Design method for spring accumulator of a single-ended MR damper

Compared to the double ended magnetorheological (MR) dampers, single-ended MR dampers are more suitable in limited-space fields required due to their larger strokes. An accumulator is needed for a single-ended MR damper to balance the volume changes as the piston rod is pushed out or into the cylinder. Since an accumulator has a great influence on the damper's performances, this influence should be taken into account in the damper's designing procedure. Here, the damping force formula was deduced for a single-ended MR damper with a spring accumulator. Then, both the method of a determination main parameters of regular spring accumulator and its inherent drawbacks were presented. Finally, based on the super elastic character of a shape memory alloy (SMA), a SMA spring accumulator was proposed and its design method was given as well.