Design of electro-rheological fluid dampers for hybrid vibration control: Experiments and scale analysis

One type of device that can potentially be used to actively control structures under unpredictable motions is an Electro-Rheological (ER) fluid damper.;The behavior of the ER fluid dampers for control of forced vibration under different frequencies is investigated. The frequency of the forced vibration was changed and different dampers with two and three electrodes were subjected to high voltages and the damping coefficient calculated. The efficiency of a single electrode damper for different gap length between the electrodes is explored. Two and three electrode dampers were also experimentally examined for linear and bang-bang control.;An ER/viscous fluid damper (hybrid damper), which has viscous oil in the outer compartment and ER fluid in the inner compartment was considered for its improvement in control over an ER fluid damper.;Finally, scale analysis is performed to predict the performance of the large-scale ER fluid dampers. (Abstract shortened by UMI.).