Design and experimental study of a stepped magnetorheological damper with power generation

Abstract

Traditional vehicle suspension magnetorheological dampers have problems with low output damping force and require additional energy input to operate, to improve the performance of the vehicle suspension magnetorheological damper, in this paper we propose and investigate a stepped magnetorheological damper structure with power generation, and conducts structural design and magnetic circuit analysis. The effects of different currents, damping gaps, coil slot positions, and coil turns on the damping performance of the stepped magnetorheological damper with power generation are numerically studied. The magnetic circuit sensitivity analysis of the power generation structure and the magnetorheological damper structure is also performed. Experiments have verified the effects of different input excitations on damping and energy-feeding performance, and the results of numerical analysis have been verified. The results show that when the excitation coil is wound for 257 turns, the magnetic circuit requirements are met, and the maximum damping force of the proposed electromagnetic energy fed stepped magnetorheological damper can reach over 4500N, meeting the use requirements.