Design and Experimental Evaluation of a Magnetorheological Brake

A new magnetorheological (MR) brake prototype was designed, fabricated and tested. Firstly, the rheological properties of MR fluids, in particular the dynamic yield stress, were experimentally investigated based on a Bingham plastic model. The working principles of the MR brake were then analysed and discussed. The equations for transmitted torque were derived and used to evaluate the disc-shaped MR brake. This was followed by an analysis of an electromagnet using the finite element method. Following the manufacturing and fabrication of a brake prototype, the mechanical performance of the MR brake was experimentally evaluated with a specially designed test rig. The effects of magnetic field and rotary speed on the transmitted torque were addressed, and an amplifying factor was introduced to evaluate the brake performance. It was found that brake torque increased steadily with the increment of magnetic field or rotary speed. The amplifying factor showed an increasing trend with the magnetic field but a decreasing trend with rotary speed. ID="A1"Correspondance and offprint requests to: W. H. Li, Centre for Mechanics of Micro-Systems, School of Mechanical and Production Engineering, Nanyang Technological University, Nanyang Avenue, 639798 Singapore. Email: mwhli@ntu.edu.sg