A nonlinear viscoelastic - plastic model for electrorheological fluids

A nonlinear dynamic model is presented that characterizes electrorheological material behavior in terms of its shear stress versus shear strain behavior. The ER fluid model is essentially a nonlinear combination of linear shear flow mechanisms. These linear shear flow mechanisms, a three-parameter viscoelastic fluid element and a viscous fluid element, are used to describe shear flow behavior in the pre-yield and the post-yield regimes, respectively. In order to capture the material behavior in the transition through the yield point, a nonlinear combination of these linear shear flow mechanisms is used. The model, which relates the shear strain input to the shear stress output, is represented by a simple network that consists of two parallel linear mechanisms whose outputs are combined using nonlinear weighting functions. The weighting functions are dependent on the strain rate in the material. A system identification technique is developed to estimate the model parameters from experimental data, which consists of shear stress versus shear strain hysteresis loops at different levels of electric field. The results of this system identification approach indicate that the model parameters are smooth monotonic functions of the electric field. The experimental hysteresis loops are reconstructed using the estimated model parameters and the results show that the model accurately predicts material response. It is shown that the Coulomb friction-like behavior at high field strengths, which is characteristic of ER fluids, can be captured by this nonlinear mechanism-based model.