A Magneto-rheological Fluid Squeeze Film Damper for Rotor Vibration Control

Using the special characteristic of magneto-rheological (MR) fluid with a rapid, reversible and dramatic change in its rheological properties, particularly its apparent viscosity, by application of an external magnetic field, a novel controllable magneto-rheological fluid squeeze film damper(SFD) is developed in this paper. The controllability of the MR fluid SFD on the dynamic characteristics of a rotor system and the effectiveness of the MR fluid SFD for attenuating rotor vibration are experimentally studied in a two-disk flexible rotor. It is shown that not only can the dynamical characteristics of the MR fluid SFD be controlled by a simple external magnetic field, but also the magnetic field required to change dramatically the dynamic behaviour of the MR fluid SFD is not high and can be easily produced by a low voltage electromagnetic coil, and that the MR fluid SFD is very effective in controlling and attenuating the rotor system vibration