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CHARACTERIZATION, MODELING AND SIMULATION OF
MAGNETORHEOLOGICAL DAMPER BEHAVIOR UNDER
TRIANGULAR EXCITATION

1
Jorge A. Cortes-Ramirez. , Leopoldo S. Villarreal-Gonzalez 'and
Manuel Martinez-Martinez. 2
'Centro de Innovation en Diseno y Tecnologia, CIDyT, del Instituto
Tecnologico y de Estudios Superiores de Monterrey, ITESM. Monterrey
Campus. Monterrey 64849, Nuevo Leon, Mexico. icortes@itesm.mx
2
Recinto Saltillo Aulas 1, ITESM Saltillo Campus. Saltillo, Coahuila,
Mexico.

ABSTRACT

Vibration control of vehicle suspensions systems has been a very active subject of research, since it
can provide a very good performance for drivers and passengers. Recently, many researchers have
investigated the application of magnetorheological (MR) fluids in the controllable dampers for semi-
active suspensions. This paper shows that; the characterization of a damper can be made through of
the physical characteristics of the MR fluids, current and damper design characteristics. A constitutive
model can be determined by simple power equation in function of the electrical current. In addition it
is shown that the use of ADAMS software is an excellent computational tool to simulate dynamic
mechatronics systems. Tn other hand, a reconfigurable system is designed to be adjusted according to
the circumstances and is able to respond by a position change or by itself just as the MR suspension do
it.

KEYWORDS
Magnetorheological Fluids, Damper, Mechatronics, Vibration, Computer Simulation.

INTRODUCTION

Magnetorheological (MR) fluids belong to the general class of smart materials whose rheological
properties can be modified by applying an electric field, [El Wahed Ali, K. (2002)]. MR fluids are
mainly dispersion of particles made of a soft magnetic material in carrier oil. The most important
advantage of these fluids over conventional mechanical interfaces is their ability to achieve a wide
range of viscosity (several orders of magnitude) in a fraction of millisecond [Bossis, G. (2002)]. This
provides an efficient way to control vibrations, and applications dealing with actuation, damping,
robotics and mechatronics have been developed [Bossis, G. (2002), Yao, G.Z. (2002) and Nakamura,
Taro (2004)]. In the other hand, by the use of dynamic simulations software is possible to analyze the