Magneto-induced rheological properties of magnetorheological gel under quasi-static shear with large deformation

Magnetorheological gel (MRG) is a kind of magneto-sensitive smart material mainly composed of soft magnetic particles and polyurethane, which can decrease or even avoid the severe sedimentation problem appearing in MR fluids. In this work, the rheological properties of MRG under quasi-statically monotonic and cyclic loading with large deformation were investigated, respectively. The results could provide effective guidance for the design of MR devices that are often subjected to quasi-static loading. Firstly, MRG was fabricated by mixing carbonyl iron particles (CIPs) with the polyurethane matrix. Then, variations of normal force with time and magnetic field for MRG were tested and discussed. Moreover, the influences of CIPs content, shear rate, shear strain amplitude and magnetic field on the energy dissipation density of MRG were analyzed. The results showed the magneto-induced damping performance of MRG is highly relevant to the CIPs content and magnetic field, i.e. the magneto-induced enhancement of energy dissipation density of MRG with 60% CIPs content could reach up to 104 900% when the external magnetic strength increases to 391 kA m(−1). Furthermore, the related mechanisms, from the perspective of microstructure, were proposed to qualitatively explain the various mechanical phenomena occurring in shear stress and normal force.