There are various technical solutions for magnetorheological (MR) fluid sedimentation monitoring, some of which are relatively mature and used in scientific research, but almost all of them are limited to static detection under laboratory conditions and are difficult to be integrated into magnetorheological devices for engineering applications. To implement in-situ settlement monitoring in steel-made cylinder of a damper, a sensing method of MR fluid concentration measurement based on wire wound inductor is proposed in this paper. The varying local concentration of MR fluid will lead to the inductance change of the wire wound inductor, which is immersed in the MR fluid at a specific position, with the settling process. When harmonically excited with a signal generator, the relationship between the output amplitude across the inductor and the MR fluid concentration can be established. To reveal the settling speed dependence, the monitoring of the MR fluid settling is carried out with different concentrations and viscosities. It is testified that the proposed method can measure the concentration of MR fluid effectively, and is qualified with the in-situ monitoring of the MR fluid settling in a real damper.

wire wound inductor,concentration,in-situ monitoring,settlement,magnetorheological fluid