FLUID-FLOW AND FALLING BALL EXPERIMENTS IN ER FLUIDS

The ability of the induced dipole-dipole model to predict various prop erties of an electrorheological fluid is tested in a series of experim ents: the deformation of a single particle chain under fluid flow, the velocity of a falling ball at various electric fields, particle sizes , and concentrations, and how valves operating at either constant pres sure differential or constant flow rate. Analyses of these rather diff erent experimental situations show that with proper application, the i nduced dipole model can give a fairly accurate description of observed characteristics.