archives of civil and mechanical engineering 14 (2014) 433443

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Original Research Article

Effect of magnetic eld on damping ability of

magnetorheological damper during hard turning
P. Sam Paul a,1, A.S. Varadarajan b,*, X. Ajay Vasanth a,2, G. Lawrance a,3
a
b

School of Mechanical Sciences, Karunya University, Coimbatore 641114, Tamil Nadu, India
Principal, Nehru College of Engineering and Research Centre, Pampady, Thrissur 680597, Kerala, India

article info

abstract

Article history:

Tool vibration is a frequent problem in the manufacturing industry where metal cutting

Received 4 May 2013

operation takes place. It affects the surface nish of the work piece, tool life, and produce

Accepted 7 November 2013

irritating noise. In order to restrain tool vibration in metal cutting, it is necessary to develop

Available online 8 December 2013

and analyze suitable methods which increases stability and also improves the cutting
performance. Magnetorheological damper has received great attention due to their ability

Keywords:

to reversibly change from a free owing, linear, viscous liquid to a semi-solid when exposed

Hard turning

to magnetic eld in just few milliseconds and also found to be effective on suppressing tool

Tool vibration

vibration. The present investigation aims at studying the effect of magnetic eld on the

Magnetorheological (MR) damper

damping abilities of the magnetorheological (MR) damper during hard turning operation. MR

Magnetic eld

damper was characterized and the effect of magnetic eld on damping ability of MR damper
and cutting performances like tool vibration, cutting force, cutting temperature, tool wear
and surface roughness were analyzed. From the result, it was observed that direction of
magnetic eld parameter on magnetorheological damper reduces tool vibration effectively
and brought forth better cutting performance.
# 2013 Politechnika Wrocawska. Published by Elsevier Urban & Partner Sp. z o.o. All
rights reserved.

1.

Introduction

In turning operations the cutting tool is subjected to a dynamic

excitation due to the deformation of work material during the
cutting operation. The relative dynamic motion between
the cutting tool and the workpiece will affect the result of

the machining, in particular the surface nish. The identication of tool vibration as a limitation for machining was initially
found by Taylor [1]. The regeneration of waves on the
workpiece was identied as a potential cause of chatter in
turning, by Arnold [2]. Tool vibration related problems are of
great interest in turning operations [3,4]. Tool vibration is a
result of the dynamic interaction between the tool and the

* Corresponding author. Tel.: +91 9496176360; fax: +91 4884 282070.

E-mail addresses: psam_paul@rediff.com (P. Sam Paul), varadarajan_as@yahoo.co.in (A.S. Varadarajan), vasantajay@gmail.com
(X. Ajay Vasanth), lawrancedevaraj@gmail.com (G. Lawrance).
1

Tel.: +91 9443496082.

Tel.: +91 9443834440.
3
Tel.: +91 9042342252.
1644-9665/$ see front matter # 2013 Politechnika Wrocawska. Published by Elsevier Urban & Partner Sp. z o.o. All rights reserved.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.acme.2013.11.001
2

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archives of civil and mechanical engineering 14 (2014) 433443

