Shear stresses in magnetorheological fluids: Role of magnetic saturation

J. M. Ginder and L. C. Davis

Citation: Appl. Phys. Lett. 65, 3410 (1994); doi: 10.1063/1.112408
View online: http://dx.doi.org/10.1063/1.112408
View Table of Contents: http://apl.aip.org/resource/1/APPLAB/v65/i26
Published by the American Institute of Physics.

Related Articles
Magnetorheological behavior of magnetite covered clay particles in aqueous suspensions
J. Appl. Phys. 112, 043917 (2012)
On the effect of particle porosity and roughness in magnetorheology
J. Appl. Phys. 110, 063520 (2011)
Controllable adhesion using field-activated fluids
Phys. Fluids 23, 073104 (2011)
Tunable elastic stiffness with microconfined magnetorheological domains at low magnetic field
Appl. Phys. Lett. 97, 164104 (2010)
Effect of gap thickness on the viscoelasticity of magnetorheological fluids
J. Appl. Phys. 108, 083503 (2010)

Additional information on Appl. Phys. Lett.

Journal Homepage: http://apl.aip.org/
Journal Information: http://apl.aip.org/about/about_the_journal
Top downloads: http://apl.aip.org/features/most_downloaded
Information for Authors: http://apl.aip.org/authors

Downloaded 04 Sep 2012 to 152.14.136.96. Redistribution subject to AIP license or copyright; see http://apl.aip.org/about/rights_and_permissions

Shear stresses in magnetorheological fluids: Role of magnetic saturation

J. M. Ginder and L. C. Davis
Research Laboratory, Ford Motor Company, Dearborn, Michigan 48121-2053

~Received 9 August 1994; accepted for publication 19 October 1994!

The interparticle forces and resulting shear stresses in a magnetorheological fluid are calculated. The
field due to a linear chain of particles in a fixed average magnetic induction B ave is determined from
a finite element analysis in which the nonlinearity and saturation of the particle magnetization are
incorporated. The shear stresses are then computed from the field using Maxwells stress tensor. The
stresses obtained for all but the lowest magnetic inductions are controlled by the saturation of the
magnetization in the contact regions of each particle. Identifying the maximum shear stress as a
function of shear strain with the yield stress gives values in agreement with results reported for
typical fluids. For high magnetic inductions the yield stress plateaus due to the complete saturation
of the particle magnetization; the stress scales as the square of the saturation magnetization in this
regime. 1994 American Institute of Physics.

Magnetorheological ~MR! fluids, which were invented

by Rabinow in the late 1940s1 are suspensions of magnetizable particles such as carbonyl iron in nonmagnetic fluids
like silicon oil. MR fluids exhibit field-induced shear stresses
of order 100 kPa, two orders of magnitude larger than their
electrical analogs, the electrorheological ~ER! fluids.2 This
level of stress transfer is comparable to that required, for
example, in automotive accessory drive clutches, placing
MR fluids in the long range fluid category of Hartsock
et al.3 The use of MR fluids has also been considered in a
number of damping applications requiring large, controllable
stresses.4,5 While MR fluids may appear to be simpler to
model than their ER counterparts since conductivity6,7 and
electrical breakdown8 phenomena are not relevant, nonlinearity and saturation of the particle magnetization can play a
role. Saturation effects are indeed observed in the magnetization of short chains of steel spheres.9 Calculations of the
shear stresses in MR fluids that account for the nonlinearity
and saturation of the particle magnetization are presented in
this letter.
When the magnetization is in the linear or low-field regime, the calculation of the fields and forces in MR fluids is
analogous to that for ER fluids; finite-element analysis,6,10
multipolar expansion,9,11,12 and capacitance matrix13 techniques have all been used to solve the linear electrostatics of
ordered chains or arrays of spheres. A serious limitation of
such linear calculations in MR fluids is that they fail to describe the effects of nonlinear magnetization. Nonlinearities
become important when the field in the gap, roughly
H 0 R/(h-R), approaches the particle saturation magnetization
M s . Here H 0 is the applied field, R is the particle radius, and
2h is the interparticle separation; see Fig. 1. The magnetic
induction B is related to the applied field H and the magnetization M by B5m0~H1M!, where m054p31027 H/m is
the permeability of the vacuum in MKS units.
An MR fluid was modeled by infinite chains of spherical, magnetizable particles aligned in a magnetic induction of
magnitude Bave ~Fig. 1!. As a computational simplification,
axial symmetry is assumed and the unit cell is taken to be a
cylinder of length 2h and radius W with its axis parallel to
Bave ~the z axis!. The force between particles or, more pre3410

Appl. Phys. Lett. 65 (26), 26 December 1994

cisely, the force of the particles in the upper half of the chain
on those in the lower half, is calculated as the chain is
sheared. The primary contribution to this force comes from
uniformly stretching the chain.6 Since the chain is stretched
~h is increased! at constant volume in a shear deformation,
the unit cell volume remains fixed: 2pW 2 h54 p R 3 /(3 f ),
where f is the volume fraction of particles.10 While interchain packing effects are accounted for approximately by the
volume fraction dependence of the unit cell volume, the azimuthal variation of the local field due to neighboring chains
and any shear-induced rotation of the particle moments cannot be treated in this axisymmetric model.

