Recently, it is popular to study about ER fluid in a field of mechatronics and fluid mechanics. An ER fluid is one of the smart fluid, and it has the character that the apparent viscosity can be controlled according to strength of an applied electric field. We also have already developed of the one shaft type ER clutch using a homogeneous ER fluid that is one of the ER fluids. The homogeneous ER fluid has a character that the particle does not subside and the gap between electrodes can be narrowed due to be able to get the shearing stress in the same electric field. In addition, it also has a character that its viscosity is susceptible to the temperature variation. However, there are no reports about the temperature characteristics for the clutch using the homogeneous ER fluid.
In this paper, we study about thermal characteristics of the clutch using the homogeneous ER fluid. First, we discuss about the torque performances of the homogeneous ER clutch for the increasing its temperature. Here, it was found that the output torque of the clutch depends on the temperature variation. Next, we also discuss about an exothermic element of the homogeneous ER fluid given by the clutch. The result of experiment and simulation clearly shows that the most of exothermic elements of the homogeneous ER fluid is caused by the dissipation of viscosity energy in the fluid. As a result, suitable using method for the homogeneous ER clutch seems reasonable to drive the clutch with low rotating speed for the short time.
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