To improve vibration reduction in the railway vehicle, the semi-active suspension system using MR damper was developed and the vibration performance of the passive suspension system and a semi-active MR suspension system was compared. For the experiment, the MR damper and suspension system were designed and manufactured. Tensile and compression tests were performed on the MR damper while varying the input current. The damping force of the MR damper was measured and analyzed using the Bingham model. The railway vehicle was modeled with 9 degrees of freedom, and the sky hook control algorithm was simulated using the MR damper, using the Bingham model. This verified the effectiveness of the sky hook controller. Furthermore, to compare the vibration performance of the railway vehicle, the driving test was conducted with the MR damper and the passive damper. The lateral acceleration vibration reduction performance of the suspension system with MR dampers and passive dampers was verified, and it was confirmed that the vibration reduction performance of the vehicle with the semi-active suspension system using MR damper was approximately 50% better than that of the vehicle with the passive damper.

This paper aims to prove the effectiveness of MR damper as a smart control device when controlling the earthquake invoked transverse vibration of a two-span simple bridge. Applying a 40% of Kobe earthquake and a 120% of El-centro on a target structure, experiments were performed under two conditions: passive on (current on) and Lyapunov control algorithm embedded. MR damper's control performance was analyzed and contrasted under each different condition. It was concluded that MR damper was effective in controlling the vibration of the bridge.