Comparative Study of Performance of Optimized Valve for Different Flow Indices of Rheological Model

Smart fluids have always been an area of interest to most researchers due to their varying characteristics with respect to external stimuli. Rheological fluids such as electrorheological and magnetorheological fluids are popular among them. In the present study, the flow of a rheological fluid through an annular valve has been modelled using the Bingham model and the Herschel-Bulkley fluid model to include the shear thinning and thickening effects at high shear rates. Damping force, dynamic range and time constant have been defined as the valve’s performance indices and volume constraint geometric optimization has been done for various flow indices. Performance indices for the optimized valve are then compared for different flow indices.