Parametric Study of a Non-Contact Brake Actuator Using Magneto-Rheological Fluid

Brake has a long engineering development history and has been widely applied on mechanical components from abstain from dynamic motion. There are many different types of brake mechanism, such as using tension cable, hydraulics and electronics. According to Automotive Research and Testing Center in Taiwan [1], electronics brake is becoming a very popular and is the main stream solution for brake mechanism. In addition, electronics brake using electromagnetic field for actuating power source has been widely developed in the recent years. However, brake system with smart fluid (i.e. Magneto-Rheological or Electro-Rheological Fluid) as brake mechanism has not been a common research development topic until recent year. The world’s first commercial MR fluid brake was invented by Lord Corp. [2] which was shown in Fig. 1. In 2003, Li, W. H and Du, H. has proposed an idea of applying electromagnetic as the source of excitation for the MR fluid brake [3]. However, a significant problem has been pointed out by the research suggesting that thermal effect is the major issue in preventing the MR fluid from performing the designed task. Evidently, heat is generated when the electric current passes through the coil of the electromagnetics.