Modeling method for electro-rheological dampers

A method for modeling Electro-Rheological (ER) dampers is proposed. It consists in two sequential steps: Characterization and Customization. Both steps are based on the observed dynamic behavior of the ER damper. The method requires experimental data of the damper, which is subjected to an specific Design of Experiment (DoE). The resulting equation includes the minimum terms to represent the real behavior of the damper, it can be implemented in an embedded system. The method was validated experimentally with a commercial ER damper; also, the customized model was quantitatively and qualitatively compared with a well-known Eyring-plastic model resulting with a 28% better performance based on the Error to Signal Ratio (ESR) performance index.