Abstract
Magneto-rheological (MR) fluids are functional fluids obtained by dispersing micro-sized ferri-magnetic particles in oil. One of the features of MR fluids is that its viscosity could be controlled by magnetic field. Due to this features, the device using MR fluids as hydraulic fluid exhibit better performance in terms of shock reduction compared to a conventional fluid. For such reason, MR fluids are expected to be new hydraulic oil for applications such as dampers, actuators and brakes. However, when MR fluids used as hydraulic oil, the effects of particles is not negligible on the sliding surface. Generally, the particles dispersed in oil caused abrasive wear and oil starvation. Thus, improvement of lubricating properties for MR fluids enables expansion of its application field. In this paper, we reported the lubricating properties of MR fluids focusing on behavior of dispersed particles by sliding test and in-situ observation
