Theoretical and experimental study of magneto-rheological fluid disc brake

A Magneto-Rheological (MR) fluid disc brake is a device that transmits a torque by the shear force of MR fluid. The fluid is inserted between the rotating and fixed discs and a magnetic field is imposed on the fluid. In this paper, a complete test rig for an MR fluid disc brake is introduced. Experiments are conducted to measure the braking torque and speed of shaft during braking process and the results are presented at different voltage input to the brake. Also theoretical analysis for both MR brake and the mechanical system is developed and is solved numerically using finite difference method and Matlab software. Effect of current input to the MR brake, viscosity of fluid and design parameters is taken into consideration. A validation of the theoretical results with CFD model is introduced. The experimental results are performed and both angular velocity and the braking torque are obtained as responses during the braking process. A comparison between braking torques obtained from theoretical and experimental work shows agreement when voltage is 2 V at speed of 150 rpm and also agreement when voltage is 2 and 3 V at speed of 250 rpm.