Effect of surface texture and working gap on the braking performance of the magnetorheological fluid brake

In this paper, the effect of the surface textures of braking disc on the braking performance is experimentally investigated under the conditions of different working gaps and applied currents. For this purpose, a new configuration of magnetorheological fluid brake (MRB) with adjustable working gap is developed to improve the manufacturing accuracy and cost, and to reduce the problem of replacing the braking disc. In addition, the braking discs with three types of surface texture are designed and machined. Based on the test bed developed for the proposed MRB, a series of experiments are carried out on the manufactured prototype and the results are presented to obtain the relationship among the surface texture of the braking disc, applied current, working gap and the braking performance. The results show that the braking torque is significantly influenced by the working gap and surface texture of the braking disc, and the maximum braking torque is obtained on the conditions of 0.25 mm working gap and the braking disc with square surface texture.