Experimental demonstration of an improved magneto-rheological fluid damper for suppression of vibration of a space flexible structure

A low-power-consumption magneto-rheological (MR) fluid damper has been designed and fabricated to suppress the vibration of a space flexible structure. The MR damper fabricated in this study has advantages of both semi-active and optimal passive dampers, unlike the conventional MR and electro-rheological (ER) fluid semi-active damper. The vibration is thus damped quickly when the damper is controlled semi-actively, and the vibration energy is dissipated by an optimal passive damper in the absence of control. To implement the aforementioned damper, we fabricated an electromagnet combined with a permanent magnet. Its performance and the characteristics of the damper with the newly developed electromagnet were subsequently measured. The performance of the damper has been confirmed by vibration suppression experiments using 10-bay truss structures.