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Dynamic and creep and recovery performance of Fe 3 O 4 nanoparticle and

carbonyl iron microparticle water-based magnetorheological fluid

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DOI: 10.1177/1045389X211026379

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Original Article

Journal of Intelligent Material Systems

and Structures
1–13
Dynamic and creep and recovery Ó The Author(s) 2021
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DOI: 10.1177/1045389X211026379

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water-based magnetorheological fluid

Chandra Shekhar Maurya and Chiranjit Sarkar

Abstract
This study investigates dynamic mechanical properties and creep and recovery behaviors of disc-shaped magnetic Fe3O4
nanoparticles with carbonyl iron (CI) flake-shaped microparticles in water-based MR fluid. The experimental study is per-
formed using a parallel plate rheometer. Dynamic performance and creep and recovery behaviors help understand defor-
mation mechanism for its practical applications in MR devices like seismic vibration control, active dampers, earthquake
dampers, etc., under applied strain, and stress levels. The oscillatory experiment reveals a transition from viscoelastic-
0

to-viscous behavior at the critical strain of 0.1%. The storage modulus G of CI/Fe 3O4 MR fluid showed a stable pla-
0

teau region over the small strain area and storage modulus G independent of strain amplitude. The frequency experi-
0

ment demonstrated that storage moduli G exhibit elastic response and stable plateau region over the complete
external frequency range, suggesting the distinguished solid-like behavior of the MR fluid. Creep and recovery experi-
ments showed that fluid acts as a linear viscoelastic material at lower stress levels. As the stress levels increase, the con-
tribution of retardation strain and viscous strain decreases, and it acts like nonlinear viscoelastic material. In summary,
this work is expected to obtain MR fluid results for application in MR devices under applied strain, frequencies, and con-
stant stress levels.

Keywords
Magnetorheological fluid, storage modulus, magnetic field, strain, dynamic efficiency, creep and recovery, creep
compliance

1. Introduction based MR fluid prepared by LORD Corporation, whose

Magnetorheological fluids (MRFs) are a type of smart
materials whose properties vary rapidly and reversibly
under external stimuli (Ginder, 1998). The MR fluid
comprises magnetic particles of micron-sized carbonyl
iron (CI) and metal oxides dispersed into a non-
magnetic carrier medium. Under the applied external
magnetic field, the magnetic particles are aggregated
alongside the direction of a magnetic field to form a
chain structure because of the magnetic dipole-dipole
interaction among the magnetic particles (Choi et al.,
2020; Li et al., 2004). The formed chain structure
increases the viscosity of the fluid, and thus MR fluid
changes rapidly from a liquid-like to a solid-like state
in milliseconds (Biao et al., 2014; Ghaffari et al., 2014;
Maurya and Sarkar, 2020a). Furthermore, water-based
MR fluid has a 5°C–90°C working temperature range
beyond this temperature; water evaporation occurs
(Jolly et al., 1999). MRF-240BS is a standard water-
operating temperature range is 0°C–70°C. So water-
based MR fluids have numerous applications for con-
trolling the temperature of devices. Water-based MR
fluids have a fast response, ease of control, good dis-
persal of fine abrasives, low cost, lower environmental
pollution, and excellent cooling characteristics, improv-
ing polishing efficiency (Dorosti et al., 2019).
The MR effect of MR fluids is described as the rever-
sible process that the magnetic field can rapidly and
easily control their properties. Based on these reversible
characteristics and rapid responsiveness to an external
Department of Mechanical Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology,
Patna, Bihar, India
Corresponding author:
Chandra Shekhar Maurya, Block-3, Department of Mechanical
Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology, Patna 801103, India.
Email: 1821me19@iitp.ac.in
2 Journal of Intelligent Material Systems and Structures 00(0)
magnetic field water-based MR fluid has attracted sub-
stantial interest in tunable vibration absorbers. It is
noted that MR fluids devices often work in various
operating modes under the magnetic field, where MR
fluids are subjected to instantaneous strain, vibration
frequency, shear stress levels, and loads. For example,
dynamic mechanical performance and creep and recov-
ery properties are the critical estimation parameter for
devices and structural elements which are subjected
under vibration frequency and constant load, respec-
tively. Therefore, the dynamic mechanical performance
and creep and recovery properties measurements are
very useful for some engineering applications. Some
engineering applications of MR fluids in such condi-
tions are car suspension, shock absorbers in buses and
motorcycles, seismic vibration control which will oper-
ate under the resonance frequency of the building and
bridges by absorbing external impacts, shock waves,
and oscillations that can cause harm, within the struc-
ture (Choi et al., 2020; Dyke et al., 1996), the MR dam-
pers can be used in a prosthetic knee to give fast shock
absorbing and make the user feel more natural feet
under axial force (Ravishankar and Mahale, 2015).
However, the advancement in MR fluids and MR
devices is essential to the understanding of MR fluids
response under such working modes and conditions.
The water-based MR fluid behaviors in such modes
and conditions have not been deliberated widely and
are not well understand. Furthermore, analysis of creep
and recovery behaviors of water-based MR fluids is
rarely available, which is extremely essential for such
engineering applications.
Creep is a time-dependent mechanical performance
of materials that helps to understand their deformation
mechanism of MR fluid under a constant applied load.
Creep compliance and the ratio of elastic strain are the
important estimation criterion for structure elements
observed at constant stress levels (Xu et al., 2012).

