Design, modeling, and performance analysis of a helical flow channel magnetorheological damper

To address the issue that increasing the damping force of magnetorheological (MR) dampers usually leads to a larger overall volume, a helical flow channel MR damper was developed to deliver enhanced damping performance within a tightly constrained volume. The magnetic circuit was constructed and the damping force model was established. The magnetic-fluid coupling simulation and temperature characteristics simulation were performed with COMSOL software. Simulation results show that the damping force is 6.048 kN and the dynamic adjustable range is 24.5 under the applied current of 2.0 A. Compared to conventional MR damper, the helical flow channel MR damper exhibits a superior damping performance. A test rig was built to investigate the dynamic performance of the proposed MR damper. The experimental results show that the damping force is 5.939 kN and the dynamic adjustable range is 30.6 under the applied current of 2.0 A. The relative errors between the experimental and simulation results were 1.8% and 19.9%, respectively, confirming the effectiveness of the proposed MR damper in increasing damping performance.