Design and simulation of non-uniform electric field using mesh electrodes for electrorheological micro valves

Abstract

The refresh rate of two-dimensional tactile information for visual impaired people using electrorheological (ER) technology is directly related to the flow rate of an ER valve. The bigger the flow rate is, the faster the tactile information is refreshed. For a parallel electrodes ER valve configuration, due to the limitation of Braille standard to the width of ER valve, the gap of flow channel which is also the gap of parallel electrodes is the only adjustable parameter to benefit the flow rate and at same time enhance operating voltages which contribute a big part of costs to a two-dimensional tactile information display system. A new mesh electrodes configuration is introduced to decouple the flow rate from the gap of electrodes while the flow cross section is determined by parameters of mesh electrodes. A quantity of effective electric field strength of an ER interaction space unit is used to evaluate the anisotropy electric field governed by mesh electrodes. The influences of geometrical parameters of mesh electrodes and applied voltages on the effective electric field strength were analyzed by using COMSOL Multiphysics. The simulation results show that the effective electric field strength increases with applied voltages and wire diameters, and decreases with electrodes gap and mesh clearances. These results provide fundamental laws for designing an ER micro valve governed by non-uniform electric field to some ER applications.