Semi‐active control of metal foam magnetorheological damper

Abstract A new type of foam metal magnetorheological damper is designed, and its performance in semi‐active control is investigated. At first, magnetorheological fluid is stored in the pore of metal foam, and with the action of magnetic field, magnetorheological fluid is extracted from metal foam, and then fills up the shear gap to produce magnetorheological effect. The magnetic field density in the shear gap is studied by the software Ansys finite element method, the magnetic flux density in the working gap is obtained in the different exciting current. A testing rig, including the vibration generator, laser displacement sensor, proportion integration differentiation control and cantilever beam, is built to investigate the semi‐active control performance of metal foam magnetorheological fluid damper. The result indicates that metal foam magnetorheological fluid damper has a good controllable damping property. When the exciting current is about compared with the vibration amplitude of cantilever beam magnetorheological fluid damper the vibration amplitude without foam metal magnetorheological fluid, the displacement of cantilever beam decreases by 44.4 %, which validates the semi‐active control effect of the foam metal magnetorheological fluid damper.