Synthesis and Characterization of Antifriction Magnetorheological Fluids for Brake

Magnetorheological (MR) fluids are smart materials with shear strength ranging between zero to 100 kPa under the influence of magnetic field. The present paper discusses the synthesis of MR fluid and its application in brake. In MR brake, gap between stator and rotor is filled with low (off-state) viscosity MR fluid. On the application of magnetic field, MR fluid changes its state from liquid to semi-solid by aligning magnetic particles in chains. Due to such chaining action, yield strength of fluid increases, friction between stator and rotor increases and fulfils the braking function. The strength of magnetic particle is a function of relative speed between stator and rotor, applied magnetic field, and volume percentage of magnetic particle. In this study antifriction (off-state) and strong chain (on-state) CI based MR fluid has been prepared by mixing oleic acid as antifriction additives and tetramethylammonium hydroxide as surfactant to reduce the agglomeration of the MR fluid. Yield strengths of the synthesized MR fluid in on-state and off-state have been compared with commercially available MRF 241ES fluid. A flywheel based MR brake experimental setup has been developed to analyze the performance of designed and developed MR brake.Results show that synthesized MR fluid is stronger and faster in response compared to MRF 241ES fluid.Defence Science Journal, 2013, 63(4), pp.408-412, DOI:http://dx.doi.org/10.14429/dsj.63.2633