A dynamic absorber with a soft magnetorheological elastomer for powertrain vibration suppression

This paper presents a conceptual adaptive tunable vibration absorber (ATVA) with soft magnetorheological elastomers (MREs) for vibration reduction of vehicle powertrain systems. The MRE material used in this application has a rubbery silicone polymer matrix and ferrous fillers in a fraction of 27.6% by volume. For such a soft MRE the elastic modulus significantly increases due to the MR effect. Thus, the ATVA can work effectively in a wide frequency range (the increase in frequency is more than ten times) instead of a narrow bandwidth as a conventional dynamic absorber does. Numerical simulations of a powertrain fitted with the ATVA are used to validate its effectiveness. The obtained results show that the powertrain vibration can be significantly suppressed. This novel ATVA will be applicable to the vibration reduction of powertrains.