USA As Represented by Secretary of the Navy

Vincent M Iorio

Joseph H Morris

Luke W Loy

An E-R hydraulic control valve that has two or more surfaces that can be moved relatively to one another to adjust a flow orifice size while maintaining a control voltage gradient across the E-R fluid and to seat one surface against the other to shut off fluid flow. Combining movable mechanical fluid flow elements with E-R fluid control allows initial tuning of the valve to a particular application by mechanical restriction of an orifice, and E-R operating control of the fluid. Seating the mechanical surfaces provides a fail-safe shut-down mode.

Electro-rheological control valve

The invention is directed to a device for pumping electro-rheological flu comprising a casing that defines an inner rotor chamber having a central inlet opening and a peripheral discharge opening. Rotatably disposed within said chamber is a rotor for imparting energy to the pumped electro-rheological fluid comprising of a plurality of non-conducting coaxial substantially parallel spaced disks. On one face of each disk are embedded one or more electrodes and on the opposing face of each disk are attached one or more conductive surfaces. By selectively applying an electric charge to the embedded electrodes, an electric field is produced between the electrodes and the conducting surfaces of adjacent disks. As a result, the viscosity of the electro-rheological fluid exposed to the applied electric field is increased thereby producing electro-rheological fluid vanes between adjacent disks. When the rotor is placed in rotation and a voltage is applied to the embedded electrodes, the electro-rheological fluid that is not exposed to the applied electric field is accelerated from the center of the rotor towards the outer periphery by the combined action of the electro-rheological fluid vanes and the friction force acting between the fluid and the rotating disks.

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Annapolis, MD, United States of America

Vincent M Iorio