Design, modeling, and controlling of a large-scale magnetorheological shock absorber under high impact load

In this article, an MRD50 type of large-scale magnetorheological shock absorber was designed and manufactured in Smart Materials and Structures Laboratory of Nanjing University of Science and Technology. Upon providing a brief background on magnetorheological dampers, the detailed structure of this developed large-scale magnetorheological shock absorber was depicted. A suit of hardware-in-the-loop simulation platform under high impact load excitation was introduced for a weapon system. A series of tests were conducted to establish the dynamic behaviors of magnetorheological shock absorber under impact loads. The test results show that the inertia damping force should not be ignored like a common magnetorheological damper because of the large acceleration from the impact load. Based on the theory model and the experimental data, index parameters of magnetorheological fluid and other structural parameters in Herschel–Bulkley-Inertia model were identified by using the least square algorithm. In order to evaluate the controllability of large-scale magnetorheological shock absorber applied into high impact loads, three control algorithms, including on–off control, proportional–integral–derivative control, and fuzzy control algorithm, were used in tests to control the dynamic behavior of magnetorheological shock absorber, and some results of the controllability tests were exhibited in this article. In conclusion, the results indicated that the developed large-scale magnetorheological shock absorber was indeed able to effectively control the recoil dynamics.