• Krztoń-Maziopa, Anna
• Gorkier, M.
• Płocharski, Janusz

Abstract

Electrorheological (ER) fluids are usually suspensions of solid polarizable particles in nonpolar carrier liquids. Such systems are particularly sensitive to the presence of electric fields, which transform them reversibly into solid-like bodies. Fast (within milliseconds) and fully reversible reaction of ER fluids to electric field is a subject of great interest because of many possible applications in tunable vibration dampers, clutches, valves, or brakes. A novel type of ER fluids with composite microspheres composed of polymer electrolyte shell with defined shell thickness and inorganic hollow cores has been synthesized and tested in the presence of an electric field. It has been found that suspensions with composite grains possessed more stable ER response with temperature and lower power consumption in comparison to their polymer-based counterparts. ER effect of the prepared fluids was measured and related to the applied electric field and solid phase properties. It has been also shown that suspensions of composite materials exhibited improved long-term sedimentation stability in comparison to polymer-based suspensions due to the formation of weak microstructure which suppressed the sedimentation of solid phase in off-field state. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley \& Sons, Ltd.

Topics

• impedance spectroscopy
• polymer
• grain
• phase
• composite