A Study of the Effect of Nanometer Fe3O4 Addition on the Properties of Silicone Oil-based Magnetorheological Fluids

With the aim to improve the performance of magnetorheological fluids (MRFs) for mechanical transmission system, a process to prepare silicone oil-based MRFs with the addition of nanometer Fe3O4 particles is presented and five MRFs samples with different mass fraction of nanometer Fe3O4 particles have been prepared. The experimental materials, the preparation process, and test methods are elaborated. Moreover, the microstructures of soft magnetic carbonyl iron particles, nanometer Fe3O4 particles, and carbonyl iron/nano-sized Fe3O4 composites have been characterized via scanning electron microscope (SEM). Finally, test experiments of sedimentation stability, zero field viscosity, and shear yield stress have been carried out. The experimental results show that adding a certain amount of nanometer Fe3O4 particles (4 and 6wt%) into MRFs can improve the performance of MRFs.