magnetic conductive columns and adopts water cooling method to heat dissipation. In this paper, firstly, a novel hollow transmission disc with magnetic conductive columns is proposed, and the structure of the high-power MR fluid transmission device is determined. And then, the magnetic circuit is designed in detail, and the magnetic field distribution of the transmission device is analyzed by the method of finite element. Finally, a prototype of the transmission device is fabricated and several tests are carried out to evaluate the torque transmission, time response and temperature rise of the prototype. The results show that the proposed MR transmission device can produce a maximum output torque of 1880 N m and possesses a high slip power of up to 70 kW. (paper)