Effect of medium viscosity on rheological characteristics of magnetite-based magnetorheological fluids

This study examined the magnetorheological (MR) behavior of magnetite-based MR fluids according to the magnetite concentration, magnetic field strength, and different viscosity of silicone oil as the carrier fluid. To this end, an experimental design was chosen to decrease the experimental error and provide a better rheological interpretation. The flow behavior parameters increased remarkably with increasing medium viscosity and nanoparticles (NPs) concentration, whereas the magnetic field strength had a milder effect, exhibiting a saturation value above which its effect became almost negligible. Moreover, both the Bingham plastic and power law models were found to fit their flow behaviors well. Almost all the critical rheological parameters of the aforementioned models experienced remarkable improvement after increasing the magnetic field strength, NPs concentration and carried fluid viscosity. In addition, mathematical correlations were derived to model each of the rheological parameters such as plastic viscosity and yield stress (for Bingham fluid model) and the consistency and power-law indices (for power-law model). (C) 2019 The Korean Society of Industrial and Engineering Chemistry. Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.