Magnetorheological brakes based on MR technology are being investigated for their
potential use for automotive purposes. Among the design decisions, the selection
of an appropriate MR fluid for the brake application remains an unexplored key
issue. This article proposes an MCDM-based framework comprising analytic
hierarchy process (AHP) and technique for order of preference by similarity to
ideal solution (TOPSIS) to select an appropriate MR fluid for the automotive
brake application. Three commercially available MR fluids from Lord Corporation
(MRF-122EG, MRF-132DG, and MRF-140CG) are assessed against six criteria, viz.
density, temperature range, yield stress, viscosity, magnetic saturation limit,
and solid content. Considering all the criteria, the AHP ranked MRF-140CG
highest, while TOPSIS chose MRF-122EG. Excluding the temperature range, both
methods converged on MRF-122EG as the optimal choice. The proposed framework can
be used for the MR fluid selection problem of other MR devices as well.
