Performance-enhanced mode of magnetorheological composite: Constitutive modeling and engineering application

Abstract

Constrained by the intrinsic material properties and a single working mode, conventional magnetorheological (MR) fluid devices often struggle to meet the demands of high-performance engineering applications. Therefore, a performance-enhanced working mode based on MR composite was proposed. The unique working mode exploits the composite’s extreme sensitivity to gap size to significantly improve the interaction forces between particle chains and the mechanical conditions, thereby leading to a macroscopic enhancement in the mechanical performance of MR devices. Based on this working mode of the MR composite, a damper was developed that is expected to achieve full-cycle vibration isolation for the control moment gyroscope (CMG) system. By leveraging its special variable-gap structure, the damper enables real-time regulation and maintains stable performance over a wide range of damping force. Specifically, when the gap size is adjusted to a critical threshold, the MR composite will exhibit a significant enhancement effect, thereby generating a higher damping force. Subsequently, the constitutive model of the MR composite and the mechanical model of the damper were derived by combining dipole and tribology theory, and the mechanical performances of the damper were tested and evaluated based on the existing condition. The test results show that the dynamic range of the damper is approximately 19.0 under special condition. Compared with the conventional MR dampers, the proposed damper has good comprehensive performance and can better meet the broadband vibration isolation demands of CMG.