0
Under oscillatory sweep mode, storage modulus G
showed a plateau region over the small strain area
0 00
g ł gcrt and both G and G independent of strain rate.
0 00
At a high strain rate, g ø gcrt both G and G decrease
with an increment in strain rate.
Under frequency sweep
0
mode, the storage moduli G of the MR fluid was
exhibited an elastic response and an almost stable pla-
teau area over the whole frequency test range. The vis-
coelasticity of MR fluid depends on an applied strain
rate and magnetic field (Li et al., 2002). Creep and
recovery experiments showed that at lower stress, MR
fluid acts as linear viscoelastic materials. As the stress
levels increase, the contribution of retardation and vis-
cous strains decreases, and MR fluid acts like nonlinear
viscoelastic materials. The instantaneous creep strain
decreases sharply, and elastic recovery strain increases
with the increasing magnetic field.
This study performed using disc-shaped (iron oxide)
nanoparticles as a supplement with micron-sized flake-
shaped CI particles and suspended in water. The Fe3O4
nanoparticles improved the MR fluid performances as
the Fe3O4 nanoparticles packed the voids among the
micron-sized CI particles and toughened the particle-
particle chain structure (Maurya and Sarkar, 2020b).
The researchers with nanoparticles least analyzed CI
and water-based MR fluid while it has better MR per-
formances than hydrocarbon-based MR fluid under
similar working conditions (Cheng et al., 2008). The
dynamic experiments were performed under oscillatory
and frequency mode to understand the mechanical per-
formance of MR fluid at external strain and angular
frequency, respectively, in the off-state and on-state of
the magnetic field. Then, the creep and recovery perfor-
mance of the fluid is investigated and analyzed to
understand the viscoelastic properties at different
steady stress levels and the magnetic field. The visco-
elastic properties are directly correlated to applied con-
stant stress levels and magnetic fields (Li et al., 2002).
Based on the above experiments, we characterized the MR
fluid to use in various temperature-controlled vibration
absorber devices where MR fluid is subjected to instanta-
neous strain, vibration frequency, and constant load.
2. Experiments and methods
2.1. Materials
MR fluid was prepared with CI microparticles 65 wt%
and iron (II, III) oxide (Fe3O4) nanoparticles 1 wt% by
dispersing in Millipore water. MR suspension mixture
was stirred 3 h continuously at 400 rpm rotating speed
using a mechanical stirrer at room temperature.
Magnetic CI particle has a flake shape with 6–10 mm
(SEM) average particle size. The flake-shape CI parti-
cles have an enhanced rheological response and settling
stability than the spherical shape CI particle
(Upadhyay et al., 2013). Iron oxide particles have disc-
shaped with an average particle size of 50–100 nm
(SEM). CI and iron oxide bought from Sigma Aldrich
(Germany) with the 7.86 g/mL density at 25°C, 55.85
molecular weight, with 97% purity and 4.8–5.1 g/mL
density at 25°C, 231.53 molecular weight, with 97%
purity, 20–50 m2/g surface area, respectively. Both CI
particles and iron oxide (Fe3O4) particles were applied
with no additional cleansing and chemical dealing.
Note that 1 wt% of iron oxide concentration was taken
because more than 1 wt% of iron oxide would not
much enhance the on-state magnetorheological
response (Maurya and Sarkar, 2020b).
Maurya and Sarkar
2.2. Experimental setup and measurements
The rheological response, dynamic mechanical proper-
ties, and creep and recovery performances of MR fluid
were studied using a commercial parallel plate-plate
(PP20, Anton Paar Co., Austria) rheometer (Physica
MCR 102, Anton Paar Co., Austria) equipped with
the magnetorheological module, as presented in
Figure 1(a) and (b). The parallel plate measuring tool
system has maintained 0.5 mm gap thickness for all the
experiments between two plates with a 20 mm rotating
head diameter. Since the volume of MR fluids
sample controlled for each experiment was 0.25pd2
h = 0.25p 3 20^2 3 0.5 = 0.157 mL. During the
experiment process, MR fluids sample was laid at the
center of the base plate in the gap, and the magnetic
field between the base plate and rotating plate was gen-
erated by the coil fixed under the bottom plate of the
rheometer, as shown in the schematic diagram of MR
shell in Figure 1(b). The magnetic field passes normally
to the parallel plates, and a magnetic cover (yoke) is
employed to intensify the magnetic field and to make it
identical over the radius of parallel plates where MR
fluid was placed.
The experiments were performed by controlling the
operating temperature 22°C 6 0.15°C and the tem-
perature was controlled using a cooling system where
temperature module connected to the base pate and
temperature control hood applied over the magnetic
chamber. The cooling system has a coolant tank to
store the coolant fluid and coolant fluid flow through
the pipes in the temperature control hood, as shown in
Figure 1(a). It was observed that by applying 0, 1, and
2 A currents, the increment in temperature was well
limited within 0.02°C. While at 3 and 4 A currents, a
fluctuation of temperature vary significantly and
increases for 0.06°C and 0.14°C, respectively. The oper-
ating inputs parameter like a current, shear rate, strain
amplitude, and stress levels were controlled by Anton
Paar RheoCompass 1.22 software and output data was
recorded and processed with a data acquisition board
(DAQ) and computer system. The rheological test of
the shear stress response of MR fluids was conducted
under shear rate sweep mode at the different magnetic
fields with shear rate varies from 0 to100 s21. The
dynamic performance of MR fluids measured under
amplitude sweep test by ranging the strain amplitude
from 0.001% to 100% at a 10 rad/s fixed angular fre-
quency and frequency sweep test by ranging frequency
from 0 to 100 rad/s at a fixed strain of 0.1% under dif-
ferent magnetic field.
The surface morphology of CI, Fe3O4, and CI/
Fe3O4 suspension and their particle size distribution
was observed using Hitachi S-4800 field emission scan-
ning electron microscope (FESEM). The sample was
kept in a dry vacuum system during measurement and
specifications of Hitachi S-4800 FESEM are included
3
with 0.5 to 30 kV accelerating voltage, 1 nm resolution
at 15 kV, 1.4 nm at 1 kV, and magnification from
30 3 to 800,000 3 . For the sample preparation, the
Cressington 208 sputter coaters are used to apply a thin
gold layer to non-conductive samples earlier to SEM
imaging and EDS analysis. Gold sputter coating parti-
cles become visible and samples are suitable for ima-
ging at higher magnifications. Elemental analysis of
samples was measured with energy-dispersive X-ray
spectroscopy (EDS). For elemental measurement, X-
ray beam excitation is used in X-ray fluorescence spec-
trometers and a detector is used to convert X-ray
energy into voltage signals; this information is sent to a
pulse processor, which measures the signals and passes
them onto an analyzer for data display and analysis.
The crystalline structure and phases of CI, Fe3O4,
and CI/Fe3O4 particles were investigated using the
Rigaku SmartLab X-ray diffractometer. X-ray diffrac-
tion (XRD) is one of the most important non-
destructive tools to analyze powders and crystals.
Rigaku SmartLab is the newest and most novel high-
resolution X-ray diffractometer (XRD) with automatic
high-resolution u-u multipurpose X-ray diffractometer
(XRD) with expert system Guidance software.
The magnetic properties of pure CI, iron oxide
(Fe3O4), and dry form of CI/Fe3O4 mixture were stud-
ied using a vibrating sample magnetometer (VSM) at
room temperature. VSM was performed using quan-
tum Design’s PPMS VersaLab is a cryogen-free cryo-
cooler-based material characterization platform with a
temperature range of 50–400 K without any consump-
tion of helium gas, 3-T magnetic control platform, and
equipped with an integrated cryopump and vacuum
gauge for controlling the sample environment.
3. Results and discussion
3.1. Particle characterization
Figure 2(a) and (b) showed the morphology character-
istics of the pure CI particles and mixture of CI/Fe3O4.
Figure 2(a) showed that the CI particles exhibited flake
shapes with an average particle size of 6–10 mm. The
inset figure in Figure 2(b) indicates that Fe3O4 nano-
particles exhibit a moderately smooth surface and disc-
shaped structure of 50–100 nm average particle size. In
the case of the CI/Fe3O4 mixture, Fe3O4 nanoparticles
surround the surface of CI microparticles and occupy
the vacancies among the CI particles. A few Fe3O4 par-
ticles are attached to the surface of CI particles due to
magnetic behavior and increase the size of CI particles.
The surface structure and size of the magnetic particles
influence the magnetorheological response of the MR
fluid (Ngatu et al., 2008). In the schematic image of the
CI/Fe3O4 mixture presented in Figure 2(c), it can be
observed that under applied magnetic field CI micro-
particles formed a chain arrangement along the applied
4 Journal of Intelligent Material Systems and Structures 00(0)

