Proceedings of the Eighteenth (2008) International Offshore and Polar Engineering Conference

Vancouver, BC, Canada, July 6-11, 2008

Copyright © 2008 by The International Society of Offshore and Polar Engineers (ISOPE)
ISBN 978-1-880653-70-8 (Set); ISBN 1-880653-68-0 (Set)

Experimental Study on Ship Equipments Vibration Reduction

Based on Magnetorheological Damper

Zhongchao Deng; Dagang Zhang; Xiongliang Yao

Deepwater Engineering and Technology Research Center, Harbin Engineering University.
Harbin, Heilongjiang, China.

ABSTRACT
The equipment vibration on ship is a disadvantage for the operation and
safety. It should be reduced to as small as possible. To address this
problem, a vibration reduction isolator system based on
magnetorheological damper (MR damper) was proposed in this paper.
And its experiment was carried out. The vibration experiment was
designed using MTS hydraulic loading system. Many load cases were
applied in the experiment with different mass of the model, exciting
forces, and controllable current of MR dampers. The experiment results
indicated that this isolator system has a good performance on vibration
reduction of ship equipments, especially near the natural frequency of
the system.
KEY WORDS: MR damper; vibration reduction; Steel rope spring;
Ship vibration.
INTRODUCTION
determined the static yield stress as the maximum shear stress which
was modeled as tensile component in the shear direction of the linear
infinite single chains of spherical particles. Spencer reported the
phenomenological model for MR damper. Jinping Ou and Xinchun
Guan did experiment for optimizing configuration of MR damper.
Duan and Ni researched the rain-wind-induced cable vibration control
on the cable-stayed Dongting Lake Bridge. Dyke and Spencer studied
the seismic protection of civil structure using MR damper. Several MR
fluid devices have been developed for commercial use by the LORD
Corporation.
Isolator
system
MR damper
Conventional
isolator

The vibration of ship equipment is a disadvantage for ship working

environment and safety. It should be reduced to as small as possible.
For example, when the engines and generators are working, it may
generate some vibration to the platform and make the working
environment untolerable. This vibration should be controlled. To solve
this problem, a new type of isolator system was presented in this paper.
This kind of isolator is composed of steel rope springs and MR
Fig. 1 Concept scatch of the isolator system
(magnetorheological) dampers. The MR dampers and steel rope springs
were in parallel position. The concept sketch of this system is shown in
Fig. 1. This isolator system uses the advantages of the high and variable
damping property of MR damper to make the ship equipments have a SUMMARY OF MR DAMPER AND STEEL ROPE SPRING
good vibration reduction performance.
This experiment model was designed with two main components: MR
Over the years, many research results on MR and its application were damper and steel rope spring.
carried out. That the MR fluid effect is often characterized by Bingham
Plastic model and its application on vehicle seat was discussed by Magnetorheological fluids comprise of a carrier fluid,
Sireteanu. A new kind of MR fluid with high yield stress of 100 kPa magneticresponsive particles and surfactants or suspension agents. The
was reported by Phule and Ginder. Carlson and Weiss reported that as particles become polarized in the presence of an applied magnetic field,
well as iron-cobalt alloys, iron-nickel alloys in ratio ranging from 90:10 and organized into chains of particles within the fluid, which increase
to 99:1 showed a significant increase in the yield stress of MR fluids. the apparent viscosity of the fluid. The particles return to an
The non-linear model proposed by Ginder and co-workers, they unorganized state when the magnetic field is removed, which lowers

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the viscosity of the fluid. Fig. 2 illustrates this magnetic phenomenon.

NO MAGNETIC FIELD MAGNETIC FIELD, H

Fig. 2 Sketch of chain-like particles of MR fluids in the magnetic field
MR damper is designed using MR technique. Fig. 3 shows its typical
structure sketch. Through changing the current in the loop, the
magnetic density in the MR damper will be changed, thus the MR fluid
will be in different mechanics characteristic. This makes the MR
damper controllable.
Fig. 4 MR damper in calibrating test
Fig. 5 illustrates the typical results of MR damper’s calibrating test.
These curves are the force-displacement relations of MR damper with
different controllable current under a sinusoid movement input signal
with amplitude of 20 millimeter and period of 2 seconds. It shows that
the damping force of MR damper increases with the increase of
controllable current, and the effect of velocity on the damping force is
less.

