Optimal design of MR shock absorber and application to vehicle suspension

This paper presents an optimal design of a magnetorheological (MR) shock absorber based on finite element analysis. The MR shock absorber is constrained in a specific volume and the optimization problem identifies geometric dimensions of the shock absorber that minimize a multi-objective function. The objective function is proposed by considering the damping force, dynamic range and the inductive time constant of the shock absorber. After describing the configuration of the MR shock absorber, a quasi-static modeling of the shock absorber is performed based on the Bingham model of an MR fluid. The initial geometric dimensions of the shock absorber are then determined based on the assumption of constant magnetic flux density throughout the magnetic circuit. The objective function of the optimization problem is derived based on the solution of the initial shock absorber. An optimization procedure using a golden-section algorithm and a local quadratic fitting technique is constructed via a commercial finite element method parametric design language. Using the developed optimization tool, optimal solutions of the MR shock absorber, which is constrained in a specific cylindrical volume defined by its radius and height, are determined. Subsequently, a quarter-car suspension model with the optimized MR shock absorber is formulated and the vibration control performance of the suspension is evaluated under bump and sinusoidal road conditions.