Figure 1. Measurement setup of (a) rheological equipment (Anton Paar MCR 102) and (b) schematic diagram of MR shell and
magnetic field direction.

direction of the external magnetic field, and Fe3O4
nanoparticles packed the interspace among the CI par-
ticles and improved the overall friction. As a result,
under the applied magnetic field, magnetic interaction
among the CI microparticles and Fe3O4 nanoparticles
improved and developed a more robust chain structure
and improved the MR performances. The water base
MR fluid has low viscosity at zero magnetic fields. It
can be easily poured into borosil glass cylinder. Figure
2(d) is the picture of prepared CI/Fe3O4 with 1 wt% of
Fe3O4 water-based MR fluid, where we can see that
magnetic particles form a chain structure along applied
the magnetic field direction.
The magnetic properties of pure CI, Fe3O4, and CI/
Fe3O4 with 1 wt% of Fe3O4 were investigated with
VSM, as shown in Figure 3(a). The magnetization
curves present the magnetic moment of each sample as
a function of applied magnetic field strength varying
from 22387.14 to + 2387.14 kA/m (230 to
+ 30 kOe). All the samples show a typical superpara-
magnetic material behavior with a minimal coercive
field and narrow hysteresis curve. Superparamagnetism
can create magnetic particles that quickly scatter in
solution with negligible magnetic interactions and
avoid magnetic clustering, which is extremely impor-
tant and helpful in practical applications of MR fluids
Maurya and Sarkar 5

Figure 2. SEM image of (a) pure flake-shaped CI, (b) mixture of CI/Fe3O4, (c) schematic image of the MR effect of CI/Fe3O4
mixture, and (d) picture of prepared CI/Fe3O4 water-based MR fluid under magnetic field.

