Limiting factors of the response time of the magnetorheological damper

Magnetorheological dampers seem to be suitable for the adaptive car suspension systems. For proper operation of the semi-active algorithms (skyhook, groundhook), the force response of the damper must be fast enough. In this paper, the response time of the Delphi vehicle MR damper is examined and the sources of the overall force time response on the control voltage are discussed. One of the main sources of the response time seems to be electro-magnetic circuit of the MR damper. A principle of an optimal controller for reducing response of the coil's current on the control voltage is designed. However, the measured overall force time response with fast current controller was not reduced as expected. Therefore, a FEM simulation of the magnetic circuit was made. It shows that after an optimization of the current controller, eddy currents in the coil's core cause long time response and therefore they are the limiting factor of the response time of the MR damper. These simulations were verified by the measurements and some recommendations about improving the pistons construction are given at the end.