Herein, we investigate the structure-property relationships of soft magnetorheological elastomers (MREs) filled with remanently magnetizable particles. The study is motivated from experimental results which indicate a large difference between the magnetization loops of soft MREs filled with NdFeB particles and the loops of such particles embedded in a comparatively stiff matrix, e.g. an epoxy resin. We present a microscale model for MREs based on a general continuum formulation of the magnetomechanical boundary value problem which is valid for finite strains. In particular, we develop an energetically consistent constitutive model for the hysteretic magnetization behavior of the magnetically hard particles. The microstructure is discretized and the problem is solved numerically in terms of a coupled nonlinear finite element approach. Since the local magnetic and mechanical fields are resolved explicitly inside the heterogeneous microstructure of the MRE, our model also accounts for interactions of particles close to each other. In order to connect the microscopic fields to effective macroscopic quantities of the MRE, a suitable computational homogenization scheme is used. Based on this modeling approach, it is demonstrated that the observable macroscopic behavior of the considered MREs results from the rotation of the embedded particles. Furthermore, the performed numerical simulations indicate that the reversion of the sample’s magnetization occurs due to a combination of particle rotations and internal domain conversion processes. All of our simulation results obtained for such materials are in a good qualitative agreement with the experiments.

The FORC-method is applied to magnetoactive elastomers to capture the changes in the interaction field caused by the magnetization and structuring of the magnetic filler.

The anisotropy of the magnetoviscous effect of a ferrofluid has been studied in a specially designed slit die viscometer, which allows three distinct orientations of the magnetic field with respect to the fluid flow. The corresponding Miesowicz viscosity coefficients were determined in dependence of the shear rate and the magnetic field intensity to gain a comprehensive magnetorheological characterization of the fluid. The particles in the fluid have a mean diameter of 13 nm corresponding to an interaction parameter of λ ≈ 1.3 for magnetite. Thus, the fluid can be expected to show a transition from non-interacting individual particles to microstructures with chain-like associated particles when the magnetic field intensity is increased and the shear rate is decreased. The observed field and shear dependent anisotropy of the magnetoviscous effect is explained coherently in terms of these microstructural changes in the fluid.

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