Analysis of electric-fluid analogy of pressure transmission through an electro-rheological-fluid in annuli

Abstract

The article concerns the development of flexible robotic fingers using electro-rheological fluid (ERF) for pressure control. It describes a technique to predict the transient response of a pressure control device using ERF by an electric-flow analogy. The inertia is calculated from the theoretical equation. The resistance and additional voltage source by the ER effect are derived theoretically by assuming the flow in the electrode annuli of the pressure control device as a flow of the Bingham fluid. The capacitance is determined to compare the time-responses of pressures by the prediction based on a model with the results of a simple experiment. The predictions of transient flow, using the determined parameters of the model are in qualitatively good agreement with the experimental results.