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

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 influence of different amplitudes, frequencies, and currents on the output damping force was studied through experiments. The results showed that the damping force would increase with the increase of single parameter values. When the amplitude was 7 mm, the frequency was 1 Hz, and the current was 2 A, the output damping force could reach 4500 N, meeting the requirements for use.