Abstract
Electrorheological fluids(ERFs) show a rapid and reversible increase in apparent viscosity by applied electric field. It is called the electrorheological effect (ER effect). The reason for ER effect is the induction of an electric dipole in each particle, leading to the formation of clusters in the direction of the field, which resist fluid flow. Generally, the behavior of ER fluids has been modeled on those of Bingham fluids. But there are some differences between Bingham fluids and ER fluids. The visualization of ER fliuds are presented and ER effects by the forming, growing and breaking of clusters are discussed. In the low shear rate area, the pressure drop is measured by a pressure sensor and the formation of ER particles is visualized by video camera. The reason for the nonlinear behavior of ER fluids at low shear rate is explained through results of visualization. As result, the behavior of ER fluids is nonlinear at low shear rate with overshoot area because it is different to from the clusters according to the strength of electric field. The gap of electrodes becomes narrow because of the cluster layer occurrence near to electrodes in any conditions.