Rate-Dependent Elastoslide Model for Magnetorheological Damper

A rate-dependent elastoslide model is developed to study the quasi-steady and dynamic behavior of a magnetorheological damper. This time-domain model uses a rate-dependent slide and a parallel viscous damping to describe the practical yield behavior demonstrated by field-activated magnetorheological fluids, and it uses a stiff spring in series with the slide to represent the preyield stiffness of the damper. A method of determination of the model parameters is developed using single-frequency hysteresis data of the magnetorheological damper. The model parameters are determined using virtual loading curves identified from the force-displacement and force-velocity hysteretic diagrams. A relationship between current controllable parameters and current input is established. The fidelity of the model is justified by a good correlation between modeling results and experimental steady-state data over a broad amplitude and moderate-frequency range. Significantly, this model captures nonlinear amplitude- and frequency-dependent behavior of magnetorheological dampers using constant model parameters and trivial computational effort.