Investigation on rheological characteristics of magnetorheological shear thickening fluids mixed with micro CBN abrasive particles

Abstract The novel magnetorheological shear thickening polishing fluids (MRSTPFs) were developed by mixing micro cubic boron nitride (CBN) abrasive particles into traditional magnetorheological shear thickening fluids. MRSTPFs were constructed by uniformly fumed silica and polyethylene glycol as shear thickening fluids, carbonyl iron particles (CIPs) as ferromagnetic phase and CBN particles as abrasive phase. In this work, various MRSTPFs were prepared to explore their rheological characteristics. Sweeps of steady shear rate and dynamic shear frequency were conducted under different magnetic flux densities, respectively. A mathematical model was presented to explain shear rate variation with shear stress. The magnetorheological shear thickening mechanism was well described. The rheological experiment results have revealed that shear thickening effect was still existing in magnetic flux density. However, the increased magnetic flux density played a negative role on the shear thickening effect. Particle size optimization of CIPs was thus essential to maximize the shear thickening effect. On the other hand, with increased shear frequency, the viscoelastic feature of MRSTPFs was converted from linear to non-linear. It was found that the shear yield stress of the MRSTPFs was magnified with the stronger magnetic flux density and larger CIPs size. The investigation of rheological characteristics demonstrated that MRSTPFs could enhance polishing performance, which contributed to developing a high-efficiency and ultra-precision polishing process.