workpiece that is present during the machining process

causing instability in the cutting process. In machining, tool
vibration have to be reduced because excess vibration will
increase the tool wear which will in turn reduce the tool life
and also produce poor surface nish in the machined
workpiece [5]. Since the tool life and the surface nish of
the workpiece is of greater prominence and concern in the
manufacturing industry, greater attention has been given to
reduce amplitude of tool vibration. The vibration that is
produced during the machining process can be sub-divided
into a few categories. Amongst the different chatters, selfexcited vibration is actually of greater concern. The dynamic
interaction between the cutter and the workpiece during a
turning process causes self-excited vibration. Self-excited
vibration begins to vibrate of their own accord spontaneously;
the amplitude will increase until some nonlinear effect limits
any further increase [6]. They are generally classied into
primary and secondary chatter [7]. Primary chatter is not of
greater importance and they are caused because of the friction
between tool-workpiece, thermo-mechanical effect or by
mode of coupling. The secondary chatter is caused by the
regenerative wavy surface on the workpiece and is the most
destructive among all the other vibrations [8]. Modulation
effects in waviness usually caused by the tool vibrating
radially relative to the component or axially is mainly due to
the self excited vibration between the tool and the work piece.
Self-excited vibrations are characterized by the presence of a
mechanism whereby a system will vibrate at its own natural or
critical frequency, essentially independent of the frequency of
any external stimulus.
Magnetorheological uids belong to a class of controllable
non-Newtonian uids. When MR uids are exposed to
magnetic eld they change from a free owing linear viscous
liquid to a semi-solid state in just few milliseconds [9]. Lord
Corporation [10] developed MR uid shock absorbers for
automobiles and it was observed that such shock absorbers
can vary levels of chatter, shock and motions instantly.
Investigations on boring tool holder with MR damper has been
performed by Sathianarayanan et al. [11] and it has been
observed that the damper application reduces the chatter and
improves the stability of the boring operation. Chatter could be
suppressed more effectively by adjusting the damping and
natural frequency of the system using MR uid dampers [12].
Also surface nish and cutting performance has been
improved effectively by considering MR damper during hard
turning [13]. The intensity of the magnetic eld produced will
determine the viscosity of the MR damper [14] and they are
capable of replicating this process for innite number of times.
Sam Paul and Varadarajan [15] studied the effect of MR damper
on the amplitude of tool vibration and they observed that MR
damper reduces tool vibration effectively by adjusting the
controlling parameters like the shape of the plunger, viscosity
of the oil and particle size.
In the present investigation, an attempt was made to study
the effect of magnetic eld on the damping ability of
magnetorheological damper during hard turning operation.
When an electric eld is applied to the MR uids, the uid
becomes a semisolid and this transition is reversible and can
be achieved in a few milliseconds. Cutting experiments were
conducted to arrive at a set of electrical and material

parameters that can develop better damping force during

turning of AISI 4340 steel of 46 HRC using hard metal insert
with sculptured rake face which in turn reduces the amplitude
of tool vibration effectively and brought forth better cutting
performances.

2.
Development of magnetorheological uid
damper
A magnetorheological uid (MR uid) is a type of smart uid,
where iron particles usually in the size of micron or nano are
suspended uniformly in a base uid of certain viscosity. When
subjected to a magnetic eld, the uid greatly increases its
apparent viscosity, to the point of becoming a viscoelastic
solid. Magnetorheological dampers are a specic type of semi
active suspension components that uses electric current to
generate the magnetic eld. The present investigation aims
at characterization of the MR damper and the changes
that are developed in the damping ability of MR uid
damper when there is a change in the direction of magnetic
eld.

2.1.

Fabrication of magnetorheological damper

Magnetorheological (MR) damper consists of a conical plunger

(Fig. 1) which moves inside the cylinder (Fig. 2) containing MR
uid. Other end of the plunger will match with the thread cut
on the hole of the tool holder. MR uid will be magnetized by
passing current through the coil. A coil is wound around the
outer surface of the cylinder, where current will be applied.
When the coil is energized, MR uid is activated and offers
resistance to the motion of the plunger, thereby damping the
tool vibration. In the initial stage of the present study, the
effect of material on the damping ability of MR damper was
investigated. Accordingly two different materials namely
OHNS steel and stainless steel 410 were selected based on
their properties.

Fig. 1 Piston with piston head.

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Fig. 4 Photograph of the damping force measuring

apparatus.

Fig. 2 Cylinder with base.

and Pr is the pressure acting on the piston, the force (Fp) acting
on the piston is given by
F p Pr  A p  9:81 N

3.

Effect of plunger material on damping force

A hydraulic jack was used for developing the test apparatus. A photograph of the test apparatus is shown in Fig. 4.

