Design and performance evaluation of a serial multi-electrode electrorheological damper

This study presents the design and performance evaluation of a serial multi-electrode electrorheological (SMER) damper. The characteristics of electrorheological (ER) fluid and SMER damper are experimentally obtained. The design method for ER dampers is based on the requirements of the system damper such as controllable damping force, controllable ratio and the ratio of rebound damping force and compression damping force. Then the SMER damper is applied to the single-degree-of-freedom model of a vibration system to evaluate the performance of an SMER damper. The vibration control system uses a velocity control algorithm. The simulation and experimental response of the displacement as well as the acceleration indicate the effectiveness of the design of the SMER damper.