A study on vibration characteristics and tuning of smart cantilevered beams featuring an electo-rheological fulid

Electro-Rheological(ER) fluids undergo a phase-change when subjected to an external electic field, and this phase-change typically manifests itself as a many-order-of-magnitude change in the rheological behavior. This phenomenon permits the global stiffness and energy- dissipation properties of the beam structures to be tuned in order to synthesize the desired vibration characteristics. This paper reports on a proof-of-concept experimental investigation focussed on evaluation the vibration properties of hollow cantilevered beams filled with an ER fluid. and consequently deriving an empirical model for predicting field-dependent vibration characteristics. A hydrous-based ER fluid consisting of corn starch and silicone oil is employed. The beams are considered to be uniform viscoelastic materials and modelled as a viscously-damped harmonic oscillator. Natural frequency, damping ratio and elastic modulus are evaluated with respect to the electric field 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. Transient and forced vibration responses are examined in time domain to demonstrate the validity of the proposed empirical model and to evaluate the feasibility of using the ERfluid as an actuator in a closed-loop control system.