抄録
ER Fluid (ERF) is a functional substance that can change its apparent viscoelastic properties by the application of an electric field. This is called the ER effect. The Applications of ERF to mechanical devices have been anticipated. However, separation and sedimentation of ER particles over long term use, which reduces the ER effect and results in low stability of ER devices, has been an obstacle to such application. To solve these problems, an ER gel was developed and the basic characteristics of ER gel were experimentally analyzed. A thin sheet of ER gel was sandwiched between a pair of plate electrodes and the variation of shear force between the ER gel sheet and the electrode was measured under variated of electric field intensity. The developed ER gel produced extremely high shear force and showed a slip phenomenon at the contact surface of the electrode under high electric field intensity. These results suggest that the developed ER gel has a different shear stress occurrence mechanism from conventional ERF. In this study, the shear stress occurrence mechanism in ER gel was also experimentally analyzed.
