Design, manufacturing and testing of magnetorheological brake for small size motorcycle

Abstract

In this research, a new type of magneto-rheological brake (MRB) is proposed for small size motorcycle. The proposed MRB consists of a rotor with multiple trapezoidal teeth acting at multiple magnetic poles of the brake. In order to generate a magnetic field for controlling braking torque, a magnetic coil is placed on each side-housing of the brake. The inner face of each sidehousing also has trapezoidal shape mating with the trapezoidal teeth of the rotor via MRF layer. By applying countercurrents to the coils, a magnetic fluid is generated with some magnetic flux going across the MRF layer (MRF duct) between the rotor teeth and their mating poles on the housing. By using multiple poles with trapezoidal shape, a high braking torque of the brake is expected while the size of the brake is still kept to be compacted. After an introduction about the development of MRBs in automotive engineering, the configuration of the proposed MRB is presented and its braking torque is derived based on Bingham rheological model of MRF. The proposed MRB is then optimally designed based on finite element analysis (FEA). Its optimized MRB is then manufactured and its braking performance is experimentally investigated. The MRB is then installed in a prototype motorcycle and the field test of this prototype motorcycle integrated with the MRB is then conducted.