Effect of carbon black on the mechanical performances of magnetorheological elastomers

Several magnetorheological elastomer (MRE) samples, with different weight percentages of carbon black, were fabricated under a constant magnetic field. Their microstructures were observed by using an environmental scanning electron microscope (SEM), and their mechanical performance including magnetorheological (MR) effect, damping ratio and tensile strength were measured with a dynamic mechanical analyzer (DMA) system and an electronic tensile machine. The experimental results demonstrate that carbon black plays a significant role in improving the mechanical performance of MR elastomers. Besides the merits of high MR effect and good tensile strength, the damping ratio of such materials is much reduced. This is expected to solve a big problem in the application of MR elastomers in practical devices, such as in adaptive tuned vibration absorbers. (C) 2008 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.