Tunable stiffness and damping study on flexible pvc cantilever structure embedded with mr fluid

Abstract

The stiffness and damping of a flexible smart cantilever structure controlled by a magnetic field is investigated in this research. The cantilever structure is fabricated by using flexible polyvinyl chloride as a host structure of rectangular cross-section embedded with magnetorheological (MR) fluid. The deflection of the cantilever structure at the free end is used to analyze the stiffness change of the cantilever structure. The stiffness of the specimen with MR fluid at magnetic flux density of 0.171T is greater than that of the specimen without subjected to magnetic field. The strength of the applied magnetic field is directly related to the structure’s stiffness. Under the influence of a magnetic field, the MR fluid embedded inside the flexible PVC cantilever structure significantly dampens the vibrations of the structure.