CHAIN ROTATIONAL DYNAMICS IN MR SUSPENSIONS

Abstract

The dynamics of induced dipolar chains in magnetorhelogical suspensions subject to rotating magnetic fields has been experimentally studied combining scattering dichroism and video microscopy experiments. When a rotating field is imposed the chainlike aggregates rotate synchronously with the magnetic field. We found that the average size of the aggregates decreases with Mason number (ratio of viscous to magnetic forces) following a power law with exponent -0.5 being the hydrodynamic friction forces the cause of the chains break up. However the total number of aggregated particles shows two different behaviors depending on Mason number. For low Mason numbers, the total number of aggregated particles remains almost constant and above a critical Mason number, the rotation of the field prevents the particle aggregation process from taking place so the number of aggregated particles decreases with Mason number following a power law behavior with exponent -1. Athermal molecular dynamics simulations are also reported, showing good agreement with the experiments.