Design and experimental analysis of magneto-rheological damper featuring a labyrinthic dual-channel valve

For the sake of improving the damping performance of the cab suspension system, the MR damper featuring the labyrinthic dual-channel valve (LDCV-MRD for short) is proposed in this paper, which is composed of a mixture of circular channel, circular disk channel and circular tube channel. The LDCV-MRD is designed structurally and the magnetic circuit is analyzed. The output damping force mathematical model is established, and the coil’s number of turns is computed. The magnetic field in the damping channel of LDCV-MRD is simulated and analyzed. The processed and fabricated LDCV-MRD is tested, and the experimental results are compared and analyzed with the simulation results. The results show that the simulated values of the maximum damping force and the adjustable coefficient fit well with the experimental results. The peak output damping force of the experiment achieves 21 008 N. The adjustable coefficient reaches about 5.61, when the input current gets to 2 A.