Research was conducted into electro-rheological (ER) fluids, both existing and improved, and to to building advanced prototype devices based on these fluids. The major effort to meet the industrial objective, covered the following areas:
design requirements (this covered fluid specifications and design techniques to be used in creating ER devices, including electrode shape and geometry, shear rates, seals, access, filling, and fluid performance);
high voltage power supplies and control circuits (all ER devices require controlled high voltages and work was conducted on the development of small, efficient power supplies and their associated control circuits);
development of devices (hardware developed and evaluated covered anti-vibration devices, both automotive engine mounts and linear dampers, clutches, actuators, and tactile arrays);
acoustic devices (the acoustic properties of ER fluids was extensively studied and a range of unusual and attractive potential applications, such as smart acoustic reflectors, were developed).
Specific technical tasks covered were:
mathematical models (models were developed covering the behaviour of ER fluid under steady and oscillatory shear);
fluid dynamic models (models were developed covering the flow behaviour or ER fluids in a range of potential devices);
electric field models (this covered both elementary electrode configurations and complex electrode designs suitable for complaint manipulators)
basic fluid properties (measurements were made of theological and physical properties of a wide range of ER fluids);
fluid development (fluids based on inorganic, polymeric, and liquid crystal materials were developed along with associated production technology and quality control requirements).