3.1.
A plunger material should be a non-magnetic material with
good toughness hardness and corrosion resistance. In the
present investigation, it was decided to study the damping
force characteristics when plunger was made of a Hardened
OHNS steel and stainless steel 410. A testing apparatus was
developed for this purpose and a conceptual sketch of the
apparatus is presented in Fig. 3.
The apparatus consists of a chamber containing hydraulic
uid which is connected to a piston (P) which forces the uid
into the loading cylinder when the handle (H) is rotated in the
clockwise sense. The loading piston (Q) moves up along with
the loading platform. The MR uid damper is kept in position
with its plunger touching the loading platform.
The coil of the damper was connected to a circuit with
provisions for controlling the applied voltage and measuring
the current through the coil. A pressure gauge is mounted on
the loading chamber and if Ap is the area of the loading piston

(1)

Test procedure

The MR uid damper was activated by applying a known

voltage V across the coil and the plunger was allowed to touch
the loading platform. The pressure in the chamber was slowly
increased by rotating the handle (H). When the force applied by
the loading platform balances the resistance offered by the MR
uid damper, the plunger just starts moving up and the
limiting pressure indicated by the pressure gauge was noted
which is a measure of the resisting force offered by the MR
damper for the applied voltage V. Two dimensionally similar
plungers were made, one with OHNS and the other one with
Stainless steel 410. The voltage across the coil was varied at
three levels and the limiting force was calculated in each case.
MR uid of the same composition was used in both the
experiments. The specications of the ferromagnetic particles,
the uid used, the shape and the dimensions of the plunger are
summarized in Table 1 [15]. The results are presented in
Table 2 and the variation of damping force as a function of the
applied voltage is presented in Fig. 5.
From Fig. 5, it was observed that higher damping forces are
possible when the plunger made of OHNS steel was used. But
while choosing a ferromagnetic material for making the
plunger care should be exercised to see that the material

Table 1 Specifications of the magnetorheological damper.

Size/dimensions of the plunger
Size of the ferromagnetic particles
Composition of the MR uid

Fig. 3 Conceptual sketch of the damping force measuring

apparatus.

Viscosity of the oil

Type of plunger

Diameter of
plunger = 5 mm
75 mm
70:30 (70% magnetic
particles and 30% oil)
SAE 40
Conical

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Table 2 Summary of results.

Sl.
no

Voltage across
the coil (V)

Particle size
(mm)

10
10
20
20
30
30

75
75
75
75
75
75

1
2
3
4
5
6

Plunger
type

Viscosity
index of oil

Conical
Conical
Conical
Conical
Conical
Conical

SAE
SAE
SAE
SAE
SAE
SAE

40
40
40
40
40
40

Material of
plunger

Current,
I (A)

Indicated
pressure (kg/cm2)

Damping
force (N)

Stainless steel 410

OHNS
Stainless steel 410
OHNS
Stainless steel 410
OHNS

3.985
3.985
3.985
3.985
3.985
3.985

2.40
2.73
2.75
3.05
2.80
3.25

97.825
111.480
112.129
124.319
114.120
132.472

Table 3 Confirmatory experimental results for two materials.

Material
OHNS
Stainless steel 410

Main cutting
force (N)

Surface roughness,
Ra (mm)

Tool wear,
VBB (mm)

Amplitude of tool
vibration (mm)

228.9
427.0

1.10
1.35

0.05
0.08

0.023
0.040

has low magnetic retentivity. If the material chosen has high

magnetic retentivity, it will tend to become a permanent
magnet under the inuence of the magnetizing eld and will
attract the ferromagnetic particles even without the magnetizing eld.

3.2.

Conrmatory experimental results

Cutting experiments were conducted on Kirloskar turn master

lathe for OHNS and stainless steel 410 materials with the input
parameters kept at levels as available in the literature [15] and
the experimental results for two materials are shown in
Table 3.
From the results it was observed that the damper made of
OHNS material reduces the amplitude of tool vibration
effectively and brought forth better cutting performance when
compared to a damper made of stainless steel 410. Therefore
all the related damper parts are made of OHNS steel.

