This paper deals with the mathematical modelling of large strain magneto-viscoelastic deformations. Energy dissipation is assumed to occur both due to the mechanical viscoelastic effects as well as the resistance offered by the material to magnetisation. Existence of internal damping mechanisms in the body is considered by decomposing the deformation gradient and the magnetic induction into `elastic' and `viscous' parts. Constitutive laws for material behaviour and evolution equations for the non-equilibrium fields are derived that agree with the laws of thermodynamics. To illustrate the theory the problems of stress relaxation, magnetic field relaxation, time dependent magnetic induction and strain are formulated and solved for a specific form of the constitutive law. The results, that show the effect of several modelling parameters on the deformation and magnetisation process, are illustrated graphically

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Iron-filled magnetorheological polymers, when cured in the presence of a magnetic field, result in having a transversely isotropic structure with iron particles forming chains along the direction of applied magnetic induction. In this work, we model the magneto-viscoelastic deformation (and magnetization) process of such polymers. Components of the deformation gradient and the applied magnetic induction in the direction of anisotropy are considered to be additional arguments of the energy density function. The existence of internal damping mechanisms is considered by performing a multiplicative decomposition of the deformation gradient and an additive decomposition of the magnetic induction into equilibrium and non-equilibrium parts. Energy density functions and evolution laws of the internal variables are proposed that agree with the laws of thermodynamics. In the end, we present solutions of some standard deformation cases to illustrate the theory. In particular, it is shown that the orientation of resultant magnetic field and principal stress directions change with time owing to viscoelastic evolution.

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Saxena, P., Pelteret, J.-P. and Steinmann, P. (2015) Modelling of iron-filled magneto-active polymers with a dispersed chain-like microstructure. AbstractMagneto-active polymers are a class of smart materials commonly manufactured by mixing micron-sized iron particles in a rubber-like matrix. When cured in the presence of an externally applied magnetic field, the iron particles arrange themselves into chain-like structures that lend an overall anisotropy to the material. It has been observed through electron micrographs and X-ray tomographs that these chains are not always perfect in structure, and may have dispersion due to the conditions present during manufacturing or some undesirable material properties. We model the response of these materials to coupled magneto-mechanical loading in this paper using a probability based structure tensor that accounts for this imperfect anisotropy. The response of the matrix material is decoupled from the chain phase, though still being connected through kinematic constraints. The latter is based on the definition of a 'chain deformation gradient' and a 'chain magnetic field'. We conclude with numerical examples that demonstrate the effect of chain dispersion on the response of the material to magnetoelastic loading.