Effect of the additional volume of MR fluid on the mechanical properties of metal foam MR materials

X. H. Liu - Z. M. Fu - F. Li - J. G. Zhang

School of Mechanical Engineering, Shanghai Institute of Technology, Shanghai, People's Republic of China

Abstract
The investigation of produced magnetorheological effect using porous materials (sponges, metal foams, etc.) to store MR fluids is a hot research topic, which can be used to solve the problem of dynamic seals and high cost for conventional MR fluid dampers. In this paper, the effect of the additional volume of MR fluid on the mechanical properties of metal foam MR materials is proposed. A set of plate-on-plate shearing test rigs is built up to evaluate experimentally the relationship between the mechanical properties (mainly shear torque) and the additional volume of this kind of metal foam MR materials in different currents and metal foams, which validates the effect of the MR fluid additional volume on the mechanical properties of metal foam MR materials. Tables 1, Figs 7, Refs 14.