4.
Effect of the conguration of magnetizing
coil on the damping ability of magnetorheological
damper
The damping ability of the MR uid damper depends on the
orientation of the ferromagnetic particles in the MR uid
which can be altered by changing the conguration of
magnetizing coil. Hence it was decided to study the effect of

Fig. 5 Variation of damping force with the applied voltage.

the conguration of the magnetizing coil on the damping

ability of the MR uid damper. Three possible orientations
were tried in this study. In the rst orientation the coil was
positioned in such a way that the ow of current was in a
direction parallel to the axis of the MR uid damper (Fig. 6a)
while in the second orientation the current ow direction
was perpendicular to the axis of the MR uid damper
(Fig. 6b) and in the third orientation the ow of current was
in a combined direction both parallel and perpendicular to
the axis of the magnetorheological damper (Fig. 6c). Photographs of core with three different windings are shown in
Fig. 7a, b, c, respectively. It was decided to compare the
effect of the direction of magnetizing current in the two
directions. The annular gap between the cylinder and the
piston head plays a major role in the damping force that is
produced. The distance between them should be less than
1 mm so that the damping force that is produced will have a
considerable value that can be used for damping the tool
[16].

4.1.

Characterization of magnetorheological damper

In this investigation, the effect of parameters like the

composition of MR uid, winding connection and direction
of current on damping ability of magnetorheological damper
were studied using the testing apparatus shown in Fig. 4 and
the parameters were optimized.
The parameters were varied as shown in Table 4 and design
matrix is presented in Table 5. The experiments were
replicated twice to improve the accuracy of the results. The
level of input parameters for achieving better damping force is
presented in Table 6.
From the results it was found out that 7030 ratio (70% of
iron llings and 30% of oil by weight) MR uid, ow of current
in a direction parallel to the axis of MR damper winding and
series combination produced high damping force. The
changes in damping capability according to the current are
shown in Fig. 8. The interesting factor that was found is that
they reach a high value in just 3 A, this accounts for the factor
that the heat produced in the coil will also be less, comparing
other types.

archives of civil and mechanical engineering 14 (2014) 433443

437

Fig. 7 Photograph of core with different windings.

Fig. 8 Characterization of MR damper (optimum)

5.

Experimental work

5.1.

Selection of work material

The workpiece used in this study was AISI 4340 steel

which was hardened to 46 HRC by heat treatment. It is
general-purpose steel having a wide range of application in
automobile and allied industries by virtue of its good hardenability enabling it to be used in fairly large sections [17]. In this
investigation, bar of 80 mm diameter and 380 mm length was
employed. The chemical composition of AISI 4340 steel in
weight percent is presented in Table 7.

5.2.

Selection of tool

The tool holder used had the specication PSBNR 2525 M12.
Multicoated hard metal inserts with sculptured rake face
geometry with the specication SNMG 120408 MT TT5100 from
Taegu Tec were used as cutting tools in this investigation. The
tool holder and the insert used for this study are shown in
Figs. 9 and 10. The cross section of the insert is presented in
Fig. 11. The selection of cutting tool and the tool holder was
done on the information available in the literature [18] and the
recommendations of the cutting tool manufacturers, M/s
Taegu Tec India (P) Ltd.

Fig. 6 (a) Flow of current in a direction parallel to the axis of

the MR damper (vertical winding). (b) Flow of current in a
direction perpendicular to the axis of the MR damper (axial
winding). (c) Flow of current in a direction both parallel and
perpendicular to the axis of the MR damper (combined
winding).

Fig. 9 Tool holder.

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Table 4 Levels of parameters during magnetorheological damper.

Sl. no

Parameters

Variance

Winding type

2
3

Winding connection
Ratio of MR uid

Flow of current in a direction parallel to the axis of MR damper, perpendicular to the axis
of MR damper and combined (both parallel and perpendicular)
Series and parallel
60:40 and 70:30

Table 5 Design matrix.

Connection type
Winding type
Series

Ratio of iron
fillings to oil

Parallel 60 - 40

70 - 30

Combined(parallel and perpendicular

to the axis of MR damper)

Fig. 11 Cross section of tool insert.

Flow of current in a direction parallel

to the axis of MR damper
Flow of current in a direction perpendicular perpendicular to the
axis of MR damper
to the axis of MR damper

Fig. 10 Tool insert.

5.3.

Experimentation
Fig. 12 Photograph of the experimental set up.

