Optimal design of magnetorheological fluid-based dampers for front-loaded washing machines

Abstract

In this research, a magnetorheological fluid-based damper to attenuate vibration due to unbalanced laundry mass from a front-loaded washing machine is proposed and optimally designed with experimental validation. First, rigid vibration mode of the washing machine due to an unbalanced mass is analyzed, and an optimal positioning of the suppression system for the washing machine is figured out. In order to attenuate vibration from the washing machine, several configurations of magnetorheological damper are proposed considering available space and the required damping force of the system. Based on the Bingham rheological model of magnetorheological fluid, damping force of the proposed magnetorheological dampers is then derived. An optimal design problem for the proposed magnetorheological damper is constructed considering its zero-field friction force and the maximum damping force. The optimization objective is to minimize the zero-field friction force of the magnetorheological damper while the maximum value of damping force is kept being greater than a required value. An optimization procedure based on finite element analysis integrated with an optimization tool is employed to obtain optimal geometric dimensions of the magnetorheological dampers featuring different types of magnetorheological fluid. Optimal solutions of the magnetorheological dampers are then presented and the optimized damper is figured out. In addition, performance characteristics of the optimized magnetorheological damper are presented and discussed.