Vibration control of sandwich beams using electro-rheological fluids

Electro-rheological (ER) fluids are a class of smart materials exhibiting significant reversible changes in their rheological and hence mechanical properties under the influence of an applied electric field. Efforts are in progress to embed ER fluids in various structural elements to mitigate vibration problems. The present work is an experimental investigation of the behaviour of a sandwich beam with ER fluid acting as the core material. A starch–silicone-oil-based ER fluid is used in the present study. Significant improvements in the damping properties are achieved in experiments and the damping contributions by viscous and non-viscous forces are estimated by force-state mapping (FSM) technique. With the increase in electric field across the ER fluid from 0 to 2 kV, an increase of 25–50% in equivalent viscous damping is observed. It is observed that as concentration of starch is increased, the ER effect grows stronger but eventually is overcome by applied stresses.