Cutting experiments were conducted on a Kirloskar turn

master and the photograph of the experimental setup with
damper is shown in Fig. 12. The main cutting force was
measured using a Kistler type 9257B dynamometer. Since feed
force and thrust force are small in magnitude, least harmful
and least signicant, cutting force acting in tangential
direction which was called as main cutting force was
considered in this study [19]. Surface roughness was measured
using Mahr TR100 surface roughness tester of type Mar Surf GD

25. Among the various surface roughness amplitude parameters such as roughness average (Ra), root-mean square
roughness (Rq), maximum peak-to-valley roughness (Ry or
Rmax), Ra was selected to express the surface roughness in this
study. Ra averages all peaks and valleys of the roughness
prole, and then neutralizes the few outlying points so that the

Table 6 Input parameters for achieving better damping force.

Objective

Winding type

Winding connection

Ratio of MR uid mixture

Produce high damping force

Parallel to the axis of MR damper

Series

70:30

Sl. no
1

Table 7 AISI 4340 material composition.

Elements

% composition

Mn

Si

Ni

Cr

Mo

Fe

0.41

0.87

0.28

1.83

0.72

0.20

Rest

archives of civil and mechanical engineering 14 (2014) 433443

extreme points have no signicant impact on the nal results.

Also it is considered as a simple and an effective method for
monitoring surface texture and ensuring consistency in
measurement of multiple surfaces.
The average ank wear was measured using a tool maker's
microscope and the amplitude of tool vibration was measured
using a piezoelectric vibrometer pickup mounted at the top of
the tool holder. Since the vibration, particularly in the radial
direction, is known to have a deleterious effect on the
machined surface texture [20], the amplitude of tool vibration
in vertical direction was measured in this study. Cutting
experiments were conducted on a Kirloskar Turn master-35
Lathe. The experiments were replicated twice to improve the
accuracy of the results. The cutting velocity was kept at 100 m/
min, the feed at 0.12 mm/rev and the depth of cut at 1.2 mm, a
DC current of 30 voltage, conical plunger and 75mm size
particles, SAE 40 oil was used and the design matrix is
presented in Table 5. These data were taken based on the
information available in the literature.

6.

Results and discussion

Apart from the test conducted using the characterization test

rig, cutting experiments were conducted using Kirloskar lathe
based on the design matrix mentioned in Table 5 to validate the
results obtained using characterization test rig. The effect of
different windings on the amplitude of tool vibration is shown in
Figs. 13 and 14 presents the effect of different windings on
cutting force. The effect of different windings on surface
roughness and tool wear is shown in Figs. 15 and 16,
respectively.
The experimental results were analyzed and from the
results it was observed that for achieving maximum damping
force, the core should be wounded with the coil where the ow

Fig. 13 Comparison of the amplitude of tool vibration.

Fig. 14 Comparison of main cutting force.

439

Fig. 15 Comparison of surface roughness.

Fig. 16 Comparison of tool wear.

of current is parallel to the axis of MR damper, provided in

series connection with a MR uid mixture of 70:30 ratio (70% of
iron llings and 30% of oil by weight). These results validate
with the results obtained using characterization test.
In general, the best way to solve a vibration problem is to
increase the stiffness of the system. In turning process, the
most prominent component of the cutting force is the main
cutting force and it acts in the downward direction. Any
system that opposes the main cutting force which acts in the
downward direction can provide effective damping. Sam Paul
and Varadarajan [15] observed that damping force can be
provided by magnetorheological setup attached to the tool
holder. In order to provide effective damping force it was
decided to study the effect of current on oil uid mixture on
tool vibration and cutting performance.
An electric current when applied to ironuid mixtures
through the winding in the coil, magnetic eld will be created
and that eld impacts magnetic force on iron particles that are
in the eld. According to Maxwell's equations, magnetism is
produced whenever electrically charged particles are in
motion in an electric current. The magnetic eld which was
produced by the applied current creates a magnetic force and it
is perpendicular to the direction of applied current. This
magnetic force does not work on the particle however it may
change the direction of the particles movement.
The current when supplied to the vertical or internal
winding the direction of the current ows along the axis of the
cylinder causing the magnetic eld to be produced perpendicular to the axis of the cylinder (according to the right hand
thumb rule). Rather when the current is supplied to the axial
winding the magnetic eld is produced along the axis of the
cylinder. In the case of the combined winding the interaction
of the magnetic eld takes place. Thus comparing all the cases
the vertical winding makes the iron particles to align
perpendicular to the axis of cylinder and provides a better
damping force.

