Characterization of an in-house prepared magnetorheological fluid and vibrational behavior of composite sandwich beam with magnetorheological fluid core

In this research work, two different compositions of MR fluid samples with 24 and 30 percentage (%) volume fraction of carbonyl iron (CI) particles are prepared. Prepared MR fluid (MRF) samples contain carbonyl iron particles as a dispersive medium, silicone oil as a carrier fluid, and white lithium grease as an anti-settling agent. Influence of oscillating driving frequency, strain amplitude, magnetic field, and the percentage of CI particle on the rheological properties of the MR fluid samples are presented. Storage modulus and loss factor equations are estimated from the rheometry results using a linear regression method. The properties of MR fluid samples are taken to design and model the sandwich beams using ANSYS ACP software, where carbon epoxy composite material is used as the face layer and MR fluid as the core material. Modal, harmonic, and transient analysis studies have been conducted on all the modelled sandwich beams. Influence of MR fluid core material thickness, face layer thickness, CI particle volume percentage in the prepared MR fluid sample, and magnetic field on the vibrational response of the sandwich beams have been presented. Carbon-epoxy composites with an in-house made MRF sandwich beam has shown some significant results in the vibrational response.