Earticle

This paper provides an investigation of torque transmission system using ERF (Electro-Rheological Fluid). The torque transmission system using ERF is a new conception device because an apparent viscosity of ERF can be changed by applying an electric field, We use the coaxial cylinder type in which the ERF fills the annular space between a pair of coaxial cylindrical electrodes and experiment results show that the measured torque was increased with the increase of the electric field. These are analyzed to provide guidelines to assist in the development of practical ER devices.

This paper addresses on the determination of damping coefficients of an infinitely long squeeze film damper operating with an electro-rheological (ER) fluid. The ER fluid behaves as Bingham fluid with an electric field dependent yield shear stress. AS phenomenological model of the fluid is adopted for the relationship between the yield shear and the intensity of the electric field imposed on the fluid domain. The model is then incorporated with the governing equation and associated boundary conditions of the squeeze film damper executing a circula centered orbit for the expression of dimension- less damping coefficients. Numerical simulation is performed to evaluate the performance improvement of the proposed squeeze film damper.

Electro-Rheological(ER) fluids change their apparent viscosity according to the electric field strength. Therefore, there are many practical applications using the ER fluids. ER effect on the dispersive system of polarizable fine powder/dielectric oil has been investigated. The electrical and rheological properties of starch based ER fluid were reported. Yield stress of the fluids were measured on the couette cell type rheometer as a function of electric fields, particle concetrations, and temperatures. The electric field is applied by high voltage DC power supply, The outer cup is connected to positive electrode(+) and the bob becomes ground(-). And the temperatures the viscosity(or shear stress) versus shear rates were measured. In this experiment shear rates were increased from 0 to 200s$^{-1}$ in 2 minutes. This thesis presents Bingham properties of ER fluids subjected to temperature variations. The temperature dependence of the viscosity was determined for ER fluids consisting of 35 weight % starch particles in automatic transmission oil.

This paper provides an investigation of torque converter system using ERF (Electro-Rheological Fluid). The torque converter system using ERP is a new concepting device because we can change an apparent viscosity of ERF by adapting an electric field. The device was designed by using the equations which were proposed by Carlson et al. The devices based on ERF generally assume one two possible forms. One is the parallel plate type in which the device elements are facing circular disks separated by a flat layer of ERF, The other is coaxial cylinder or Couette types in which the ERF file the annular apace between a pair of coaxial cylindrical electrode. The discussion on this study is specifically for coaxial cylinder gemetry and experiment results show that the measured torque was rapidly increased with the increase of the eletric field.

Electro-Rheological (ER) fluid is a class of functional fluid whose apparent viscosity can be varied by the applied electric field strength. The ER fluid is classified into two types; one is a dispersive fluid and the other is a homogeneous. Dispersive ER fluid is a colloidal suspension of fine semiconducting particles in a dielectric liquid and liquid crystal (LC) is classed as homogeneous type ER fluid. LC has been originally developed for some electronic display devices. Various mechanical components applying ER fluid have been developed, and the their performance typically depends on the characteristics of ER fluid which have generally been evaluated by a rotational viscometer. However, the ER fluid introduced into various mechanical components undergoes not only simple shear flow but press flow or oscillating flow. For the evaluation of ER fluid, the authors developed an reciprocating type viscometer. The amplitude is controlled on 5 mm at the frequency from 50 to 1000 Hz. In the present paper, the performance of several types of ER fluid is evaluated by the reciprocating type viscometer and compared with those evaluated by a rotational viscometer.

Electrorheological(ER) effect on the dispersive system of polarizable fine powder/dielectric oil has been investigated. The electrical and rheological properties of zeolite and starch based ER fluid were reported. The ER fluids were constructed by mixing zeolite and starch power with two different dielectric oils. Yield stress of the fluids were measured on the couette cell type rheometer as a function of electric fields, particle concetrations, and temperatures. The electric field is applied by high voltage DC power supply. The outer cup is connected to positive electrode(+) and the bob becomes ground(-). And the temperatures the viscosity(or shear stress) versus shear rates were measured. In this experiment shear rates were increased from 0 to $200s^{-1}$ in 2 minutes.

This paper presents vibration mode control of a smart plate containing electro-rheological (ER) fluid between elastic face layers. Following the composition of a silicone oil-based ER fluid, the ER fluid-embedded plate partitioned into four sections is constructed. Then, an extensive modal test is experimentally carried out to identify field-dependent modal parameters such as mode shapes and natural frequencies of the structure with respect to different are subjected to electric fields. The distilled results from the experiment exhibit that the ER fluid can be effectively employed in a continuous fashion to tune modal behaviors of the distributed parameter systems,

This paper consider the control for the vehicle suspension system using electro-rheological damper. The study is performed by using of FLC(Fuzzy Logic Controller). The model used in the simulation is quarter car and the road disturbance is regarded as white noise random process with zero mean. Proposed control technique shows good agreement compared with the result from the conventional on-off/bang-bang type control technique.

This paper reports on a proof-of-concept experimental investigation focused on evaluating the vibration characteristics and control of smart hollow cantilever beams filled with an electro-rheological(ER) fluid. The beams are considered to be of uniform viscoelastic materials and modelled as a viscously-damped harmonic oscillator. Electric field-dependent natural frequencies, loss factors and complex moduli are evaluated and compared among three different beams : two types of different volume fraction of ER fluid and one type of different particle concentration of ER fluid by weight. Modal characteristics of the beams are observed in both the absence and the presence of electric potentials. It is also shown that by constructing active control algorithm the removal of structural resonances and the suppression of tip deflection are obtained. This result provides the feasiblility of ER fluids as an active vibration control element.

This paper presents the temperature-dependent hysteresis identification of an electro-rheological (ER) fluid under various operating temperatures using the Preisach model. As a first step, polymethylaniline (PMA) particles are prepared and mixed with silicone oil to make an ER fluid. A couette type electroviscometer is then employed to obtain the field-dependent shear stress. In order to show the suitability of the Preisach model to predict a physical hysteresis phenomenon of the ER fluid, two significant properties; the minor loop property and the wiping-out property are experimentally examined under three dominant temperature conditions. Subsequently, the Preisach model fur the PMA-based ER fluid is identified using experimental first order descending (FOD) curves. The effectiveness of the identified hysteresis model is verified in the time domain by comparing the predicted field-dependent shear stress with the measured one under the both specified and unspecified temperatures. In addition, the hysteresis model proposed in this work is compared to Bingham model.