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archives of civil and mechanical engineering 14 (2014) 433443

Table 8 Experimental conditions for variable speed and

feed test.
Parameters
Cutting velocity
(m/min)
Feed rate (mm/rev)
Depth of cut (mm)

Variable speed test

Variable feed test

80, 100, 120

100

0.12
1.2

0.08, 0.1, 0.12

1.2

Also it was observed that the ironuid mixture of the

suspended particles affect the change in properties of the MR
uid when placed in a magnetic eld. The MR uids
investigated here use the micron-sized particles in SAE oil
in 60 wt% of iron (Fe) particles:40 wt% of oil and 70 wt% of iron
(Fe) particles:30 wt% of oil. When the ironoil mixture is of
70:30 ratio and in the presence of a magnetic eld, the
magnetic-responsive particles become polarized and are
thereby organized into chains of particles or particle brils.
The particle chains increase the ow resistance of the uid,
resulting in the development of a solid mass and provide
better performance when compared to 60:30 ratio. If the ratio
of the ironuid particle ratio in the MR uid is very high (more
than 70:30), there is a possibility of magnetic particles sticking
together to form a solid mass when magnetized. But if the ratio
of the particle is low (less than 70:30), the tendency to form a
solid block reduces.

6.1.

Fig. 17 Comparison of amplitude of tool vibration during

variable feed test.

damper and to study the inuence of magnetorheological

damper on tool vibration and cutting performance during hard
turning. The operating parameters during variable feed and
speed test are summarized in Table 8. The experiments were
carried out with two replications. The operating parameters
were selected based on the results of the preliminary work
carried out. The observations during the variable feed and speed
test for conventional turning and turning with magnetorheological damper are summarized in Tables 9 and 10, respectively.
Figs. 17 and 18 present a comparison of amplitude of
tool vibration with and without the impact damper
during the variable feed test and variable speed test
respectively. A similar comparison of surface roughness is
presented in Figs. 19 and 20, tool wear is presented in
Figs. 21 and 22 and main cutting force is presented in Figs. 23
and 24.

Variable feed and speed test

Variable feed and speed tests were conducted to compare

conventional turning and turning with magnetorheological

Table 9 Observations during variable feed test.

Feed (mm/rev)

0.08
0.1
0.12

Amplitude of tool
vibration (mm)

Surface roughness
(mm)

Tool wear (mm)

Main cutting force

(N)

Without
damper

With
damper

Without
damper

With
damper

Without
damper

With
damper

Without
damper

With
damper

0.128
0.169
0.194

0.0302
0.0418
0.0485

1.23
1.77
1.99

0.492
0.601
0.646

0.045
0.05
0.07

0.0206
0.0220
0.0266

281.3
301.5
320.2

135.024
142.660
163.018

Table 10 Observations during variable speed test.

Speed (m/min)

80
100
120

Amplitude of tool
vibration (mm)

Surface roughness
(mm)

Tool wear (mm)

Cutting force (N)

Without
damper

With
damper

Without
damper

With
damper

Without
damper

With
damper

Without
damper

With
damper

0.290
0.258
0.208

0.0608
0.0511
0.0312

1.240
1.235
1.229

0.4430
0.4199
0.3932

0.07
0.06
0.05

0.0346
0.0294
0.0190

311.6
295.9
273.2

159.568
140.196
113.816

Table 11 Comparison of cutting performance without and with damper under same cutting condition during hard turning.
Parameters
Amplitude of tool vibration (mm)
Surface roughness Ra (mm)
Main cutting force (N)
Tool wear, VBB (mm)

Without damper

With damper

% reduction

0.15
0.90
338.50
0.07

0.03
0.28
140.30
0.03

80.00
68.89
58.55
57.14

archives of civil and mechanical engineering 14 (2014) 433443

441

Fig. 23 Comparison of cutting force during variable feed test.

