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 attach ing fabrics on the electrodes. in this paper, the mechanism of this effect is studied in detail. The fluid studied was dimethylsiloxane, which shows n o ER effect without the fabric. Velvet fabric was attached on one of the el ectrodes, and the shear and the normal stresses were measured with various gap distances, shear rates and the field strengths. The results show that E R effect strongly depends on the gap distance but only weakly on the sheer rate. A simple model which can explain these results are presented and disc ussed.