Experimental Investigation of Effect of Ingredient Particle Size on Dynamic Damping of RTV Silicone Base Magnetorheological Elastomers

Abstract

Magnetorheological elastomers (MRE) are a type of smart materials which responds to an externally applied magnetic field which results in enhanced mechanical properties. MRE consists of a non-magnetic matrix material like rubber and a ferromagnetic ingredient. The size of the particle ingredient plays an important role in the property enhancement of the MRE. In the current work, MRE samples were prepared using Room temperature vulcanising Silicone as matrix material and 2 different samples of carbonyl iron powder (3.15μm and 6.25μm diameters) were used as particle ingredients. Microstructure of the sample were studied under Confocal microscope, which showed the smaller diameter powders results in more agglomeration even though the distribution of powders in the matrix were fairly uniform. A test set up was made to conduct dynamic tests to investigate the influence of particle size on the dynamic performance of the prepared MRE samples. Test results in these experiments showed that smaller diameter particle ingredients results in better MR effect.