Van Bien Nguyen

Bio: Van Bien Nguyen is an academic researcher. The author has contributed to research in topics: Brake & Magnetorheological fluid. The author has co-authored 3 publications.

Development of a novel MR clutch featuring tooth-shaped disc

Abstract: In this research, we focus on development of a new configuration of magneto-rheological fluid (MRF) based clutch (MRC) featuring a tooth-shaped disc with multiple teeth acting as multiple magnetic poles of the clutch. The tooth-shaped disc is placed in a clutch housing composed of the left housing and the right housing. The inner face the housing also has tooth shaped features mating with the teeth of the disc through the working MRF. Excitation coils are placed directly on stationary winding cores placed on both side of the clutch housing. An air gap of 0.3 mm is left between the housing and the winding cores to ensure the housing can freely rotate against the winding cores. After the introductory part, configuration of the MRC is introduced and the transmitted torque of the MRC is derived. An optimization process to minimize the overall volume of the proposed clutch, which can generate a required maximum braking torque, is then conducted. The optimal results show that the overall volume of the proposed MRC is significantly reduced compared to a referenced conventional MRC (0.159 m3 vs. 0.295 m3). A prototype of the proposed MRC is fabricated for experimental works and good agreement between the experimental results and simulated ones is archived.

A novel PM-electromagnet brake embedded with rolling balls

Abstract: This paper proposes a novel PM-electromagnet brake with rolling balls embedded in the friction plate, which has significant advantages of higher torque-to-size ratio, lower power consumption and quicker brake response speed. The structural innovations of the proposed brake are mainly reflected in the following two aspects: 1. The torque springs are replaced by high-performance PMs to reduce power consumption during Brake-Holding Mode; 2. Rolling-balls are embedded in the friction plate to increase the braking torque. In addition, an optimized brake circuit is designed to improve the brake response speed by shortening the inductor discharging time. Firstly, the structural innovations of proposed brake are presented and discussed in detail. Then, theoretical analysis mainly focuses on the following two aspects: 1. How the rolling ball-embedded structure can improve the torque-to-size ratio; 2. How the distributed PMs can reduce the power consumption during Brake-Holding Mode. At last, the optimized brake circuit is given. To verify the benefits of the design, a proposed brake prototype is manufactured, as well as the optimized brake circuit. The experimental result is promising, and the proposed brake is suitable for various applications.