Figure 3. (a) VSM plot of CI, Fe3O4, and CI/Fe3O4 mixture. The inset presents the enlarged hysteresis loops at a small magnetic
field and (b) XRD pattern of CI, Fe3O4, and CI/Fe3O4 mixture (inset figure shows the EDS of CI/Fe3O4 mixture).

(Wang et al., 2016). The top inset shows hysteresis
loops of samples at very low magnetic field strength,
and the bellow inset shows enlarge hysteresis loops at
the center of the M-H curve. The magnetization curves
of samples indicate a negligible remnant magnetization
ðMr Þ and coercive force ðHc Þ. The saturation magneti-
zation ðMs Þ of the CI, Fe3O4, and CI/Fe3O4 with
1 wt% of Fe3O4 were 211.87, 85.6, and 206.7 emu/g,
respectively. The Ms value of CI/Fe3O4 with 1 wt% of
Fe3O4 was much higher than Fe3O4 and close to that
of pure CI. The remnant magnetization ðMr Þ and coer-
cive force ðHc Þ of Fe3O4 were approximately 7.9 emu/g
and 10 kA/m, respectively. Meanwhile, CI has Mr and
Hc values were 1.3 emu/g and 1.6 kA/m, respectively,
and CI/Fe3O4 with 1 wt% of Fe3O4 has 1.5 emu/g and
3 kA/m, respectively. The above results indicate that
CI, Fe3O4, and CI/Fe3O4 exhibited soft magnetic prop-
erties. Soft materials are desirable for MR perfor-
mance; they are highly reversible and easily magnetized
in on-state and demagnetized in off-state (Olabi and
Grunwald, 2007; Wang et al., 2014). The magnetic per-
formance of particles is much dependent on the struc-
ture size, morphology, and crystallinity of the samples
(Yang et al., 2017).
6 Journal of Intelligent Material Systems and Structures 00(0)
Table 1. Optimal fitting parameters for pure CI and CI/Fe3O4
based MR fluids using Bingham fluid model.
CI suspension CI/Fe3O4 suspension
t y (kPa) ho (mPa  s) t y (kPa) ho (mPa  s)
0.0 T 0.00087 7.70 0.0045 41.02
0.17 T 2.10 2889.8 6.13 3662.8
0.35 T 5.21 1354.5 17.62 2984.5
0.54 T 6.96 1397.2 23.36 2589.67
0.74 T 8.10 1446.1 34.42 2768.5
The XRD patterns of CI, Fe3O4, and CI/Fe3O4 mix-
ture investigated, as shown in Figure 3(b). The patterns
of CI and Fe3O4 particles display prominent diffraction
peaks of CI and Fe3O4, which presented that function-
alities do not influence the core iron and magnetite,
respectively. The positions of peaks matched with the
usual XRD information for the cubic spinel structure
of iron and magnetite. Diffraction peaks of CI and
Fe3O4 particles have been indexed with no impurity
phase peaks and a sequence of characters as (110), (200)
(211), and (111), (220), (311), (400), (422), (511), (440),
(533), (731), (800) planes of body-centered cubic (bcc)
phase Fe, respectively. The CI/Fe3O4 mixture has simi-
lar diffraction peaks as CI particles. The inset figure
showed the EDS spectral observation of the CI/Fe3O4
mixture; it established the CI/Fe3O4 microcluster com-
position with C and O elements with high Fe content.
3.2. Rheological measurement
The shear stress under controlled shear rate was investi-
gated of the MR fluid containing CI/Fe3O4 1 wt% in
off-state and on-state and compared with MR fluid
containing CI, as shown in Figure 4. In practice, pre-
shearing conditions can significantly influence the
results of MR fluid response (Shan et al., 2015); thus a
fresh state pre-shearing (at zero magnetic fields) test
was conducted before the test under magnetic fields to
eliminate the shear history effect. The shear rate varies
from 0 to100 s21, and magnetic field density varies
from 0 to 0.74 T. The figure shows that the shear stress
increased with the increasing magnetic field density due
to strong dipole-dipole interaction among the CI and
Fe3O4 nanoparticles magnetic particles. It was seen that
shear stress of the CI-based MR suspension enhances
with adding Fe3O4 nanoparticles. It is because nano-
particles occupy the voids between CI microparticles,
which developed a strong magnetic chain-like forma-
tion and decreased the energy losses in the MR suspen-
sion because of inter-particle solid frictions. In addition
to the wrapping effect on the CI particles, helps in
increasing the strength of the columns and reforming
the broken chain structure (Kim et al., 2016). The inset
figure shows that adding the nanoparticles shear stress
Figure 4. Shear viscosity plotted as the shear rate function
(inset figure presents the magnified view of stress at 0.0 T).
little enhanced at zero magnetic fields. The developed
shear stress ðtÞ and shear rate ðg_ Þ flow curve relation
can be represented by the widely used Bingham-plastic
(BP) model, which is presented as:
t = t y + ho g_ ðg.0
_ Þ ð1Þ
Where ty is the yield stress at a low shear rate range
and function of external magnetic field strength and ho
is the post-yield plastic viscosity close to the MR sus-
pension viscosity at the high shear rate regime, and g_ is
the shear rate. Furthermore, the flow curves were fitted
by the Bingham model, which is showing good quality
conformity with the experimental results for both MR
fluids, as shown in Figure 4. Table 1 presents the iden-
tified optimal fitting Bingham model parameters in the
range of 0–100 s21.
Furthermore, when the magnetic flux density was
smaller or equal to 0.35 T, the initially taken gap thick-
ness of 0.50 mm between the parallel plates of the rhe-
ometer was maintained. So we observed a stable
plateau of shear stress as the shear rate increases at the
lower magnetic field. While at higher magnetic field
strength (above 0.35 T) 0.54 and 0.74 T the gap thick-
ness between the plates changes from 0.50 to 0.69 mm
and from 0.50 to 0.78 mm due to the developed maxi-
mum initial normal force 16.3 and 27.3 N, respectively.
The initial maximum developed normal force increases
the gap thickness continuously with time and shear rate
to the maximum value at a particular magnetic field
between the parallel plates. Therefore, shear stress may
show decreasing trends with time (shear rate) at higher
applied magnetic field strength due to continuous
breakage of chain structure at larger gap thickness.
3.3. Dynamic performance
The amplitude test is a helpful method to examine the
dynamic mechanical performance of MR fluid. A strain
Maurya and Sarkar 7

