Abstract
Magnetorheological (MR) brake contains magnetized particles, which are strong, fast and reversible transform in their rheological properties when applied the magnetic field. There are a few types of modes that have been working on in the fluid such as the shear mode, flow mode, squeeze mode and recently a new mode called the magnetic gradient pinch mode. Commonly, shear modes have been widely investigated and used in MR brakes. Nevertheless, limited focus has been given to the combination of shear and squeeze mode due to the design consideration in MR brake. This paper focuses on the design of MR brake with a difference of fluid gap rather than a single gap in one device by using both modes. In this work, a few design criteria are considered to select the basic automotive MR brake configuration such as material selection, MR fluid selection, working surface area, applied current density, and wire size. Then, a Finite Element Method in 2D simulation is performed to analyse the resulting magnetic circuit within the MR brake configuration. Moreover, the simulated results of the magnetic flux density in the MR fluid are used to predict the torque produced by the combination of shear and squeeze modes. It can be concluded that, the finite element simulation predictions show a good correlation between effect of the current and fluid gap.