12
10 0A
8 0.3A
0.6A
6
Damping force (KN)

0.9A
4 1.2A
2 1.5A
0 1.8A
-2 2.1A
-4
-6
-8
-10
-12
Fig. 3 Sketch of MR damper -20 -10 0 10 20
Displacement (mm)
MR damper has become a new kind of vibration reduction equipment
in the domain of vehicles, machines, bridges, and architectures, etc. Fig. 5 characteristic curve of MR damper
with its good characteristics of high damping, great adaptation to
temperature, fast response, low energy dissipation, simple structure, Steel rope spring is made from steel ropes. Compared with other kind
and continuously controllable damping. Some MR damper equipments of springs, the steel rope spring has many advantages in practical
have been used in practical projects. Currently, research results indicate application, such as lower stiffness, excellent damping performance,
that the mechanical characteristics of MR damper are related to lower transmissibility, simple structure, applicability to severe
adscititious magnetic field, displacement amplitude, and excited environment, lower cost, etc. Zhanggui Zhong did the arch steel rope
frequency. Dynamic constitutive relation of MR fluid is very spring experiment, and reported its characteristics. A FEA simulation
complicated after rheological change. The dynamic damping of MR method for steel rope spring using equivalent stiffness was proposed by
damper is non-linear. Xiongliang Yao.

Fig. 4 shows the calibrating test of the MR damper used in this Fig. 6 shows the calibrating test of the arch steel rope spring used in
experiment. This calibrating test was used to determine the relationship this experiment. It was performed using an electrical loading system.
between damping force, controllable current, and input displacement. It
was performed using a MTS hydraulic loading system.

437
 The lower structure was used to simulate the base of the equipment,
and the upper structure and mass were for the equipment. Lower and
upper structures were connected by MR dampers and steel rope springs.
There were 4 MR dampers and 6 steel rope springs being used for this
model. The travel-limiting structures were used to restrict the
horizontal displacement of the upper structure during the experiment.
The loading stand was used to apply the exciting load on the model.
Fig.9 shows the vibration experiment photo.

Fig. 6 Steel rope spring in calibrating test

Fig. 7 shows the typical rigidity characteristic curve of the steel rope
spring. It is the force-displacement relation of steel rope spring under
velocity input of 1 mm/s and travel of 25 mm. It shows that the rigidity
of the steel rope spring decreases with the increase of the deformation.

Fig. 9 Vibration experiment photo

In the experiment, the force and displacement sensors were used. For
Fig. 7 Characteristic curve of steel rope spring each MR damper LR-1 force sensor was installed as shown in Fig.10.
And two LC0502 force sensors were used for the middle steel rope
spring as shown in Fig. 11. The displacement sensor was located at the
EXPERIMENT MODEL center of the model. The LMS data acquisition system was used in this
experiment.
The isolator vibration system was simplified as a single degree of
freedom system. The dimension parameters of model were determined
according to the actual smaller engine. The model scale is 1:1. The
maximum model mass was confirmed to be 2000kg. According to the
natural frequency of steel rope spring system about 6Hz, the steel rope
spring equivalent rigidity was determined to be 6.06e6 N/m. Fig. 6 is
the sketch of the experiment model system.

Fig. 10 Force sensor of MR damper

1-lower structure, 2-steel rope spring, 3-travel-limiting structure,

4-uper structure, 5-MRdamper, 6-mass, 7-loading stand.
Fig. 8 Sketch of experiment system

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Fig. 11 Force sensor of steel rope spring

EXPERIMENT BOUNDARY CONDITIONS

The exciting force was applied to the experiment system using

hydraulic actuator with 10 ton in rated load. The actuator was linked to
the model through a supporting stand. Fig. 13 Time-displacement curve at controllable current of 2A

