Viscoelastic properties of MR shear thickening fluids

Magento-rheological Fluid (MRF) and Shear Thickening Fluid (STF) have separately attracted considerable interest due to their fast and reversible response to an external magnetic field or an abrupt shearing loading. In this paper we fabricated a combined phase of Magento-rheological Shear Thickening Fluid (MRSTF) such that it has an MR and a shear thickening effect. To fabricate it, 14 nm primary size fumed silica particles were suspended in ethylene glycol to form a 25% by weight fraction of STF base. Carbonyl iron particles (3-5 μm) were then mixed with the STF base to obtain four MRSTF samples with weight fractions of 5%, 10%, 20%, and 30%. The viscoelastic properties of all four samples, namely their steady state and dynamic behaviour, were investigated with a parallel-plate rheometer. The relevance of the dynamic behaviour to the stress amplitude, frequency, and external magnetic field were investigated and discussed. MRSTFs behave like linear viscoelastic materials for a small range of stress amplitudes, but at large stress amplitudes they are non-linear viscoelastic or viscoplastic, where the storage modulus gradually decreases with the stress amplitude. Within the linear viscoelastic range of shear stress, MRSTFs behave with linear viscoelastic properties as the frequency increases. MRSTFs also exhibit features of both components, but are more prone to MRF with the inception of external field excitations.