0
00
0
00

Figure 5. Storage modulus G and loss modulus G of CI/ Figure 6. Storage modulus G and loss modulus G of CI/
Fe3O4 sample as a function of strain amplitude Fe3O4 sample as a function of angular frequency.

is forced to the fluid and the elastic and loss energy

response measured. The viscoelastic behavior and chain
formation can be observed by the elastic/storage modu-
0

lus G that provides energy storage capability and the
00

viscous/loss modulus G that offers the dissipation
0
energy within the material (Jahan et al., 2017). The G
00
and G as a function of strain amplitude ðg Þ, swept
from 0.001% to 100% at a 10 rad/s fixed angular fre-
quency under applied constant magnetic field B = 0 to
0.74 T, as shown in Figure 5. A critical value of strain
g crt = 0:1% classified two characteristics region: linear
viscoelastic (LVE) region and nonlinear viscoelastic
region. Over
the small strain area g ł g crt , the storage
0
modulus G of the CI/Fe3O4 sample showed a plateau
0
region and G independent of strain amplitude, known
as the linear viscoelastic (LVE) region (Maurya and
00 0 00
Sarkar, 2021). In LVE region G indicated nonlinear Figure 7. G and G as a function of magnetic flux density of
behavior with an increase in value with the strain ampli- MR fluid at a constant strain of 0.1% and angular frequency of
0
tude. At higher strain amplitude, g ø gcrt both G and 10 rad/s.
00
G decrease with increase in strain rate, known as non-
0
linear viscoelastic region. In the linear region, G larger
00
than G even in off-state (0 T), which suggests the dom- modulus and MR fluid chain was generally broken in a
inance of elastic modulus and confirms solid-like beha- nonlinear region.
0 00
vior of the MR fluid. Both G and G were increased The viscoelastic behavior of the CI/Fe3O4 MR fluid
with the increment in magnetic flux density and higher was measured using the frequency sweep at a fixed
0
value of G confirmes the increase in a chain-like config- strain of 0.1%, and frequency ranging from 0 to
uration in the applied magnetic field direction (Wang 100
rad/s under the magnetic field. The storage moduli
0
et al., 2019a). At a higher magnetic field, differences G were exhibited an elastic response and almost con-
0
between G values become minimal. It was because of stant (stable) plateau region over the whole frequency
the magnetic saturation of magnetic particles. After the test range and increased with the increasing applied
0 00
LVE region, both G and G began to decrease with an magnetic flux density, as shown in Figure 6. This beha-
increase in strain rate because of the irreversibility in vior confirmed that MR fluid exhibited robust solid-
transforming the MR fluid from a solid-like to fluid- like behavior under the magnetic field (Kwon et al.,
0 00
like state (Han et al., 2020). After that, at higher strain 2018). Furthermore, G was larger than G at applied
0 00
amplitude, the G and G intersect at the cross point magnetic flux density even at zero magnetic flux den-
00 0
0 00
G .G , which suggests the dominance of loss sity. Figure 7 shows that G and G is a function of the
8 Journal of Intelligent Material Systems and Structures 00(0)

0 00

Figure 8. Loss factor is a function of a magnetic flux density of Figure 9. Dependence of the G max and G max on magnetic flux
MR fluid at a constant strain of 0.1% and angular frequency of density.
10 rad/s.

