Eur. Phys. J. Appl. Phys. 48, 31301 (2009)
https://doi.org/10.1051/epjap/2009188

Effect of mechanical abrasion in polar-molecular electrorheological fluids

Department of Physics and Surface Physics Laboratory (National Key Laboratory), Fudan University, Shanghai 200433, P.R. China

Corresponding authors: lwzhou@fudan.edu.cn jphuang@fudan.edu.cn

Received: 6 June 2009
Revised: 7 September 2009
Accepted: 7 October 2009
Published online: 4 November 2009

Abstract

Mechanical abrasion is a phenomenon which commonly occurs during the application of polar-molecular electrorheological (PMER) fluids. We experimentally investigate its effect by milling PMER particles for different times. We find that this effect can significantly reduce electrorheological effects of PMER fluids made of butyrolactone-modified TiO₂ particles. This reduction results from the reduced interaction between PMER particles due to the loss of polar molecules on the surface of TiO₂ particles. It is further revealed that adding proper amount of suitable polar molecules to the host fluid may compensate for the reduction of yield stress which can be about 100% at high electric fields.