Influence of Electric Fields on the Flow of a Liquid Crystal Mixture in Circular-Pipe Electrodes

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  • TSUKIJI Tetsuhiro
    Department of Mechanical Engineering, Sophia University
  • KOYABU Eitaro
    Department of Mechanical Engineering, Sophia University
  • TSUJI Tomohiro
    Department of Intelligent Mechanial Systems Engineering, Kochi University of Technology
  • CHONO Shigeomi
    Department of Intelligent Mechanial Systems Engineering, Kochi University of Technology

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Abstract

Two types of circular-pipe electrode are designed to control the pressure and flow rate of electrorheological(ER) fluids under the application of an electric field. The shape of the electrode is a circular pipe and some parts of the inner surface of the pipe are made of electrode strips. A liquid crystal mixture is selected as a homogeneous ER fluid and the pressure drop in the circular-pipe electrode is measured at constant flow rates. On the other hand, numerical analysis of the electric field and the fluid flow in the circular-pipe electrode is conducted. It is assumed that the viscosity, which depends on the electric field intensity, is distributed in the flow fields. The relationships between the flow rate and the pressure are simulated numerically for various electric field intensities, which agree with experimental results. The difference in the ER effect between the two types of electrodes is discussed on the basis of the distributions of the electric field intensity and the pressure drop. Furthermore, the influence of both the number of electrode strips and the gaps between electrode strips in the pipe on the flow rate vs. pressure characteristics is investigated numerically, and a comparison of the flow characteristics between the present electrodes and two types of parallel-plate electrodes is conducted.

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