Abstract: To avoid the limitation of Bingham plastic model in the design of magneto-rheological (MR) absorber’s structure under high speed at present, a design method of the vehicle MR collision absorber is proposed for the vehicle crash. On the basis of modified Bingham-plastic (BPM) model, some important geometric parameters are optimized to obtain the maximum damping force and dynamic range of the MR absorber by a modified non-dominated sorting genetic algorithm II (NSGA II). A drop tower test plat is set up and applied to check the actual performance of the proposed MR absorber. The research result indicates that the BPM model can predict well the dynamic behavior of the MR absorber under high speed while comparing to Bingham plastic model. The experimental results are in agreement with the numerical results that can prove the validity of the design theory. The design accuracy of the MR absorber can be significantly improved by the BPM model under high speed. The design method of multi-objective optimization can provide a series of Pareto front for the MR absorber. This will generate different design schemes, which are beneficial to the design of the MR absorber in the engineering application.

Key words: magneto-rheological fluid;absorber;modified Bingham plastic model;drop tower test