Study of corrugated disc rotary damper based on intelligent effect

An experimental rotary damper device with a corrugated disc and a plate disc (called corrugated damper) has been examined. The narrow gap between the two discs is filled with an electrorheological fluid (or magnetorheological suspension); therefore, the electrostructural effect has to be taken into consideration. Computational fluid dynamics (FLUENT software) is used to produce comparative performance data between corrugated rotary damper and ordinary dual-plate rotary damper. Theoretical and numerical studies have shown that the total output torque increment for the corrugated disc rotary damper is significantly larger than that of the dual-disc rotary damper when the impact of the electric field strength is ignored. The results help the optimal design of a pre-prototyping structure with an electrorheological (or magnetorheological suspension) fluid damper.