In this article, an MR valve possessing simultaneously annular fluid flow resistance channels and radial fluid flow resistance channels is designed, and its structure and working principle are described. In addition, a mathematical model for the MR valve with both annular and radial flow paths is developed and the simulation is carried out to evaluate the newly developed MR valve. The simulation results based on the proposed model indicate that the efficiency of the MR valve with circular disk-type fluid resistance channels is superior to that with annular fluid resistance channels under the same magnetic flux density and outer radius of the valve. Furthermore, the results also show that the efficiency of the MR valve can be improved significantly with two types of fluid flow resistance gaps, viz. annular fluid flow resistance gaps and circular disk-type fluid flow resistance gaps simultaneously.

In order to increase the efficiency of magnetorheological (MR) valves, Ai et al (2006) proposed an MR valve simultaneously possessing annular and radial fluid flow resistance channels with the assumption that the magnetic flux densities at the annular and radial fluid flow gaps are identical. In this paper, an MR valve simultaneously possessing annular and radial fluid flow resistance channels is designed, fabricated, modeled and tested. A model for the developed MR valve is produced and its performances are theoretically predicted based on the average magnetic flux densities in the annular and radial fluid flow gaps through finite element analysis. The theoretical results for the developed MR valve are compared with the experimental results. In addition, the performances of the developed MR valve are theoretically and experimentally compared with those of the MR valve with only annular fluid flow gaps. It has been shown that the theoretical results match well with the experimental results. Mainly attributed to the radial fluid flow gaps, the pressure drops across the MR valve with both annular and radial fluid flow gaps are larger than those across the MR valve with only annular fluid flow gaps for varying valve parameters. The radial fluid flow gaps in the MR valve can reach a higher efficiency and larger controllable range than those by annular fluid flow gaps to some extent.

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