Design and experiment for magnetorheological transmission device with heat pipes

Magnetorheological transmission device (MRTD) is a new type of intelligent transmission device with excellent performances. A new MRTD with heat pipes is designed. In this type of device, the MR fluid is taken as the torque transmission medium and the pin-fin heat pipes rotating with driving shaft are used as the heat-sinking tool. A prototype of MRTD with heat pipes is manufactured and its experiments are done. The results reveal that the transfer torque of MRTD can be controlled by adjusting the exciting electric current. MRTD has a good constant-torque performance and its transfer torque almost maintains a constant value with variation of slipping speed. The pin-fin heat pipe can cool the MRTD effectively and its heat-sinking capability improves with increasing of rotating speed, thus providing an effective method for solving the heating problem of transmission device.