This paper deals with the mathematical modelling of large strain magneto-viscoelastic deformations. Energy dissipation is assumed to occur both due to the mechanical viscoelastic effects as well as the resistance offered by the material to magnetisation. Existence of internal damping mechanisms in the body is considered by decomposing the deformation gradient and the magnetic induction into `elastic' and `viscous' parts. Constitutive laws for material behaviour and evolution equations for the non-equilibrium fields are derived that agree with the laws of thermodynamics. To illustrate the theory the problems of stress relaxation, magnetic field relaxation, time dependent magnetic induction and strain are formulated and solved for a specific form of the constitutive law. The results, that show the effect of several modelling parameters on the deformation and magnetisation process, are illustrated graphically

No abstract

Iron-filled magnetorheological polymers, when cured in the presence of a magnetic field, result in having a transversely isotropic structure with iron particles forming chains along the direction of applied magnetic induction. In this work, we model the magneto-viscoelastic deformation (and magnetization) process of such polymers. Components of the deformation gradient and the applied magnetic induction in the direction of anisotropy are considered to be additional arguments of the energy density function. The existence of internal damping mechanisms is considered by performing a multiplicative decomposition of the deformation gradient and an additive decomposition of the magnetic induction into equilibrium and non-equilibrium parts. Energy density functions and evolution laws of the internal variables are proposed that agree with the laws of thermodynamics. In the end, we present solutions of some standard deformation cases to illustrate the theory. In particular, it is shown that the orientation of resultant magnetic field and principal stress directions change with time owing to viscoelastic evolution.

No abstract

Saxena, P., Pelteret, J.-P. and Steinmann, P. (2015) Modelling of iron-filled magneto-active polymers with a dispersed chain-like microstructure. AbstractMagneto-active polymers are a class of smart materials commonly manufactured by mixing micron-sized iron particles in a rubber-like matrix. When cured in the presence of an externally applied magnetic field, the iron particles arrange themselves into chain-like structures that lend an overall anisotropy to the material. It has been observed through electron micrographs and X-ray tomographs that these chains are not always perfect in structure, and may have dispersion due to the conditions present during manufacturing or some undesirable material properties. We model the response of these materials to coupled magneto-mechanical loading in this paper using a probability based structure tensor that accounts for this imperfect anisotropy. The response of the matrix material is decoupled from the chain phase, though still being connected through kinematic constraints. The latter is based on the definition of a 'chain deformation gradient' and a 'chain magnetic field'. We conclude with numerical examples that demonstrate the effect of chain dispersion on the response of the material to magnetoelastic loading.

No abstract

One common phenomenon native to inflation of membranes is the elastic limit-point instability-a bifurcation point at which the membrane begins to deform enormously at the slightest increase of pressure. In the case of magnetoelastic materials, there is another possible phenomenon which we call magnetic limitpoint instability, a state referring to the non-existence of an equilibrium state -either stable or unstable. In this work, we are concerned with such instabilities in an incompressible isotropic magnetoelastic toroidal membrane with an initial circular cross-section. A non-uniform magnetic field is generated using a circular current carrying loop placed inside the membrane in addition to inflation by a uniform hydrostatic pressure. An energy formulation based on magnetization is used to model the magneto-mechanical coupling along with a Mooney-Rivlin constitutive model for the elastic strain energy density. Computations show that the magnetic field strongly influences the location of elastic limit points and in some cases can cause them to vanish. Multiple equilibrium states are obtained as solutions of the governing equations and a criterion based on second variation is employed to determine their stability. Existence and dependence of magnetic limit point on the magnetic field is demonstrated. While the quantitative results obtained here are specific to the toroidal geometry, the deformation behaviour can be generalised to any magnetoelastic membrane.

a b s t r a c tIn this paper, a phenomenologically motivated magneto-mechanically coupled finite strain elastic framework for simulating the curing process of polymers in the presence of a magnetic load is proposed. This approach is in line with previous works by Hossain and co-workers on finite strain curing modelling framework for the purely mechanical polymer curing (Hossain et al., 2009b). The proposed thermodynamically consistent approach is independent of any particular free energy function that may be used for the fully-cured magneto-sensitive polymer modelling, i.e. any phenomenological or micromechanical-inspired free energy can be inserted into the main modelling framework. For the fabrication of magneto-sensitive polymers, micron-size ferromagnetic particles are mixed with the liquid matrix material in the uncured stage. The particles align in a preferred direction with the application of a magnetic field during the curing process. The polymer curing process is a complex (visco) elastic process that transforms a fluid to a solid with time. Such transformation process is modelled by an appropriate constitutive relation which takes into account the temporal evolution of the material parameters appearing in a particular energy function. For demonstration in this work, a frequently used energy function is chosen, i.e. the classical Mooney-Rivlin free energy enhanced by coupling terms. Several representative numerical examples are demonstrated that prove the capability of our approach to correctly capture common features in polymers undergoing curing processes in the presence of a magneto-mechanical coupled load.