A COMPARATIVE STUDY OF PARAMETRIC MODELS OF

MAGNETORHEOLOGICAL FLUID SUSPENSION DAMPERS

Abstract:
1) Magnetorheological dampers more commonly called, MR dampers, are being
developed for a wide variety of applications where controllable damping is desired.
2) MR fluids represent a class of smart materials whose rheological properties change
in response to the application of a magnetic field.
3) MR fluid dampers are new type of vibration control elements, having the advantages
of rapid damping and stiffness changing in the presence of an applied magnetic field.
4) In this paper, MR fluid structure, damper description and parametric models have
been presented.

Introduction:
1) Vehicle suspension systems broadly classified as passive, active and semi active
suspension systems depend on the operation mode to improve vehicle ride comfort,
vehicle safety, road damage minimization and the overall vehicle performance.
2) An adaptive suspension utilizes a passive spring and an adjustable damper with slow
response to improve the control of ride and handling.
3) A semi active suspension is similar, except that the adjustable damper has fast
response (less than 10 ms) and the damping force is controlled in real time.
4) A fully active suspension replaces the damper with a hydraulic actuator which can
achieve optimum vehicle control, but at high cost.
5) Various semi-active dampers are being employed in different vibration isolation
systems, there are Electro-rheological (ER) and Magneto-rheological (MR) dampers.
6) The main advantages of these dampers are that they need very less control power,
have simple construction, quick response to control signal and very few moving
parts.
7) The models can be classified into two main categories as parametric and non-
parametric.
8) Parametric models consist of some mechanical elements such as linear viscous,
friction, springs, etc. Parametric models are useful for direct dynamic modelling of
MR dampers.
9) The prediction of the damper force for given inputs (voltage signal and the time
history of the relative displacement across the damper’s ends).
10) Nonparametric models establish a relationship between measured quantities, by
purely mathematical means the occurring parameters do not have a direct physical
meaning.
 11) Non-parametric models can effectively represent MR damper behaviour, they are
highly complicated and demanding massive experimental data sets for model
validation.

Conclusion:
1) The simplest one is the Bingham plastic model, which is a steady-state model
assuming that the fluid is in the post-yield phase and is flowing at a constant shear
rate.
2) The Dahl, Kowk and Bouc-Wen have all an adaptable hysteresis, but the Bouc-Wen is
found to be the best model for illustrating the MR damper.
3) The Dahl is also pretty good in the passive part but it needs to be modified to fit the
active properties.
4) Li model describes the dynamic behaviours of the MR damper, however this model
cannot accurately capture the smooth transition from pre-yield to post-yield.