FIG. 1. Schematic view of three particles of a long chain inside an MR fluid

subjected to an applied magnetic induction Bave along the z axis. All particles are assumed to be spheres of the same radius R. The axisymmetric
unit cell is denoted by dotted lines, while the computational region is outlined by solid lines. The particles have an initial or low-field permeability mp
and a saturation magnetization M s while the fluid has a permeability m0 .

0003-6951/94/65(26)/3410/3/$6.00

1994 American Institute of Physics

Downloaded 04 Sep 2012 to 152.14.136.96. Redistribution subject to AIP license or copyright; see http://apl.aip.org/about/rights_and_permissions

The force F along z due to the particleparticle forces

with an interparticle spacing 2h is given by
F5

m0
2

d r 2 pr @ H z ~ z5h ! 2H 0 # 2 .

~1!

The derivation of Eq. ~1! follows from applying Maxwells

stress tensor for the field due to the particles, H2H0 , in the
z5h plane. The effective applied field H 0 is determined by
the average of the magnetic field over the unit cell,
H 05

1
h

dz H z ~ r 5const! .

~2!

As discussed previously,6 each chain is assumed to undergo

uniform shear deformation, so that the center of each particle
in the chain attains the position that the corresponding material point in a particle-free fluid would achieve under a uniform shear strain. If a chain is sheared at an angle u with
respect to the initial chain axis, the corresponding shear
strain g is given by g5tan u. The distance between adjacent
particle centers then varies with the strain as
2h52R sec u52R(11 g 2 !1/2. Applying Eqs. ~1! and ~2!, the
shear stress t accompanying the shear strain g is then

t5
FIG. 2. Calculated dependence of the shear stress t on shear strain g for an
MR fluid with particle volume fraction f50.2 under several values of average magnetic induction B ave ~indicated in the figure!. ~a! Stresses scaled
2
2
with B ave
, showing the breakdown of the expected B ave
scaling due to local
magnetization saturation. Inset: the nonlinear B-H relation used to describe
the magnetic properties of the particles; the initial relative permeability
mp /m05103 and the saturation magnetization M s 51590 kA/m. ~b! Stresses
scaled with M s2 , revealing the near independence of the stress on the magnetic induction in the saturated regime.

To calculate the local magnetic field H, from which the

forces are determined, we utilized a commercial finiteelement nonlinear magnetostatic code14 that solves
2A52m0J in the Coulomb gauge A50, where A is the
magnetic vector potential and J is the current density. The
magnetic induction B is determined from B53A.15
Boundary conditions include that H r 50 on the upper and
lower surfaces ~z5h and z50, respectively! and on the
outer surface ~r5W, where r is the radial coordinate in cylindrical coordinates! of the unit cell. On the surface of the
particle, the normal component of B and tangential component of H are continuous. By contrast to most ER devices, in
which the electric field is fixed by the applied voltage, the
average magnetic induction or flux density is typically controlled by the magnetomotive force in MR devices.5 An average magnetic induction B ave is thus imposed in the model
by fixing the angular component A w of the vector potential
on the outer surface: A w ( r 5W)5B aveW/2. The required
constitutive relation between the induction and the magnetic
field for the particles, B5B~H!, was modeled by the empirical FrolichKennelly equation16 adjusted to have a low-field
relative permeability mp /m05103 and a saturation magnetization m0M s 52 T, values representative of pure iron;16 see the
inset of Fig. 2~a!.
Appl. Phys. Lett., Vol. 65, No. 26, 26 December 1994

g
F
.
11 g 2 p W 2

~3!

The variation of the calculated shear stress with strain for

f50.2 and several fixed average magnetic inductions is

FIG. 3. Dependence of the calculated yield stress ty ~solid symbols! and

shear modulus G ~hollow symbols! on the average magnetic induction B ave
for volume fractions f50.2 ~circles! and f50.5 ~squares!. The shear
stresses measured in an MR fluid with f;0.53 ~Ref. 19! are also shown
~3!. Inset: the variation of ty with saturation magnetization M s in the saturated regime; the lines are fits to a M s2 dependence.
J. M. Ginder and L. C. Davis

Downloaded 04 Sep 2012 to 152.14.136.96. Redistribution subject to AIP license or copyright; see http://apl.aip.org/about/rights_and_permissions

3411

TABLE I. Limiting yield stress and shear modulus calculated for particles
with saturation magnetization M s 51590 kA/m ~m0M s 52 T! for several particle volume fractions.
Volume fraction

Yield stress ~kPa!

Shear modulus ~kPa!

