Dynamic characteristics and control of magnetorheological/electrorheological sandwich structures: A state-of-the-art review

During past four decades, applications of magnetorheological and electrorheological fluids in adaptive sandwich structures have been widely studied, primarily for the purpose of vibration control. The rapid response time of controllable magnetorheological/electrorheological fluids to an applied magnetic/electric field and reversible variations in their stiffness and damping properties have been the key motivations for adaptive structures applications. This article presents a comprehensive review of the reported studies on applications of magnetorheological/electrorheological fluids for realizing active and semi-active vibration suppression in sandwich structures. The review focuses on methods of characterizing the magnetorheological/electrorheological fluids in the pre-yield region, magnetic/electric field-dependent phenomenological models describing the storage and loss moduli of fluids, experimental and analytical methods developed for vibration analysis of sandwich structures with magnetorheological/electrorheological fluid treatments, analysis of structures with partial magnetorheological/electrorheological fluid treatments and optimal treatment locations, and developments in control strategies for vibration suppression of magnetorheological/electrorheological sandwich structures. The studies on dynamic responses of fully and partially treated magnetorheological/electrorheological-based sandwich beams, plates, shells, and panels are also discussed, including the mathematical modeling methods and associated assumptions, methods of solutions, and experimental methods.