Design and development of a wedge shaped magnetorheological clutch

Abstract

This paper presents a novel drum magnetorheological clutch design having a wedge shaped boundary. The converging film formed due to the direction of motion of the magnetorheological clutch and the inclination of the wedge planes helps to produce the pressure generating mechanism in the magnetorheological grease film. The resistance force developed due to this mechanism in the proposed case exceeds that of the conventional drum clutch. The proposed wedge shaped drum magnetorheological clutch consists of bimetallic discs made up of aluminium and mild steel. Mild steel disc has a certain number of inclined sliders shaped like a wedge at its boundary, which is immersed in the magnetorheological grease. The yield stress of the magnetorheological grease varies as a function of the magnetic field created by electric current passing through the electromagnet. Bingham model has been employed in the present study to analyse theoretically the torque generated by wedge-shaped drum magnetorheological clutch. The proposed magnetorheological drum clutch with wedge shaped boundary and conventional drum clutch have been designed and fabricated with similar material parameters and magnetic circuits. The experiment has been performed for the different current values (0 A, 0.25 A and 0.52 A). Torque results are plotted and compared for both cases. Experimental results suggest that the proposed wedge shaped drum magnetorheological clutch produces more torque than the conventional drum magnetorheological clutch, and thus it has better performance.

A Study on Power Transmission Control for Applying MR Fluid Multi-Plate Clutch to Automobile Power Distribution Device

“…Manish Kumar Thakur et al, using simulation techniques and experimental studies, created a new seal for an outer radius that is designed to improve the torque transmission of a magnetorheological clutch, and the transmitted torque was measured and studied for improvement [12]. Anurag Singh et al designed a new drum magnetorheological clutch with a wedge-shaped boundary, and experimental results showed that the proposed wedge-shaped drum magnetorheological clutch generated more torque than the existing drum magnetorheological clutch, thus resulting in better performance [13]. M. D. Christie et al proposed a magnetorheological fluid-based differential (planetary) gear transmission that variably connects motor power to a load attached to the planetary carrier output through a sun gear input [14].…”

The Influence of Current Magnitudes and Profiles on the Sedimentation of Magnetorheological Fluids: An Experimental Work

“…The iron particles evenly disperse to the carrier fluids in milliseconds after the magnetic field is removed, making it possible to control the MR effect almost in real-time conditions. Because of these characteristics, MR fluids are widely used in various device applications, including MR clutches [2], MR brakes [3], MR dampers [4], and MR mounts [5]. Another 2 of 16 technology for material removal [6,7] and medical devices has also been proposed [8].…”

Design and characterization of a miniaturized low inertia and low viscous friction magnetorheological clutch using 3D metal printing for human-robot applications

“…The magnetic flux can be generated by a permanent magnet (Bucchi et al, 2014; Rizzo et al, 2015), but is often generated by a magnetic coil for fast response actuators (Fauteux et al, 2010). The shear interface can have various geometries (Nam and Ahn, 2009; Pisetskiy and Kermani, 2020; Singh et al, 2020; Wang et al, 2013) but the two main geometries are the disk type (Bucchi et al, 2017; Pisetskiy and Kermani, 2021; Shafer and Kermani, 2011b) and the drum type (Lebel et al, 2021; Qin et al, 2018; Rossa et al, 2014; Figure 3). Another type is called serpentine, and consists of one large drum where the magnetic flux crosses the same MR fluid gap several times, in a serpentine way (Blake and Gurocak, 2005; Senkal and Gurocak, 2009).…”