Characterization of Hydro-Carbon Based Magneto-Rheological Fluid ( MRF )

Abstract

Magneto-rheological fluids (or simply “MR” fluids) belong to the class of controllable fluids. The essential characteristic of MR fluids is their ability to reversibly change from free-flowing, linear viscous liquids to semi-solids having controllable yield strength in milliseconds when exposed to a magnetic field. This feature provides simple, quiet, rapid response interfaces between electronic controls and mechanical systems. MR fluid dampers are relatively new semi-active devices that utilize MR fluids to provide controllable damping forces. The focus of this work is to synthesize and characterize the MR fluids. The first phase of the work (i.e., synthesis) involves the mixture of carrier fluid, iron particles and additives in measured quantities to form an MR fluid. This is then followed by the second phase (i.e., characterization) where the synthesized MR fluids are characterized using a suitable damper to obtain the force-velocity, pressure-velocity and variable input current behavior.