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Electrorheological (ER) materials are suspensions of specialized, micron-sized particles in nonconducting oils. When electric fields are applied to ER materials, they exhibit dramatic changes (within milli-seconds) in material properties. Pre-yield, yielding, and post-yield mechanisms are all influenced by the electric field. Namely, an applied electric field dramatically increases the stiffness and energy dissipation properties of these materials. A previously known cubic equation which describes the flow of fluids with a yield stress through a rectangular duct can be applied to annular flow, provided that certain conditions on the material properties are satisfied. An analytic solution and a uniform approximation to the solution, for the rectangular duct Poiseuille flow case is presented. A numerical method is required to solve the flow in annular geometries. The approximation for rectangular ducts is extended to deal with the annular duct case.

Cell culture techniques were used to determine the source of cytotoxic agents in a commercial BIS-GMA composite. The material was polymerized according to the manufacturer's directions and leachable components were removed by room temperature extraction in ethanol, chloroform, or toluene. The leachable components in the extracts were identified using infrared spectrographic analysis. Thin layer chromatographic analysis was used to determine the number of constituents. These constituents were separated by gas chromatography and then identified by mass spectrographic analysis. Succinic dehydrogenase activity and radioactive labeling with tritiated leucine were used to evaluate cell metabolism and protein synthesis, respectively. The infrared analysis of the extracts showed that the primary component was unreacted BIS-GMA. Trace amounts of 2-hydroxy-4-methoxy-benzophenone, a light stabilizer, as well as a phenyl ester of benzoic acid which was probably degraded from BIS-GMA, were detected by the mass spectrographic method. The removal of leachable components caused a 90% decrease in toxicity compared to the nonextracted BIS-GMA samples. The extracted BIS-GMA samples showed no cellular response compared to the Teflon negative control.

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Electrorheological (ER) materials develop yield stresses on the order of 5–10 kPa in the presence of strong electric fields. Viscoelastic and yielding material properties can be modulated within milli-seconds. An analysis of flowing ER materials in the limiting case of fully developed steady flow results in simple approximations for use in design. Small-scale experiments show that these design equations can be applied to designing devices in which the flow is unsteady. More exact models of ER device behavior can be determined using curve-fitting techniques in multiple dimensions. A previously known curve-fitting technique is extended to deal with variable electric fields. Experiments are described which illustrate the potential for ER devices in large-scale damping applications and the accuracy of the modeling technique.