A novel two-way-controllable magneto-rheological fluid damper

In this paper, a disc type, radial flow-mode magneto-rheological (MR) fluid damper comprising a permanent magnet and an electromagnet is designed, built and tested. The proposed MR fluid damper has an MR valve with which two-way controllability through cancellation or enhancement of the magnetic field is obtained. This added feature provides damping forces less than or greater than that of a passive viscous original equipment manufacturer damper. A three-dimensional electromagnetic finite element analysis has been performed to realize this unique function in the proposed design. Experimental and theoretical studies have been conducted in order to demonstrate that this new design can provide softer damping properties by cancelling the effect of the permanent magnet, while at the same time enhancing the field effect, resulting in a harder damping device. Softer and harder damping refer to decrease and increase in the damping, respectively.