This article is focused on the development and characterization of highly controllable magnetorheological materials for stiffness and damping control in semi-active control applications. Two types of magnetorheological materials are developed in-house: magnetorheological elastomer with soft base elastomer, and magnetorheological fluid encapsulated in regular elastomer, namely magnetorheological fluid-elastomer. In both cases of magnetorheological elastomers and magnetorheological fluid-elastomers, the samples are evaluated using in-house-developed shear and compression test rigs, which are equipped with electromagnets and Hall effect sensors for measuring the magnetic field. These features provide the capability to precisely control a wide range of magnetic fields during the experiments. In the case of magnetorheological elastomers, the experimental results of the in-house magnetorheological elastomers are compared with commercially available counterparts made of hard base elastomer. It is shown that the controllability of the material, that is, the relative magnetorheological effect, is significantly improved in the case of magnetorheological elastomer with soft base elastomer. In addition to various magnetic fields, the samples are subjected to a range of loading amplitudes and frequencies. A general trend is observed where the frequency and strain amplitude cause an opposite effect on both the shear and compressive moduli: the increase in frequency gives rise to a higher value of modulus whereas the increase in amplitude reduces the modulus. Furthermore, the effect of bonding on the performance of the magnetorheological elastomers in compression mode is evaluated and the results indicate a significant increase in the modulus and decrease in the loss factor. In all the cases, however, the change of loss factor does not exhibit a predictable trend as a function of magnetic fields. In order to investigate a magnetorheological-based solution for controlling the damping of a semi-active system, magnetorheological fluid-elastomer samples are made in-house. These samples are fabricated using three different iron concentrations, and are tested in compression (squeeze) mode. The results of these experiments confirm that the equivalent damping coefficient of the material rises with the increase in magnetic field, and this effect becomes stronger as the iron concentration of magnetorheological fluids increases. It is also demonstrated that the magnetorheological effect is highly dependent on the loading frequency and amplitude, where the equivalent damping coefficient decreases with the increase in loading frequency and amplitude. In all the aforementioned cases, the stiffness of magnetorheological fluid-elastomers exhibits minor changes, which offers the in-house-developed magnetorheological fluid-elastomers as a damping only control option, a development that is different from the magnetorheological fluid-elastomers reported in the literature.
A multiscale view on shape effects in the computational characterization of magnetorheological elastomers