The modeling of layered plates featuring electro-rheological material layer and its numerical and experimental validations

Intelligent structures are becoming an important research area in material science and structural dynamics. Electro-rheological material (ERM) is a typical smart material characterized by fast, continuous and reversible response to the applied electric field and endow its products a promising future. In this article, topics involved in the modeling by FEM (finite element method) of the layered plate featuring ERM under low velocity or low energy impact load are discussed for the first time. Firstly, a type of 4-sides clamped square layered plate with ERM sandwiched is designed. Then the key issues for the simulation of the dynamic responses of the impact system are discussed and analyzed in detail. They include the construction of an 8-nodes isoparametric layered shell element, the measurements of the property parameters of ERM, the damping simulation of the structure with ERM inserted, the obtaining of the mass matrix and the rigid matrix of the layered shell element, etc. Finally, the model is established and is validated through calculations and experiments under different impact velocities and different electric field intensities applied to the ERM layer. The conclusion that the model is reasonable and the simulating calculations based on the model are reliable for the cases discussed in this article is drawn consequently. This pre-research work is hoped to be beneficial to the development of layered intelligent structures, especially intelligent composite structures, with ERM as their driving materials.