Design and Performance Analysis of Magnetorheological Valve for Upside-Down Damper

Abstract

Magnetorheological (MR) fluid-based devices are being developed widely due to controllable properties according to its external force. In addition, the upside-down damper is highly demanded by the automotive industry, due to its advantages compared to the conventional damper. MR damper is categorized as semi-active suspension and mainly used in the automotive industry for its performance and failsafe feature. MR valve is the primary component for being developed, as for different shape and design may offer different performance. This article proposed a semi-active damper by using MR valve design with flow mode and meandering flow path, which have been researched to have a positive effect on increasing the performance of the MR valve. The main purpose of this article is to analyze the performance of the proposed valve. The magnetic field prediction was simulated using Finite Element Method Magnetics (FEMM). The pressure drop of the valve was 0.02 kPa at 50 mm/s at off-state and up to 2.5 MPa at on-state with 1A current on the same valve velocity. With the upside-down damper combined with MR fluid, it offers better performance compared to passive suspension and lower cost and safer than the active suspension. Therefore, this device is very suitable to be developed for future automotive industry.