Study on the vibration suppression of a flexible carbody for urban railway vehicles with a magnetorheological elastomer-based dynamic vibration absorber

Magnetorheological elastomer is a new kind of intelligent material that mainly incorporates micron-sized ferromagnetic particles into a polymer. A dynamic vibration absorber that is based on the controllable shear modulus of magnetorheological elastomer is widely used in vibration systems. In the study, a flexible carbody model with a magnetorheological elastomer dynamic vibration absorber is established. A design method of a semiactive dynamic vibration absorber that is based on magnetorheological elastomer is introduced, and the operational principle of the semiactive dynamic vibration absorber is also discussed. To improve the vibration absorption performance of the magnetorheological elastomer dynamic vibration absorber, via multiple regression analysis, the optimal design frequency expressions for both the rigid vibration and the elastic vibration of the carbody are fitted. Parameter determination for the magnetorheological elastomer dynamic vibration absorber is investigated in detail. Then, the effects on the rigid vibration and the elastic vibration with the magnetorheological elastomer vibration absorber both with the passive vibration absorber and without a vibration absorber are analyzed. Finally, Sperling’s riding index is used to evaluate the feasibility and the performance of the magnetorheological elastomer dynamic vibration absorber in a practical application. The results demonstrate that the vibration of the carbody can be effectively reduced by using the magnetorheological elastomer dynamic vibration absorber instead of the dynamic vibration absorber without the magnetorheological elastomer. The magnetorheological elastomer dynamic vibration absorber that is modified by the optimum frequency provides superior vibration reduction performance and improves the riding quality of the railway vehicle.