Electrorheological damper with annular ducts for seismic protection applications

Abstract

This paper presents the design, analysis, testing and modeling of an electrorheological (ER) fluid damper developed for vibration and seismic protection of civil structures. The damper consists of a main cylinder and a piston rod that pushes an ER fluid through a stationary annular duct. The behavior of the damper can be approximated with Hagen-Poiseuille flow theory. The basic equations that describe the fluid flow across an annular duct are derived. Experimental results on the damper response with and without the presence of electric field are presented. As the rate of deformation increases, viscous stresses prevail over field-induced yield stresses and a smaller fraction of the total damper force can be controlled. Simple physically motivated phenomenological models are considered to approximate the damper response with and without the presence of electric field. Subsequently, the performance of a multilayer neural network constructed and trained by an efficient algorithm known as the Dependence Identification Algorithm is examined to predict the response of the electrorheological damper. A combination of a simple phenomenological model and a neural network is then proposed as a practical tool to approximate the nonlinear and velocity-dependent damper response.

Application of the optimal homotopy asymptotic method to nonlinear Bingham fluid dampers

“…A discrete element model with similar components, referred to as the BingMax model, is reviewed by Makris, et al [17] and is depicted in Figure 4.…”

Characterization of Electro-Rheologcial Fluids Under High Shear Rate in Parallel Ducts

“…Thus, the fast response and controllability of ER fluid make it a promising smart material. Since the development of ER fluid by Winslow 3 in 1949, ER fluids have been studied extensively in relation to many applications, such as vibration control [4][5] , seismic isolation 6 , clutches 7 and so on. Moreover, to increase the force of ER dampers, Gavin 8 and Kuo et al 9 proposed multi-ducts method to generate high damping † Corresponding Author.…”

Non-dimensional analysis for effective design of semi-active electrorheological damping control systems

“…In order to determine appropriate design parameters of ER or MR dampers for favourable vibration control performance, it is necessary to develop a non-dimensional model that can predict the eld-dependent damping force of the dampers. So far, several non-dimensional models have been proposed and used to analyse the pressure drop or damping force in ER or MR dampers [5][6][7][8][9][10][11].…”

“…The proposed nondimensional groups, consisting of non-dimensional yield stress, non-dimensional pressure gradient, and nondimensional wall velocity, give an insight into the Bingham plastic behaviour of ER uid. Makris et al [6 ] and Gavin et al [7] analysed the damping force of ER dampers by considering a non-dimensional cubic polynomial. Makris et al [6 ] described a dimensional version of a non-dimensional polynomial to predict the pressure drop of an ER damper with an annular bypass.…”

“…Makris et al [6 ] and Gavin et al [7] analysed the damping force of ER dampers by considering a non-dimensional cubic polynomial. Makris et al [6 ] described a dimensional version of a non-dimensional polynomial to predict the pressure drop of an ER damper with an annular bypass. Because the dimensional equation has a complex form and consists of many parameters, the determination of design parameters to meet the desired damping force of ER dampers is rather cumbersome.…”