THE MECHANISM OF ER EFFECT INDUCED BY ATTACHING FLOCKED FABRICS ON ELECTRODES

In recent years, it has been found that ER effects can be induced by attaching fabrics on the electrodes. In this paper, the mechanism of this effect is studied in detail. The fluid studied was dimethylsiloxane, which shows no ER effect without the fabric. Velvet fabric was attached on one of the electrodes, and the shear and the normal stresses were measured with various gap distances, shear rates and the field strengths. The results show that ER effect strongly depends on the gap distance but only weakly on the shear rate. A simple model which can explain these results are presented and discussed.