Electrical characterization of the solid phase (particles) of electrorheological fluids

Quentin Quegan (1) , Jean-Numa Foulc (1)

1 G2ELab - Laboratoire de Génie Electrique de Grenoble

Electrorheological (ER) fluids are suspensions of fine particles dispersed in a dielectric liquid. To understand and model the ER phenomenon, it is necessary to take into account the dielectric properties (conductivity and permittivity) of the solid and liquid phases. For the experimental investigation, the main difficulty is to measure the conductivity and the permittivity of the micro-sized (or nano-sized) particles. In this paper, we propose a method based on the arrangement of the particles in columns between electrodes under high applied field. The measurement on a cellulose/silicone oil suspension of the resistive and capacitive parts of the dc and ac time-varying currents allows us to obtain an apparent conductivity and permittivity of the cellulose particles. Finally, we discuss on the interest of the proposed characterization method from the specific conduction properties of the ER fluids.

Domaines: Energie électrique

Quentin Quegan, Jean-Numa Foulc. Electrical characterization of the solid phase (particles) of electrorheological fluids. Journal of Physics: Conference Series, 2009, pp.012006. ⟨hal-00368333⟩