Abstract: After analyzing the influence of a good many factors on the viscous damper force and yield damper force separately, a kind of multi-annular electrode structure which is to enlarge the controllable range of ER damper force is presented. A test system, which can obtain the ER damper’s behaviors, such as damper coefficient, respond time and power wasting, is also introduced In order to fully utilize the controllable range of ER damper force, the match problem about the damper force and the vibration isolation system using the ER damper is studied. Since the ER damper coefficient is non-linear, a damper design principle that the average damper coefficient should match the damper coefficient of the optimal passive damper is proposed. In the end, an experiment of using ER damper in a double deck isolation system is described. The exciting source is a sweep signal and the damper force is adaptively controlled through online main frequency identification. Experimental results present about 30% better isolation effect than using normal damper.

Key words: Damper adaptive control, Electrorheological damper, Frequency, identification, Vibration control