Micromechanics-based simulation of anisotropic magneto-mechanical properties of magnetorheological elastomers with chained microstructures

Magnetorheological elastomers (MREs) are ferromagnetic particle-reinforced composites that have a wide application prospect in engineering because of their tunable stiffness with applied magnetic fields. While a large number of experimental efforts have been carried out to characterize the magneto-mechanical properties of MREs, few physics-based quantitative modeling and simulation have been explored. Here a micromechanics-based finite element model and computational homogenization is developed to determine the field-dependent shear moduli of MREs. The magneto-elastic coupling is realized with the magnetic field-induced body forces in the local mechanical field. The three-dimensional body forces are solved with consideration of magnetization and demagnetizing fields. Effects of essential microstructure parameters (particle concentration and particle spacing) are investigated on the effective magneto-mechanical properties of chain-structured MREs. The numerical results demonstrate that the microstructures and demagnetizing field have significant effects on the field-induced moduli of MREs. RVEs with appropriate microstructures are selected to compare our model predictions of magneto-mechanical properties with multiple groups of experiment data in the literature, showing the capability and validity of the proposed model.

Automated summary

A micromechanics-based finite element model and computational homogenization approach were developed to determine the field-dependent shear moduli of MREs, with investigations into the effects of microstructure parameters. The results demonstrate significant influence of microstructures and demagnetizing field on the field-induced moduli of MREs, validating the capability and validity of the proposed model.