magnetic field and indicates a growing trend with the

magnetic field before getting magnetic saturation at the
high magnetic field. At the lower magnetic field, the
increasing tendency is large, and after some point ten-
dency becomes almost constant.
The loss factor is an essential parameter to analyze
the performance of MR fluid as it provides information
about storage and loss modulus and considers the
damping properties of the material. It
is the ratio of
00 0
loss to storage modulus tan d = G G . The loss fac-
tor is dependent on applied external magnetic field den-
sity, as shown in Figure 8. It was observed in three
different regimes by changing magnetic flux densities.
In regime I, the loss factor decreases sharply from its
maximum value at low applied magnetic flux density
due to robust induced internal structure (Wang et al., Figure 10. Dynamic efficiency of MR fluids as a function of
2019b). In regime II, the fluid transition from a liquid magnetic flux density.
to a solid form due to competition between frequency
and magnetic force-induced chain structure and loss
factor reduces gradually with a high magnetic field. In MR fluid using strain sweep test at 10 rad/s constant
regime III, MR fluid forms an almost stable solid-like angular frequency. Dynamic efficiency is defined as:
structure at a higher magnetic field, and the loss factor
has a small variance (Jahan et al., 2017). Furthermore, GH0  G00
he = ð2Þ
the loss factor is correlated to the energy dissipation, G00
which induces by the interaction among various inner
structures. Then, energy dissipation and loss factor Where GH0 is the storage modulus with the magnetic
were decreased with increment in the magnetic field. field, and G00 is the storage modulus without a magnetic
The loss factor is also dependent on strain amplitude; field. Dynamic efficiency of MR fluid is increased with
as the strain was higher, the loss factor was larger, as increasing magnetic field. Dynamic efficiency has a
shown in Figure 8. It has occurred because more energy larger slope at the low magnetic field and the higher
dissipation takes place at the higher strain rate magnetic field slope little decrease because of the mag-
0 00
Figure 9 shows the plot of Gmax and Gmax of CI/ netic saturation of the particles.
Fe3O4 MR fluid as a magnetic flux density function.
It
0
can be observed that energy storage
ability G max as
00
well as energy dissipation Gmax values increase with 3.4. Creep and recovery behavior
the magnetic field. Figure 10 shows the dynamic effi- Creep is the changing of strain with time under steadily
ciency ðhe Þ as a function of magnetic flux density of applied stress ðt o Þ of a viscoelastic material. Creep is a
Maurya and Sarkar
time-dependent mechanical performance that helps
realize deformation mechanisms of materials (Xu et al.,
2012). If the applied constant stress is removed instan-
taneously, a little of the time-dependent deformations
are recovered with time, and dependence on time is
known as the recovery phase. Furthermore, the micro-
structure development of viscoelastic material can be
deducted from creep and recovery tests, which is useful
to realize the structural mechanism at the back of the
rheological behavior of materials (Xu et al., 2012).
Creep and recovery performance of MR fluid at differ-
ent stress levels is a useful way to evaluate the viscoelas-
tic properties in the presence of the magnetic field. The
creep and recovery curve of a nonlinear viscoelastic is
shown in Figure 11.
3.4.1. Creep phase. Stress ðto Þ is enforced instanta-
neously at the time t = 0 to the material and controlled
at a constant level for a set phase of time to . As a result,
time-dependent creep strain g c can be represented as
follow:
gc ðtÞ = gic + gr ðtÞ + g v ðtÞ ð3Þ
For the viscoelastic materials, g ic is the instantaneous
(creep) strain, gr ðtÞ is the retarded elastic strain, and
g v ðtÞ is the viscous strain. The instantaneous creep ðg ic Þ
strain for nonlinear viscoelastic
material comprises of
elastic ðge Þ and plastic g p contribution, that
is,g ic = g e + g p , and g p cannot be recovered in the
recovery phase. The instantaneous recovered strain is
g ir = g e . Furthermore, linear viscoelastic materials g ic
represent the elastic behavior of the materials, which is
recoverable and disappears after removing the stress
level, that is, g ic = g e . The gr ðtÞ is also an elastic strain
component, which behaves a steadily diminishing trend
and fully recovered with time (Li et al., 2010). The
g v ðtÞ is the viscous flow strain, linearly increases for lin-
ear viscoelastic material with time, and irreversible
after unloading (Li et al., 2002). For the nonlinear vis-
coelastic materials, the
g p grow and g r ðtÞ and g v ðtÞ
decrease g ic igir asgp i0 (Wang et al., 2014). The plastic
component of strain is integrated into the residual
strain, so it is also an irreversible strain. The plastic
strain can be calculated by deducting the viscous flow
strain ðgv ðtÞÞ from the residual strain. However,
mechanical behaviors with time are more complicated
for the most realistic material than those described in
Figure 11.
The three components of strain (g ic ,g r ðtÞ and g v ðtÞ)
are proportional to the applied constant stress ðt o Þ. So
a creep compliance function Jc ðtÞ can be written as
follow:
g c ðt Þ
Jc ðtÞ = = Jic + Jr ðtÞ + Jv ðtÞ ð4Þ
to
9
Figure 11. Schematic diagram of the creep and recovery
behavior of a nonlinear viscoelastic material.
From equation (4) and equation (3). The g c ðtÞ can be
written as follow:
gc ðtÞ = t o ðJic + Jr ðtÞ + Jv ðtÞÞ ð5Þ
3.4.2. Recovery phase. It can be observed from Figure 11
that after removing the load from the material at to , the
instantaneous elastic strain ðg e Þ recovered instantly,
and retarded elastic strain ðg r ðtÞÞ recover gradually,
whereas viscous flow strain ðg v ðtÞÞ irreversible. So
time-dependent recovery strain g R ðtÞ can be written as
follow:
g R ðt Þ = g e + g r ðt Þ ð6Þ
Correspondingly, a recovery compliance function JR ðtÞ
can be represented as follow:
g R ðt Þ
JR ðtÞ = = Je + Jr ðtÞ ð7Þ
to
3.4.2.1.The influence of various stresses on creep and recov-
ery performance. Figure 12(a) to (d) show the creep and
recovery curves of fluid at different constant stress lev-
els 200, 2000, 6000, and 10,000 Pa, respectively. The
creep and recovery performance significantly depends
on the applied loads for constant applied magnetic field
0.35 T, as shown in Figure 12. At lower stress
to = 200Pa, which is much lesser than the dynamic
yield stress, the creep strain consists of the instanta-
neous creep strain ðg ic Þ, retardation strain ðg r Þ, and vis-
cous strain ðg v Þ. Where viscous strain is an irreversible
and instantaneous strain, retardation strain is recover-
able after removing the stress in the recovery phase.
Here instantaneous strains ðg ic Þ are equal to instanta-
neous recovery strain ðg ir Þ, that is, g ic = gir = g e , and
MR fluid acts as a linear viscoelastic material. As the
level of stress increases to 2000 Pa, the instantaneous
creep strain increases to g = 0:42, and the contribution
of gr and g v decreases. The MR fluid behaves like non-
linear viscoelastic material, that is, gic .ge .
10
Figure 12. Creep and recovery performance of MR fluid at: (a) 200 Pa, (b) 2000 Pa, (c) 6000 Pa, and (d) 10,000 Pa.
Similarly, for the applied stress levels 6000 and
10,000 Pa, the contribution of the instantaneous creep
strain greatly increases g = 6:1 and g = 33:6, respec-
tively. The strain instantaneously reached the equili-
brium state. The contribution of retardation strain and
viscous strain significantly decreases or becomes negli-
gible compared to creep strain at higher stress levels
instantaneously. The MR fluid behaves to an elastic
solid. The instantaneous creep
strain comprises both
elastic ðg e Þ and plastic g p components, that is,
g ic = g e + g p , and MR fluid acts as a nonlinear viscoe-
lastic material. Furthermore, removing the applied
load, there is a very slight recovery of elastic strain, as
shown in Figure 12(c) and (d). The elastic strain to resi-
dual strain ratio becomes negligible for 6000 and
10,000 Pa, which are 31.8% and 33.6%, respectively.
Therefore it can be said that the residual strain is influ-
enced by plastic strain. This plastic strain mostly gener-
ated in the primary creep process, and its rate maintains
nearly steady after the MR fluid goes into the second-
ary creep process. The elastic-plastic characteristics of
MR fluid can be analyzed by breaking and restructur-
ing the particle chain structures throughout the small
gap period of the impulse. The plastic deformation of
MR fluid may begin from the slipping between iron
particles (Xu et al., 2012).
Journal of Intelligent Material Systems and Structures 00(0)
As discussed in Figure 12(a) to (d), the instanta-
neous recovery strains ðg ir Þ are lesser than the instanta-
neously creep strain ðgic Þ, excluding case (a) when the
applied stress level is deficient. MR fluid particles
formed a single-chain-width chain under the magnetic
field, as presented in Figure 2(c). At critical strain, the
chains distort affinity; they formed chains that break in
half and quickly reformed their original state. At low
stress 200 Pa, the stress in the direction normal to the
magnetic field vector gives to energy storage in the
stressed chains. Therefore at 200 Pa, the fluid acted
elastically and recovered completely without an endur-
ing strain and behaves like viscoelastic liner material.
In the case of a larger stress level, the energy taken for
chain stretching was not stored but dissipated com-
pletely, and the strain was irreversible in the recovery
phase (Li et al., 2002).
3.4.2.2. The influence of magnetic field on creep and recov-
ery performance. Controlibity of magnetic properties of
the MR materials is one of the most essential and
attractive properties. Being a type of magneto-
responsive material, a magnetic field plays a significant
character in the creep and recovery performances of
MR fluid. When a magnetic field is applied to MR
fluid, CI particles formed a rigid chain structure; as a
Maurya and Sarkar
Figure 13. The influence of the magnetic field on creep and
recovery behaviors.
result, movement between the particles is restricted.
Creep and recovery performances measured at different
magnetic fields for constant stress of 2000 Pa, as pre-
sented in Figure 13. The instantaneous creep strain
ðg ic Þ decreases with increasing
magnetic field.
0
Therefore, the elastic modulus G , which is the ratio
of constant applied stress ðto Þ to the developed instan-
0

