Influence of additives on the synthesis of carbonyl iron suspension on rheological and sedimentation properties of magnetorheological (MR) fluids

Magnetorheological (MR) fluid is one of the major constituent element in structural suspensions and damping characteristic in automobile applications. The major drawback is sedimentation in MR fluids, in the present study an attempt has been done to address the sedimentation issue. The synthesis and characterization of MR fluid in combination with clay and additives leads to improvement in sedimentation rate. The four different types of MR fluid were prepared in combination with clay, friction reducing agent and poly-alpha-olefin (PAO) oil naming as MRFp-1, 2, 3 and 4 as tabulated in table 1. The cost effective MRFp-3 shows better result compared to commercially available MR fluid with respect to off/on state shear stress, viscosity. It is also observed that in-house prepared MRFp-3 has better sedimentation than commercially available (LORD-132DG) up to 700 h.