Investigations on damping characteristics of a honge oil-based magnetorheological fluid damper

Magnetorheological (MR) fluid damper is a kind of intelligent control device that can be used to reduce response of a vibrating member instantaneously with very few moving parts, which is essential in most of the mechanical systems, but challenging. In the present work, a prototype of smart damper using MR fluid (MR damper) is designed based on Bingham plastic model and fabricated to conduct vibration related tests. A sudden damping is obtained as a result of quick change in viscosity and shear stress of the MR fluid in response to the change in magnetic field. Biodegradable oil namely honge oil is proposed as carrier liquid of the MR fluid. The relation between yield stress and magnetic field of the proposed honge oil-based MR fluid is used while designing the MR damper. Then an experimental setup is designed to investigate the damping and vibration control characteristics of the fluid. Damping force at various frequencies, amplitudes and currents are obtained and their inter-relations are studied. Further the acceleration time response of the damper is evaluated at different frequencies of vibration and input currents using Labview software. The results are compared with those of other authors and found to be satisfactory.