taneous creep strain,ðgic Þ G = to =g ic increases with
the increasing magnetic field, as shown in Figure 14.
0
The G at 0.18, 0.35, and 0.52 T are 2125.4, 4672.9, and
11299.4 Pa. The instantaneous creep strain ratio to
residual strain was 2.3, 1.5, and 0.87 at 0.18, 0.35, and
0.52 T magnetic flux density, respectively. It means
with increasing the magnetic field, instantaneous creep
strain reduces sharply, and elastic recovery strain
increases. These results prove that elastic component
grows with increment in magnetic flux density, and
MR fluid becomes rigid and time-dependent properties
show solid behavior under creep and recovery
performance.
However, the reversible strain g r will also provide a
quantity of energy storage. The ratio of ðg ir + gd =gic Þ
was plotted at 2000 and 6000 Pa as dependent on the mag-
netic field to realize the influence of stress level and mag-
netic field on the time-dependent mechanical behaviors. It
was observed that the ratio of elastic strain increases with
the increasing magnetic flux density. It means instanta-
neous creep strain ðgic Þ decreases sharply, and reversible
strain ðg ir + g d Þ increases with increasing the magnetic
field. Furthermore, total strain reduces with the rising
magnetic field, and the energy storage capacity of MR
fluid is enhanced. Simultaneously, increment in applied
stress levels shows the opposite behavior; with increasing
11
Figure 14. The ratio of elastic strain as a function of the
magnetic field.
the stress levels, total strain increases, and the elastic strain
ratio decreases. The elastic strain ratio plot proves that
MR fluid behaves as solid-like material and increases elas-
tic energy storage capacity with increasing magnetic field.
Creep compliance is the total strain per unit applied
stress levels before the creep break occurred. Creep
compliance is dependent on stress levels and the mag-
netic field, as presented in Figure 15(a) and (b), respec-
tively (Xu et al., 2012). It was observed that the creep
compliance increases with the increment in the stress
levels for the creep time range of 500 s at constant mag-
netic flux density 0.35 T, as shown in Figure 15(a).
Results show that the MR fluid behaves like linear
materials at small stress levels (200 and 2000 Pa), while
at larger stress levels (6000 and 10,000 Pa) behave like
complex nonlinear materials. Creep compliance
depends on the applied magnetic field and shows a
decrease in creep compliance value with increment in
magnetic flux density for MR fluid, as presented in
Figure 15(b) at a constant stress level of 2000 Pa. It
occurred because creep compliance is the total load
strain per unit of stress and the yield stress of MR fluid
increases significantly with increasing the magnetic
field. The creep compliance shows a constant plateau
with time at different applied magnetic field except at
magnetic field of 0.52 T. It was because, at 0.52 T, the
temperatures of the MR sample region increases 22°C–
22.08°C after 200 s and increase continuously with time
up to 22.14°C, and as a result yield stress of MR fluid
decreases with increase in temperature of MR sample.
So due to the decrease in yield stress of MR fluid creep
compliance shows a significant increase in trend with
time after 200 s.
12
Figure 15. Creep compliance with time and dependent on (a) applied stress levels and (b) magnetic flux density.
4. Conclusions
This study measured the dynamic and creep and recov-
ery performance of MR fluid under different operating
mechanical conditions. The MR fluid contained CI
microparticles and Fe3O4 nanoparticles mixture with
65 wt% of CI and 1 wt% of Fe3O4 and suspended in
35 wt% of water. CI/Fe3O4 suspension exhibited soft
magnetic properties. Therefore suspension was highly
reversible and, as a result, easily magnetized and
demagnetized in on-state and off-state, conditions
respectively. The rheological properties of CI-based
suspension were enhanced with the addition of Fe3O4
nanoparticles because nanoparticles occupy the voids
between CI microparticles, which make a strong mag-
netic chain-like structure and reduce the energy losses
in the MR suspension due to inter-particle solid fric-
tions. Under oscillatory sweep mode, the
critical strain
0
was gcrt = 0:1% the storage modulus G of CI/Fe3O4
showed a plateau region over the small strain area
0
g ł gcrt and G independent of the applied strain.
0 00
Whereas at larger strain, g ø gcrt both G and G
decrease with a rise in strain amplitude. Under fre-
0

