Frequency response analysis of magneto-rheological clutch designs

This article presents the frequency response analysis performed on two different geometrical configurations of magneto-rheological clutches including disk-based and drum-based configurations. For each configuration, two sub-configurations with inner coil and outer coil designs are studied. The configurations are thoroughly studied with respect to the effect of design parameters on the bandwidth of magneto-rheological clutches using finite element analysis and by considering the effect of eddy currents and the skin effect in the magnetic circuit. The N-way analysis of variance is used to study the effect of the main parameters as well as interaction between the parameters on the bandwidth. Furthermore, trade-offs between the effect of the main parameters and the torque capacity are discussed.