| Magnetorheological (MR) materials are suspensions of micron-sized magnetically polarized particles in a liquid medium. When subject to magnetic fields, these particles form a micro-structure which endow the MR material with solid-like properties. Devices constructed with MR materials can achieve controllable force levels that have use in vibration mitigation. The orientation of the magnetic field is a key design parameter. To date research and device development has been concerned with MR material flow perpendicular the applied magnetic field. This relationship of material flow to applied magnetic field is known as perpendicular field/flow. This emphasis on perpendicular field/flow application describes only a limited view of MR material behavior. This work makes original contributions to the magnetorheological research literature through experimentation in MR material flow parallel to the applied magnetic field. This relationship of MR material flowing parallel to an applied magnetic field is known as parallel field/flow. These experiments show the high magnitudes of flux density associated with perpendicular field/flow are difficult to achieve in parallel field/flow. These low flux densities do not create a strong reordering of MR material micro-structure. The net effect is, in parallel field/flow application, that a visco-elastic behavior describes the response as opposed to Bingham behavior. This work also analyzes the experimental data to demonstrate the decrease in device response time, for parallel field/flow orientations, due to the elimination of the iron magnetic circuit (typical in perpendicular field/flow applications). MR fluid material properties are determined through Poiseuille flow. |
