Two awards at the New Ideas New Business competition

On 9 November 2013 our team entered the New Ideas New Business competition held by METU Technopolis with a magnetorheological semi-active damper project and came away with two awards: the Undersecretariat for Defence Industries award in the defence category and the Ostim award in the general category.

What the system does

The magnetorheological real-time damper changes the viscosity of a smart fluid hundreds of times a second, giving real-time vibration and shock control under changing environmental conditions. Passive dampers, which are in common use, are designed for one set of environmental conditions; this system analyses the instantaneous vibration and shock characteristic, produces a dynamic response and adapts to different conditions.

The smart fluid has three defining properties:

• Under a magnetic field it moves between free flow and a semi-solid state, bidirectionally and instantaneously, at a controlled yield stress.
• In proportion to the strength of the applied field, the yield stress reaches 100 kPa within milliseconds.
• The magnetic polarisation mechanism is unaffected by temperature, so the fluid works across a very wide temperature range.

Use in the defence industry

Equipment used in defence has to adapt to changing environmental conditions, and the crew operating it has to keep control of the vehicle in any condition; both are indispensable to performance. A real-time damper has a place in many military applications on that basis.

On military tactical and armoured vehicles, the suspension is among the areas that most repay attention. These vehicles work over difficult and variable terrain, and vibration and shock are transmitted continuously to every component and to the crew. The magnetorheological real-time damper acts as a smart suspension here, letting the vehicle adapt to the ground and bringing the shock transmitted from it down to a low level.

What a smart suspension gives an armoured vehicle:

• Safe and secure handling through high grip over variable road conditions.
• Crew comfort over difficult terrain.
• Accurate engagement from a stable platform while moving.
• Slower wear on the vehicle, because less vibration reaches its components.

The other significant application is avionic: active dampers are used to suppress vibration and ground resonance in helicopter airframes.

The system adds value in the automotive and medical industries wherever vibration control and shock absorption are needed, and it is of strategic importance in aerospace and defence.

The patent history of the same project is set out in patent protection.