Modal Characteristics of a Flexible Smart Plate Filled with Electrorheological Fluids

This paper presents modal characteristics of a flexible smart plate filled with an electrorheolo gical fluid. First, an oscillatory test is undertaken to extract the electric field-dependent complex shear modulus of the employed starch/silicone oil-based electrorheological fluid. A dynamic model of the smart plate associated with the measured modulus is then developed by adopting a finite element approach to predict field-dependent modal characteristics. Following the construction of a four-partitioned smart plate, an extensive modal test is empirically conducted to identify natural frequencies and mode shapes with respect to both the intensity and the area of the applied field to the fluid domains. Consequently, the measured natural frequencies and mode shapes are compared with the predicted ones to validate the proposed dynamic model. In addition, the control effectiveness for different field-energizing areas under the forced vibration is evaluated in the time domain.