Temperature induced effects on the durability of MR fluids

Abstract

Although commercial MR fluids exist for quite some time now and the feasibility as well as the advantages of the MR technology have been demonstrated for several applications by a variety of MR actuator prototypes, a sustainable market break-through of brake and clutch applications utilizing the shear mode is still missing. Essential impediments are the marginal knowledge about the durability of the MR technology. To overcome this situation, a long-term measurement system was developed for the durability analysis of MR fluid formulations within a technical relevant scale with respect to the volume of MR fluid and the transmitted torque. The focus of the presented series of measurements is given to the analysis of temperature induced effects on the durability. In this context four different failure indicators can be distinguished, namely an apparent negative viscosity, deviations in torque data obtained from different measurements as well as a pressure increase and a drop in the on-state torque. The measurement data of the present durability experiments indicate a significant dependency of the attainable energy intake density on the temperature. The aim of such durability tests is to establish a reliable data base for the industry to estimate the life-time of MR devices.