COMPARISON OF ELECTRORHEOLOGICAL FLUIDS BASED ON SILICONE OIL AND LIQUID-CRYSTALLINE MATERIALS

Liquid-crystalline (LC) materials have the unique property of self-org anisation. They also exhibit physical properties that are anisotropic in nature. It is believed that these properties can be employed to imp rove the electrorheological effect of electrorheological (ER) fluids h aving liquid crystals as the dielectric base. Experimental measurement s of the steady-state characteristics, under various operating conditi ons, of such an LC-based ER fluid are presented and compared with thos e from two conventional silicone-based fluids. It is shown that, when used in a variety of control regimes, the LC-based ER fluid exhibits a far superior performance.