Full Text Available

Note: Clicking the button above will open the full text document at the original institutional repository in a new window.

Magneto-rheological (MR) Damper design for off-road vehicle suspensions with flow blocking ability

Dissertation (MEng)--University of Pretoria, 2015.

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Other Authors: Els, P.S. (Pieter Schalk)
Format: Thesis
Language:English
Published: University of Pretoria 2015
Subjects:
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
_version_ 1867613704765308928
access_status_str Open Access
author2 Els, P.S. (Pieter Schalk)
author_browse Els, P.S. (Pieter Schalk)
author_facet Els, P.S. (Pieter Schalk)
collection Thesis
dc_rights_str_mv © 2015 University of Pretoria. All rights reserved. The copyright in this work vests in the University of Pretoria. No part of this work may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, without the prior written permission of the University of Pretoria.
description Dissertation (MEng)--University of Pretoria, 2015.
format Thesis
id oai:repository.up.ac.za:2263/45961
institution University of Pretoria (South Africa)
language English
last_indexed 2026-06-10T12:40:23.116Z
license_str Other — see source repository
provenance_str_mv Harvested via OAI-PMH from UPSpace — University of Pretoria Institutional Repository
publishDate 2015
publishDateRange 2015
publishDateSort 2015
publisher University of Pretoria
publisherStr University of Pretoria
record_format dspace
source_str UPSpace — University of Pretoria Institutional Repository
spelling oai:repository.up.ac.za:2263/45961 Magneto-rheological (MR) Damper design for off-road vehicle suspensions with flow blocking ability Els, P.S. (Pieter Schalk) Kaul, Sudhir Meeser, Riaan Frederick UCTD MR fluid Magneto-rheological fluid Blocking ability Semi-active suspension damper Engineering, built environment and information technology theses SDG-09 Engineering, built environment and information technology theses SDG-11 Dissertation (MEng)--University of Pretoria, 2015. This study presents the design, development and testing of a magneto-rheological (MR) damper for an off-road vehicle. The MR damper developed in this study is expected to enhance the capability of the suspension system by allowing variable damping due to inherent properties of the MR fluid. MR fluids exhibit a reversible behaviour that can be controlled with the intensity of an external magnetic field, causing a change in the effective viscosity and thereby also in the forcevelocity characteristics of the damper. The characteristic of this damper design distinguishes the damper developed in this study from the conventional damper used in the suspension system of a passenger car by having a controllable damping characteristic instead of a fixed one. The damper is designed to be used on the hydro-pneumatic 4 State Semi-active Suspension System (4S4) that was developed by the University of Pretoria. Another additional feature of the damper developed in this study is the ability of the damper to act as a fluid flow blocking device so as to enable semi-active control of the suspension springs as required for the 4S4 system. A mathematical model of the proposed damper has been developed using a modified Bingham plastic model. This model is used to determine the necessary geometry for the damper designed in this study, using the fluid flow rate and current to the electromagnet as the two main input variables. Furthermore, the model is used to compute the pressure drop over the MR valve as a function of the coil current and fluid flow rate. For manufacturing and size considerations, the proposed design incorporates a triple pass layout valve-mode damper with the MR fluid flowing through the three passages that are arranged in an S-shape so as to minimize the cross section of the electromagnet core while maintaining the required width and length of the valve to perform adequately. An experimental setup has been built to test the validity of the analytical model. Experimental results confirm the applicability of the analytical model to accurately predict the pressure drop over the MR valve for given operating temperature and fluid properties. Experimental results show that the original MR damper designed for this study provides the required range of damping as compared to the reference system used for this study, with the only error being that the values of damping, both in the on-and off-state, are lower than expected. By using the validated theoretical model it has been seen that the whole range of damping characteristics can be shifted upwards by reducing the MR fluid passage height inside the valve which should yield the required characteristics. tm2015 mi2026 Mechanical and Aeronautical Engineering MEng Unrestricted SDG-09: Industry, innovation and infrastructure SDG-11: Sustainable cities and communities 2015-07-02T11:06:11Z 2015-07-02T11:06:11Z 2015/04/23 2015 Dissertation Meeser, RF 2015, Magneto-rheological (MR) Damper design for off-road vehicle suspensions with flow blocking ability, MEng Dissertation, University of Pretoria, Pretoria, viewed yymmdd <http://hdl.handle.net/2263/45961> A2015 http://hdl.handle.net/2263/45961 en © 2015 University of Pretoria. All rights reserved. The copyright in this work vests in the University of Pretoria. No part of this work may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, without the prior written permission of the University of Pretoria. application/pdf University of Pretoria
spellingShingle UCTD
MR fluid
Magneto-rheological fluid
Blocking ability
Semi-active suspension damper
Engineering, built environment and information technology theses SDG-09
Engineering, built environment and information technology theses SDG-11
Magneto-rheological (MR) Damper design for off-road vehicle suspensions with flow blocking ability
title Magneto-rheological (MR) Damper design for off-road vehicle suspensions with flow blocking ability
title_full Magneto-rheological (MR) Damper design for off-road vehicle suspensions with flow blocking ability
title_fullStr Magneto-rheological (MR) Damper design for off-road vehicle suspensions with flow blocking ability
title_full_unstemmed Magneto-rheological (MR) Damper design for off-road vehicle suspensions with flow blocking ability
title_short Magneto-rheological (MR) Damper design for off-road vehicle suspensions with flow blocking ability
title_sort magneto rheological mr damper design for off road vehicle suspensions with flow blocking ability
topic UCTD
MR fluid
Magneto-rheological fluid
Blocking ability
Semi-active suspension damper
Engineering, built environment and information technology theses SDG-09
Engineering, built environment and information technology theses SDG-11
url http://hdl.handle.net/2263/45961