Robust Design of an ER Damper using Taguchi Method

다구찌법을 이용한 ER 댐퍼의 강건 설계

This Paper presents a robust design of an Electrorheological(ER) damper using Taguchi method. Taguchi method is a robust design method that determines control parameters in the presence of noise effect. Electrode length, electrode gap, base oil viscosity and the weight ratio of ER particles are chosen for the control parameters and the temperature is considered to be a noise factor. The sensitivity of each factor with signal-to-noise(S/N) ratio and analysis of variance are investigated. The analysis results show that the electrode length and base oil viscosity of the ER fluid mostly affect the damping force in the absence of electric field. On the other hand, when the voltage is applied to the ER damper, the electrode length and the weight ratio of ER fluid exhibit significant effect. Based on the Taguchi method, an optimal configuration was designed and the robustness of the designed ER damper was validated by comparing the analysis and experimental results.