45. ELECTRORHEOLOGICAL DAMPER WITH ANNULAR DUCTS FOR SEISMIC PROTECTION APPLICATIONS
This paper presents the design, analysis, testing and modeling of an electrorheological (ER) fluid damper developed for vibration and seismic protection of civil structures. The damper consists of a main cylinder and a piston rod that pushes an ER fluid through a stationary annular duct. The basic equations that describe the fluid flow across an annular duct are derived. Experimental results on the damper response with and without the presence of electric field are presented. A combination of a simple phenomenological model and a neural network is proposed as a practical tool to approximate the nonlinear and velocity dependent damper response.