0.20
0.35
0.50

60
110
210

210
380
640

shown in Fig. 2~a!. Note the absence of scaling of the stress

with B 2ave at low strains: The intensification of the local field
induces magnetic nonlinearity and saturation in the contact
or polar regions of each particle, even for magnetic inductions well below those required for complete saturation.9,17,18
When the particle magnetization is completely saturated, the
shear stresses are nearly independent of the average magnetic
induction, Fig. 2~b!.
The static yield stress can be identified as the maximum
shear stress as a function of strain.13 Local saturation effects
cause the strain at which yield occurs to shift upward as the
magnetic induction is increased, Fig. 2~a!. The dependence
of the yield stress and the shear modulus on the average
magnetic induction for MR fluids with particle volume fractions f50.2 and 0.5 is shown in Fig. 3. Also included in Fig.
3 are experimental data from Parziale and Tilton19 on the
steady shear stresses of a suspension of carbonyl iron particles in oil ~in a 9:1 weight ratio, implying f;0.53!. The
present calculations are in remarkable agreement with these
data, both in the magnitude of the shear stresses and in their
subquadratic dependence on the average magnetic induction.
As the average magnetic induction is increased above
;fm0M s , the saturation magnetization of the MR fluid, the
stresses reach a maximum signaling the complete saturation
of the particle magnetization. The scaling of the yield
stresses with M 2s in this saturated regime, Fig. 3 inset, is
consistent with dipole calculations on completely and uniformly saturated particles ~uniformly saturated spherical particles can be treated rigorously as dipoles!.17 The variation of
the maximum yield stresses and shear moduli with volume
fraction for particles with m0M s 52 T is displayed in Table I.
The yield stresses and moduli are found to increase more
rapidly than linearly in f.
In summary, the effects of magnetic nonlinearity and

3412

Appl. Phys. Lett., Vol. 65, No. 26, 26 December 1994

saturation on the shear stresses of magnetorheological fluids

have been studied using a finite-element technique. Local
saturation of the particle magnetization determines the shear
stress over a wide range of magnetic inductions. The maximum shear strength of MR fluids varies as the square of the
saturation magnetization M s of the particles. MR fluids with
higher yield stresses could conceivably be produced if new
materials possessing larger M s are identified.
The authors acknowledge Jacob Rabinow, Emil Shtarkman, and Larry Elie for useful discussions on MR fluids.
One of the authors ~JMG! also thanks Adrian Perregaux and
Mark Ravenstahl of Ansoft Corporation and Brent Anderson
of Vector Fields for their assistance.
J. Rabinow, U.S. Patent No. 2,575,360 ~20 November 1951!; AIEE Trans.
67, 1308 ~1948!.
2
T. C. Halsey, Science 258, 761 ~1992!.
3
D. L. Hartsock, R. F. Novak, and G. J. Chaundy, J. Rheol. 35, 1305
~1991!.
4
A. Pinkos, E. Shtarkman, and T. Fitzgerald, SAE International Congress
and Exposition, Detroit, MI, 15 March 1993 ~Society of Automotive
Engineers, Warrendale, PA, 1993!, paper No. 930268; Automot. Eng. 101,
19 ~1993!.
5
K. D. Weiss, T. G. Duclos, J. D. Carlson, M. J. Chrzan, and A. J. Margida,
SAE International Off-Highway and Powerplant Congress and Exposition,
Milwaukee, WI, 1315 September 1993 ~Society of Automotive Engineers, Warrendale, PA, 1993!, paper No. 932451.
6
L. C. Davis, J. Appl. Phys. 72, 1334 ~1992!.
7
R. A. Anderson, in Proceedings of the Third International Conference on
Electrorheological Fluids, edited by R. Tao, ~World Scientific, Singapore,
1992!, p. 81.
8
P. Atten, J.-N. Foulc, and N. Felici, in Proceedings of the Fourth International Conference on Electrorheological Fluids, edited by R. Tao ~World
Scientific, Singapore, 1994!, p. 139.
9
T. B. Jones and B. Saha, J. Appl. Phys. 68, 404 ~1990!.
10
J. M. Ginder and L. C. Davis, in Ref. 8, p. 267.
11
Y. Chen, A. F. Sprecher, and H. Conrad, J. Appl. Phys. 70, 6796 ~1991!.
12
H. J. H. Clercx and G. Bossis, Phys. Rev. E 48, 2721 ~1993!.
13
R. T. Bonnecaze and J. M. Brady, J. Chem. Phys. 96, 2183 ~1992!; J.
Rheol. 36, 73 ~1992!.
14
Maxwell 2D from Ansoft Corporation, Pittsburgh, PA.
15
The performance of this code was verified by comparison to analytical and
finite-element ~ABAQUS, Hibbit, Karlsson, and Sorenson, Inc.! solutions
of linear magnetostatic problems as well as to nonlinear finite-element
solutions obtained with another commercial field solver ~PC Opera, Vector
Fields, Ltd.!.
16
R. M. Bozorth, Ferromagnetism ~van Nostrand, Toronto, 1951!.
17
J. M. Ginder and L. C. Davis ~unpublished!.
18
C. Tan and T. B. Jones, J. Appl. Phys. 73, 3593 ~1993!.
19
A. J. Parziale and P. D. Tilton, AIEE Trans. 69, 150 ~1950!.
1

J. M. Ginder and L. C. Davis

Downloaded 04 Sep 2012 to 152.14.136.96. Redistribution subject to AIP license or copyright; see http://apl.aip.org/about/rights_and_permissions