Vibration Characteristics of a Composite Beam Containing an Electrorheological Fluid

Abstract

The complex moduli of a composite consisting of a hollow beam filled with an electrorheological (ER) fluid were obtained by analyzing the beam's motion in free oscillation. The beam was considered to be a uniform viscoelastic material and was modeled as a damped harmonic oscillator. Hydrous-based ER fluids consisting of either cornstarch-corn oil or zeolite-silicone oil mixtures with varying amounts of solids and water content were employed, along with electric field intensities ranging from 0.0 to 1.7 × 103 kV/m. Rheological data were also obtained for the fluids A linear correlation between the two components of the moduli and fluid strength was observed, which was ex plained in terms of fluid structure and particle polarization