Electrorheological rotary pure-shear damping devices

摘要

An electrorheological damping device for reducing translational vibration between two bodies comprises a rotary electrorheological damper and transmission means for converting the translational vibration between the two bodies to the rotary motion of the rotary electrorheological damper. The rotary electrorheological damper includes a stator and a rotor that are coaxially arranged. The stator have a plurality of stator electrodes, and the rotor have a plurality of rotor electrodes. The stator electrodes and the rotor electrodes face each other alternatively within at least one fluid chamber. The fluid chamber is filled with an electrorheological fluid that varies its rheological properties when exposed to an electric field. The electrorheological fluid fills spaces between each pair of the stator and rotor electrodes. The rotary electrorheological damper is able to control the damping torque that resists rotary motion between the stator and the rotor and, thus, the translational vibration between the two bodies. An alternative embodiment integrates a pneumatic spring into the electrorheological damping device to create a compact full suspension system, where the rotary ER damper doubles as a piston inside the cylinder of the pneumatic spring.