Distributed Magnetorheological(MR) Fluid Damper for Active Structural Vibration Control

A new type of distributed active vibration absorber using MR fluids embedded in a sandwich beam structures was designed to suppress unwanted structural vibrations. The paper introduces an analytical model for the MR sandwich beam structures based on the Kelvin-Voigt model and the Hamilton’s principle. The relationship between the magnetic field and the complex shear modulus of MR sandwich beam in the pre-yield regime is presented. The governing partial differential equations describing the dynamics of the MR sandwich beam are derived and a model analysis is performed. An active structural vibration controller based on the Lyapunov stability theory is designed. Simulations show the stable response and improved transient performance provided by the MR fluid damper.