Low-frequency dynamics of an electrorheological fluid in squeeze and shear modes. Part II: modeling and identification

Abstract

Electrorheological fluids (ERFs) offer rapid control of damping using very low power requirements. Different models have been proposed to simulate the hysteresis phenomenon of ERFs. A modular test facility was designed to perform measurements of a specific electrorheological fluid in squeeze and shear modes in Part I. Based on these measurement cycles, material models for squeeze and shear modes are proposed and corresponding model parameters are identified within this parameter space. The fitted models are benchmarked against the measurement data and are capable of resembling the fluid’s dynamic properties at harmonic excitation, including transitions between Bingham-like and visco-elastic material behavior. Once model parameters are identified, the dynamics of an ERF are resembled excellently by phenomenological models. However, clear trends within the parameter space cannot be stated for all model parameters which prevents the derivation of analytical statements for the model parameters. Since the identification of model parameters is not transferable, a new adaptation is necessary for every application. Nevertheless, the presented procedure can be applied directly in these cases and is robust.