A solid mechanical spring generally exhibits uniform stiffness. This paper studies a mechanical spring filled with magnetorheological (MR) fluid to achieve controllable stiffness. The hollow spring filled with MR fluid is subjected to a controlled magnetic field in order to change the viscosity of the MR fluid and thereby to change the overall stiffness of the spring. MR fluid is considered as a Bingham viscoplastic linear material in the mathematical model. The goal of this research is to study the feasibility of such spring system by analytically computing the effects of MR fluid on overall spring stiffness. For this purpose, spring mechanics and MR fluid behavior are studied to increase the accuracy of the analysis. Numerical simulations are also performed to generate some assumptions, which simplify calculations in the analytical part. The accuracy of the present approach is validated by comparing the analytical results to previously known experimental results. Overall stiffness variations of the spring are also discussed for different spring designs.

Date Published: 11 April 2017
PDF: 13 pages
Proc. SPIE 10164, Active and Passive Smart Structures and Integrated Systems 2017, 1016421 (11 April 2017); doi: 10.1117/12.2260215

Published in SPIE Proceedings Vol. 10164:
Active and Passive Smart Structures and Integrated Systems 2017
Gyuhae Park, Editor(s)