Modeling and experimental verification of frequency-, amplitude-, and magneto-dependent viscoelasticity of magnetorheological elastomers

Magnetorheological elastomers (MREs), a smart composite, exhibit dual characteristics of both MR materials and particle reinforced composites, i.e., the viscoelasticity of MREs depends on external magnetic field as well as strain amplitude and excitation frequency. In this article, the principle of a frequency-, amplitude-, and magneto-dependent linear dynamic viscoelastic model for isotropic MREs is proposed and investigated. The viscoelasticity of MREs is divided into frequency- and amplitude-dependent mechanical viscoelasticity and frequency-, amplitude-, and magneto-dependent magnetic viscoelasticity. Based on the microstructures of ferrous particles and matrix, the relationships between mechanical shear modulus corresponding to the mechanical viscoelasticity and strain amplitude and excitation frequency are obtained. The relationships between magnetic shear modulus corresponding to the magnetic viscoelasticity with strain amplitude, excitation frequency, and further external magnetic field are derived using the magneto-elastic theory. The influence of magnetic saturation on the MR effect is also considered. The dynamic characteristics of a fabricated isotropic MRE sample under different strain amplitudes, excitation frequencies and external magnetic fields are tested. The parameters of the proposed model are identified with the experimental data and the theoretical expressions of shear storage modulus and shear loss modulus of the MRE sample are obtained. In the light of the theoretical expressions, the loss factors of the MRE sample under different loading conditions are analyzed and compared with the test results to evaluate the effectiveness of the proposed model. (paper)