The main purpose of the vibration experiment is to meature the For the convenience of describing the vibration experiment results, the
vibration response under a sinusoidal exciting force. For the experiment nondimensional parameters η , β and λ are used in this paper. The
boundary condition, there were many load cases were used in this definitions of these parameters are shown in Eqs. 1~3.
Frequency ratio λ is defined as:
experiment. These load cases varied in different exciting force
amplitude and frequency, different controllable mass, and different
damping force of MR dampers. The information of detail load cases is
f
listed below, with its equidifferent range for each item.
λ= (1)
Exciting force amplitude: 2 ~12 k N (6 cases)
fn
Exciting force frequency: 1~15 Hz (15 cases) Where f is the exciting frequency, and f n is the natural frequency of
Controllable mass: 1~2 ton (6 cases)
Controllable current: 0~2 A (8 cases) the experiment model system. The parameter λ describes the
relationship between these two frequencies.
ANALYSIS OF EXPERIMENTAL RESULTS
Force transfer ratio η is defined as:
Fig. 12 and Fig. 13 are the time-displacement history curves of the
Fkc
experiment with controllable mass of 1 ton, exciting force amplitude of η= (2)
10 kN, and frequency of 1 Hz. The displacement sensors were located F0
on the center of the upper structure. The curves show that the system
displacement response was well reduced by this isolator system. Where Fkc is the resultant force transferred from the MR dampers and

the steel rope springs, and F0 is the corresponding exciting force

amplitude.
Nondimensional displacement amplitude ratio β is defined as:
D
β= (3)
D0
Where D is the vibration displacement amplitude induced by the
exciting force with amplitude of F0 , and D0 is the static displacement

under force F0 .
The parameters η and β describe the vibration reduction effect on
force and displacement respectively.

Fig. 12 Time-displacement curve at controllable current of 0
Fig. 14 and Fig. 15 are the typical result curves of this experiment. It
shows that the system vibration response can be reduced to different
lower levels by changing controllable current of MR dampers. The
maximum reduction point of vibration response is at the natural
frequency of the vibration system i.e. frequency ratio at 1. The
amplitude ratios decreasing of force transferred ratio and
nondimensional displacement amplitude ratio are 75% and 71%
respectively.

439
 Magnetorheological Fluids: Models and Measurements”, 5th Int.
Conf. on ERF, MRS and Their Applications. UK: Univ. Sheffield,
July,1995.
Ou Jinping, Guan Xinchun. "Experimental Study of
Magnetorheological Damper Performance", Earthquake Engineering
and Engineering Vibration，1994.
Phule P. P., Ginder J. M., “Synthesis and Properties of Novel
Magnetorheological Fluids Having Improved Stability and
Redispersibility”, 6th International Conference on ER Fluids and MR
Suspensions and Their Applications, 1997.
Sireteanu T., Stancioiu D., Stammers C. W., “Use of
Magnetorheological fluid dampers in semi-active driver seat
vibration control”, ACTIVE 2002, ISVR, Southampton, UK, 2002.
Spencer B. F., “Phenomenological model for magnetorheological
damper”, J.Engrg.Mech., ASCE,1997.
Yao Xiongliang, "Ship Vibration ", Harbin Engineering University
Fig. 14 η - λ curve with different controllable current
Publishing Company, 2004
Zhong Zhanggui, "Low-frequency, Big-damping and Impact-resistance
Isolator of Arch Steel Wire Spring", Ship Engineering，VOL 5,1995.

Fig. 15 β - λ curve with different controllable current

CONCLUSIONS

In the scope of this study, the experiment of isolator system based on

MR was carried out. Its results show that:
The isolator system has a good effect on vibration reduction in low
frequency range, especially at the system natural frequency. When the
controllable current was 2A, the force transmissibility was about 1 with
the exciting frequency was from 1Hz to 15 Hz. Its maximum reduction
was 75%. The vibration response was reduced remarkably. This
isolator system has a potential application in the area of ship and
offshore engineering.

REFERENCES

Carlson J. D., Weiss K. D., “Magnetorheological Materials Based on

Alloy Particles”, USA: Lord Corporation,1995.
Duan Y. F., Ni Y. Q., Ko J. M.., “Cable Vibration Control using
Magnetorheological Dampers” Journal of Intelligent Material
Systems and Structures, Vol. 17, No. 4, 2006
Dyke S. J., "Seismic protection of a benchmark building using
magnetorheological dampers", Proceedings of the 2nd World
Conference on Structure Control, Kyoto, Japan, 1998
Ginder J. M., Davis L. C., Elie L. D., “Rheology of

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