Simulation of a Non-Uniform Electric Field with a Novel Electrodes Configruation of an Electrorheological Valve for High Shear Rates Load

Electrorheological (ER) valves have advantages of fast response speed and low energy loss. But, under the condition of high shear rates, the ER valves governed by traditional uniform electric field have poor performance and cannot meet the demands of applications with high speed loads. Existing researches show that when parallel components of an electric field were applied to the flow direction of ER fluids, the yield stress of the ER fluid can be greatly improved at high shear rates. Using non-uniform electric fields which can provide parallel components of electric field to the flow of ER fluids may make ER valves a possibility to meet the demands of working at high shear rates. In this paper, an intermittent staggered electrodes configuration was introduced, which can generate a non-uniform electric field with parallel components for ER valves. Distributions of electric fields are simulated and analyzed by COMSOL Multiphysics. An algorithm of the effective electric field strengths for non-uniform electric fields was introduced to evaluate the yield strength of the ER fluid. The ER valves' performances for applications at high shear rates can be assessed by the average values of effective electric field strengths in the working area of the electric field. The average values of effective electric field strengths varying with structural parameters of the intermittent staggered electrodes were studied. They have a peak value when varying with the increment of electrode widths, and rise up with increments of insulation widths and electrodes dislocation distances. The results provide a reference to the electrodes configuration design of ER valves governed by non-uniform electric field.