Newly Developed Current Source Based Shortening and Modeling Methods for Magnetorheological Damper Response Time

To design an effective intelligent control algorithm for performance improvement of the MR semi-active suspension for intelligent vehicles, there is a demand to considerably shorten and precisely model the MR damper response time. A rapid response current source is developed to shorten the output current response time, and the corresponding experimental method is proposed to provide measurement data to accurately model both the MR damper's rising and descending response times. Firstly, a unilateral series pre-charged capacitor based current source and the corresponding receding design method are presented. Subsequently, the experimental scheme is designed to test the MR damper's rising and descending response times under both different exciting sine displacement frequencies and square-waved control current amplitudes. Consequently, both the MR damper's rising and descending response times are precisely modeled. Analyses of experimental results corroborate effectiveness of the self-manufactured rapid response current source and precision of the testing data based models for the MR damper's rising and descending response times. Especially by adopting the newly developed current source, when both the exciting displacement frequency and control current change, the MR damper's rising and descending response times are reduced to less than 9 ms subjected to the control current amplitude of 3 A, and the maximum model error is less than 2%.