Structure Optimization and Performance Analysis of a Multiple Radial Magnetorheological Valve

Due to the controllable and reversible properties of the smart magnetorheological (MR) fluid, a novel multiple radial MR valve was developed. The fluid flow channels of the proposed MR valve were mainly composed of two annular fluid flow channels, four radial fluid flow channels and three centric pipe fluid flow channels. The working principle of the multiple radial MR valve was introduced in detail, and the structure optimization design was carried out using ANSYS software to obtain the optimal structure parameters. Moreover, the optimized MR valve was compared with pre-optimized MR valve in terms of their magnetic flux density of radial fluid resistance gap and performance of pressure drop. The experimental test rig was set up to investigate the performance of pressure drop of the proposed MR valve under different currents applied and different loading cases. The results show that the pressure drop between the inlet and outlet port could reach 5.77 MPa at the applied current of 0.8 A. Furthermore, the experimental results also indicate that the loading cases had no effect on the performance of pressure drop.