• Proceedings of the Korean Society of Precision Engineering Conference
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• 1993.10a
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• pp.441-445
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• 1993

This study addresses the wear characteristics of electro-rheological(ER) fluids which are potential application candidates for various hydraulic systems. As the first step, three different ER fluids are composed and subsequently tested to observe field-dependent Bingham behaviors. The pin-on-disc testing method is then adopted herein herein to investigate the wear rate of the ER fluids with various base liquids and particle concentrations. In addition, friction coefficients for the ER fluids are evaluated with respect to the normal force.

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Automotive Engineers
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• v.1 no.1
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• pp.90-100
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• 1993

This paper presents some inherent characteristics of a semi-active variable damper featuring electro-rheological (ER) fluid. The damping force of the damper can be selectively adjusted or controlled by employing electric field to the ER fluid domain. This is possible owing to the pressure drop across the piston occured by field-dependent variable yield stress of the ER fluid. This is fundamentally different than the performance of a conventional adjustable viscous damper. To demonstrate the effectiveness and superiority over the conventional one, the proposed damper is incorporated with a suspension system. A quarter car model with the suspension system is formulated and represented by a state equation. By choosing numerical values based on realistic package size, power requirements and suitable ER properties, the performance characteristics of the suspension system are obtained and evaluated in both frequency and time domains. The effects of constant electric field and on-off controlled electric field which relates to the damping force are also examined.

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Mechanical Engineers B
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• v.28 no.1
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• pp.72-80
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• 2004

Steady flow of an ER (electro-rheological) fluid in a two-dimensional electrode channel is studied by using FEM. Hydrodynamic interactions between the particles and the fluid are calculated by solving the Navier-Stokes equation combined with the equation of motion for each particle, where the multi-body electrostatic interaction is described by using point-dipole model. Motion of the particles in the ER fluid is elucidated in conjunction with the mechanisms of the flow resistance and the increase of viscosity. The ER effects have been studied by varying the Mason number and volume fraction of particles. These parameters have an influence on the formation of the chains resulting in the changes of the fluid velocity and the effective viscosity of ER fluids.

• Tribology and Lubricants
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• v.16 no.2
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• pp.75-83
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• 2000

The present paper proposes a new type of an electro-rheological squeeze film damper (ER SFD) of which the damping capacity can be controlled by the application of electric field. The new ER .SFD- is sealed with slotted rings having electrodes at the inside of the constant gap. The ER SFD can provent the problem of electric short which might be occurred in a previous ER SFD. Reynolds lubrication equation for a Newtonian fluid and the end leakage equation for ER fluids are numerically solved to get the pressure distributions and the damping coefficients of the ER SFD. The results show that the damping coefficients greatly increase with increasing the yield shear stress of ER fluid. In addition, the unbalance response analysis of a flexible rotor supported on the new ER SFD implies that the rotor system can be operated with the minimum of rotor amplitude and force transmissibility by controlling the yield shear stress of ER fluids properly.

• Journal of Mechanical Science and Technology
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• v.18 no.10
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• pp.1763-1771
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• 2004

An experimental investigation was performed to study the characteristics of ER (Electro-Rheological) fluid flow in a horizontal rectangular tube with or without D. C voltage. To determine some characteristics of the ER flow, 2D PIV(Particle Image Velocimetry) technique was employed for velocity measurements. This research found the mean velocity distributions with 0kV /mm, l.0kV /mm and l.5kV /mm for Re=0, 0.62, 1.29 and 2.26. When the strength of the electric field increased, the cluster of ERF was clearly strong along the test tube and the flow rate decreased. The present results will contribute to the economical and compact design of ER fluids system.

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Mechanical Engineers A
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• v.23 no.6 s.165
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• pp.1055-1064
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• 1999

In this wort ER(electro-rheological) clutch and MR(magneto-rheological) clutch are devised and their performance characteristics such as response time and controllability are compared. As a first step, field-dependent yield stresses of ER and MR fluids are distilled in shear mode. For reasonable comparison between two clutches, a nondimensional design model is established by choosing same design parameters of gap size and number. Following the manufacturing of two clutches, field-dependent torque level, response time to step input, mechanical Power generation to electric power consumption are experimentally measured and compared. In addition, in order to investigate torque controllability of the clutches a sliding mode controller is formulated and experimentally realized. Control bandwidths of two clutches are identified and tracking control responses for desired torque trajectories are presented.

• The Korean Journal of Rheology
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• v.11 no.1
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• pp.1-8
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• 1999

This paper experimentally investigates the steady shear behaviors of electro-rheological(ER) fluids under flow mode at high pressure level. As for the ER fluid to be tested, two types of ER fluids are employed; water-based ER fluids (ERF 1, ERF 2) and water-free ER fluid(ERF 3). The water-based ER fluids are composed inhousingly, and the concentrations of dispersed particles are 20 wt% and 30 wt% for ERF 1 and ERF 2, respectively. To generate the flow mode at high pressure, an experimental apparatus operated by two-way hydraulic cylinder is constructed and utilized. The pressure difference is measured by the pressure sensor, while the flow rate is calculated using the measured data of the displacement sensor(LVDT). Consequently, the shear stress and shear rate are distilled by incorporating the measured data; the pressure difference and the flow rate.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Manufacturing Process Engineers
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• v.3 no.2
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• pp.67-72
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• 2004

Electro-Rheological(ER) fluids consist of suspensions of fine polarizable particles In a dielectric oil, which upon application of an external electric field control take on the characteristics of the Bingham solid. In this study, the temperature dependence of the viscosity was Investigated for an ER fluid consisting of 35 weight % of zeolite particles in hydraulic oil 46cSt. Thermal activation analysis was performed by changing the ER fluid's temperature from $-10^{\circ}C$ to $50^{\circ}C$. According to the analysis, the activation energy for flow of the ER fluid was 79.6 kJ/mole without applying electric field. On the other hand, with the electric field of 2kV/mm, the linearity between viscosity and temperature was not existed By changing 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. Generally, the hydraulic oil 46cSt will be operated at the temperature of about $40^{\circ}C$, thus, the ER fluid's electric field dependence of viscosity was examined at this temperature. Also, an influence of adding the dispersant(Carbopl 940) on ER effect was discussed.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Precision Engineering
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• v.14 no.1
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• pp.119-125
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• 1997

This paper deals with an experimental investigation on an active vibration control of ahybrid smart structure(HSS) via an electro-rheological fluid actuator(ERFA) and a piezoelectric film actuator(PFA). Firstly, an HSS is constructed by inserting a silicone oil-based electro-rheological fluid into a hollow can- tilevered beam and perfectly bonding piezoelectric films ofn the upper and lower surfaces of the beam as an actuator and a sensor, respectively. The control scheme of the ERFA tuning stiffness and damping charac- teristics of the HSS with imposed electric fields is formulated as a function of excitation frequencies on the basis of field-dependent respnses. On the other hand, as for the control scheme of the PFA permitting control voltages to generate axial forces or bending moments for suppressing deflections of the HSS, a neuro sliding mode controller(NSC) is employed. Furthermore, an experimental implementation activating the ERFA and the PFA independently is established to carry out an active vibration control in both the transient and forced vibrations. The experimental results exhibit a superior ability of the gtbrid actuation system to tailor elastodynamic response characteristics of the HSS rather than a single class of actuator system alone.

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Mechanical Engineers
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• v.17 no.7 s.94
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• pp.1649-1657
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• 1993

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.