Design and experiments of a novel magneto-rheological damper featuring bifold flow mode

This study presents design and fabrication of a novel magneto-rheological (MR) damper with bifold flow mode gap to improve damping performance. The proposed MR damper is featured by inner flow mode gap connected to the outer flow mode gap through the feedback hole. A mathematical model of the damping force is established for the proposed MR damper and the magnetic circuit has been analyzed with the finite element method, which is used to validate the principle of the proposed MR damper. A conventional MR damper is fabricated with the same dimensions (radius, length) of the piston and is experimentally compared to confirm advantages of the proposed MR damper. The mechanical performance of the proposed MR damper is experimentally investigated and compared with the results by mathematical model and finite element analysis. The research results show that the controllable damping force and equivalent damping of the MR damper with bifold flow mode gap are much larger than those of the conventional MR damper. (paper)