Experimental and theoretical investigations on Magnetostrictive stresses of PDMS based magnetorheological elastomer films

Abstract This paper demonstrates experimental and theoretical research of the magnetostrictive stresses of the magnetorheological elastomer (MRE) films comprised of PDMS and Fe/Fe 3 O 4 nanoparticles. The MRE films possessing three types of microstructures were formed via imposing an external magnetic field or under no magnetic field during the film preparation, whose nanoparticle weight fractions were in the range of 1–40 wt%. The measurement of the film magnetostrictive stresses was carried out by employing the FLX 2320‐S thin film stress measurement system with a special structure used for applying a homogeneous magnetic field to the samples in the process of testing. The experimental data show that the film magnetostrictive stresses are greatly dependent on the nanoparticle concentration and the film microstructure. The theoretical analysis and numerical simulation were performed to obtain a good understanding of the mechanism and the important influencing factors of the film magnetostrictive stresses. For the isotropic specimens, the calculated values of the film magnetostrictive stresses are in good agreement with the measured values. The research results reported in this work could facilitate the applications of MREs to the micro/nano technology field such as MEMS, small‐scale soft robotics, and so on. Highlights Magnetostrictive stresses of MRE films can be experimentally obtained. Magnetostrictive stress results from magneto‐mechanical coupling. Particle content has an effect on film magnetostrictive stress. Orientation of particle clusters influences film magnetostrictive stress. Size and number of particle clusters affect film magnetostrictive stress.