quency sweep mode, the storage modulus G was
exhibited an elastic response, an almost constant (sta-
ble) plateau region over the whole frequency range,
and increased with the increasing applied magnetic flux
density. Creep and recovery experiments showed that
at lower stress to = 200Pa, CI/Fe3O4 suspension acts
as a linear viscoelastic material because instantaneous
strains ðg ic Þ are equal to instantaneous recovery strain,
that is, g ic = g ir = g e . As the stress levels increase, the
contribution of retardation strain and viscous strain
decreases. The MR fluid acts like nonlinear viscoelastic
material, that is, g ic .g e . The instantaneous creep strain
decreases sharply, and elastic recovery strain raises with
a rising magnetic field. As a result, MR fluid becomes
stiffer with increment in magnetic field, and the elastic
energy storage capacity of MR fluid increases.
Journal of Intelligent Material Systems and Structures 00(0)
Acknowledgement
The authors would like to be grateful smart material and
machines lab in the Department of Mechanical Engineering
at IIT Patna, Patna, for providing a rotational rheometer
(Anton Paar MCR102) for experimentation and all other
resources used in this research.
Declaration of conflicting interests
The authors declared no potential conflicts of interest with
respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this
article.
Funding
The authors received no financial support for the research,
authorship, and/or publication of this article.
ORCID iDs
Chandra Shekhar Maurya https://orcid.org/0000-0002-
4014-5197
Chiranjit Sarkar https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1616-0351
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