Vibration control of flexible structures using ER fluid dampers

This paper addresses vibration control of flexible structures using controllable ER (electro-rheological) dampers. A clamped-clamped flexible structure system supported by two short columns is considered. An ER damper which is operated in shear mode is designed on the basis of Bingham model of the ER fluid, and attached to the flexible structure system. The governing equation of motion and associated boundary conditions Are obtained from Hamilton's principle. A sliding mode control algorithm is then formulated to effectively suppress the vibration of the structure caused by external excitations. In the formulation of the controller, parameter variations such as frequency deviation are treated to take into account the robustness of control system. The effectiveness of the proposed control system is confirmed by both simulation and experimental results.