Design and damping performance analysis of a multistage meandering hybrid valved magnetorheological damper

Abstract The current valved magnetorheological damper has a low space utilization of the piston head, which results in insufficient output damping force, and this paper proposed a multistage meandering hybrid valved magnetorheological damper. The three-dimensional structure of the damper is established and its mathematical model is derived. The electromagnetic field finite element analysis was used to simulate the damper structure, and a comparison was made between the results of traditional annular valve structures and those of multistage meandering hybrid valve. The damping performance of a multistage meandering hybrid valved damper was experimentally studied. The results indicate that the maximum output damping force of the multistage meandering hybrid valved structure is increased by 62.2% over the traditional annular valved structure at a current of 2.4 A and a coil turn count of 350 turns. The structure can effectively utilize the piston head space and improve the output damping force of the damper. The output damping force of the damper reaches 486.4N and the adjustable coefficient K reaches 8.6. The numerical simulation results are the same as the actual experimental results.