Fig. 18 Comparison of amplitude of tool vibration during
variable speed test.

Fig. 24 Comparison of main cutting force during variable

speed test.

Fig. 19 Comparison of surface roughness during variable

feed test.

Fig. 20 Comparison of surface roughness during variable

speed test.

Fig. 21 Comparison of tool wear during variable feed test.

Fig. 22 Comparison of tool wear during variable feed test.

Fig. 25 (a) Comparison of tool vibration during

conventional turning and turning with magnetorheological
damper. (b) Comparison of tool wear during conventional
turning and turning with magnetorheological damper. (c)
Comparison of main cutting force during conventional
turning and turning with magnetorheological damper. (d)
Comparison of surface roughness during conventional
turning and turning with magnetorheological damper.

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archives of civil and mechanical engineering 14 (2014) 433443

From Figs. 17 and 18, it can be seen that there is considerable

reduction in the amplitude of tool vibration when the
magnetorheological damper has the ironuid particle ratio
as 70:30 provided with a winding in vertical series. It is also
observed that there is an improvement in surface nish
(Figs. 19 and 20), reduction in tool wear (Figs. 21 and 22) and
decrease in main cutting force (Figs. 23 and 24) which is
attributed to enhanced rigidity imparted by the magnetorheological damper. Apart from the type of tool, composition of work
material and cutting conditions, tool wear depends on and
the rigidity of the tooling system also [21]. As evident from
Figs. 21 and 22, the presence of magnetorheological damper
enhances the rigidity of the tooling system and reduces
tool wear.

6.2.
Conrmatory results and comparison with
conventional turning
Conrmatory experiments were conducted with the input
parameters kept at levels as indicated in Table 4 and the
performance was compared with cutting performance during
conventional turning without magnetorheological damper.
Comparison of cutting performance for the two cases is
presented in Table 11 and shown graphically through Fig. 25
(a)(d).
The results show a denite advantage for turning with
magnetorheological damper when compared to conventional
turning. When the set of levels of parameters for optimum
performance were used, there was 80% reduction in amplitude
of tool vibration, 69% reduction in surface roughness, 58.5%
reduction in cutting force and 57% reduction in tool wear when
compared to a conventional turning scheme without MR uid
damper.

7.

Conclusion

In the present investigation, the effect of different parameters

of magnetorheological damper on cutting performance was
studied. MR uid damper with different windings were
fabricated and characterization was performed to nd out
the varying damping force that was produced due to change in
the magnitude of current. The effect that was developed in
amplitude of tool vibration and cutting performances due to
changes in the ratio of ironuid mixture and the direction of
the current were studied and optimum parameters were
identied. From the present study the following observations
were made:
1. Magnetorheological damper suppresses tool vibration,
improves the surface nish, and reduces cutting force, tool
wear effectively during hard turning.
2. For better cutting performance the MR uid must be in the
ratio of 70% of iron llings and 30% of oil by weight (70:30),
the ow of current should be in the direction parallel to the
axis of MR damper and the combination should be in series.
3. As the tool wear rate reduces considerably due the effect of
MR uid damper, the life of the tool will increase.
4. Damper developed in this study is simple in construction,
could be easily adopted on the existing machine tool,

competent in suppressing amplitude of tool vibration and

also economically viable.

Acknowledgements
The authors are grateful to the Centre for Research in Design
and Manufacturing Engineering (CRDM) of the School of
Mechanical Sciences, Karunya University for facilitating and
supporting this research work. The authors would like to thank
Mr. Jones Robin, Mr. Jayakumar Rayappar and Mr. Sivasankaran of the machine tools lab for their help in conducting
experiments. Authors also thank M/s. Tageu Tec India (P) Ltd.
for supplying cutting tools needed for this investigation. The
authors would like to thank Industrial Metal Powders Pvt. Ltd.
for their help in supplying iron particles.

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