Development of MR Elastomers and Its Application to Semi-Active Vibration Control

Abstract

Magneto-rheological materials are a class of smart materials whose rheological or viscoelastic properties can be varied by applying external magnetic field. MR elastomers (MREs) are the solid analogues of MRF and are expected to overcome the disadvantages of the fluid such as the particle deposition and the sealing problems. When such MREs are exposed to external magnetic field, the strength of the inter-particle force will change and thus their apparent elastic modulus is changed depending on the magnitude of the field. In this paper, the stiffness controllable elastomer composites known as MREs are first fabricated and their field- dependent static and dynamic properties are tested. The MRE is then applied to the vibration isolating mounts along with variable stiffness control scheme. Experimental investigations show that the vibration of the one-degree of freedom structure that is exposed to base excitation can be effectively reduced by the intermediating MRE mounts according to the semi-active on/off switching control algorithms.