Effect of Pressure on the Flow Properties of Magnetorheological Fluids

Magnetorheological (MR) fluids are widely used in the industrial world; however, sometimes their properties fail to meet system requirements. In shear mode, MR fluids have been found to exhibit a pressure dependency called squeeze strengthen effect. Since a lot of MR fluid based devices work in flow mode (i.e., dampers), this paper investigates the behavior in flow mode under pressure. The system design consists of three steps: the hydraulic system, the magnetic circuit, and the design of experiment method. The experimental apparatus is a cylinder in which a piston displaces the fluid without the use of standard gear pumps, which are incompatible with MR fluids. The experimental apparatus measures the yield stress of the MR fluid as a function of the pressure and magnetic field, thus, enabling the yield shear stress to be calculated. A statistical analysis of the results shows that the squeeze strengthen effect is also present in flow mode, and that the internal pressure enhances the performance of MR fluids by nearly five times.