A design and modelling review of rotary magnetorheological damper

• A review of rotary magnetorheological damper is presented.
• Focus on structural and magnetic circuit design is taken.
• Overview of modelling technique for rotary magnetorheological damper is provided.
• Advantages, limitations and suggestions for future development are summarized.

The trend and progress in rotary magnetorheological (MR) damper development is currently not as extensive as the advancement of linear MR damper, despite the fact that it has several comparative advantages. A rotary MR damper offers substantial weight reduction and design compactness thus requiring smaller space than a linear MR damper for device installation. In addition, a rotary damper also utilizes a smaller quantity of MR fluid, which is a significant contribution for cost reduction. In this paper, an overview of recent advances in rotary MR damper are presented, in terms of different proposed concepts of structural design, magnetic circuit configuration, and modelling techniques. The review separates rotary MR damper design into two categories, namely continuous angle and limited angle dampers. Issues regarding device endurance, ease of manufacturing and maintenance and controllability are particularly highlighted.