Front. Mech. Eng.
China 2010, 5(3): 341–346
DOI 10.1007/s11465-010-0096-8
RESEARCH ARTICLE
Weihua LI, Yang ZHOU, Tongfei TIAN, Gursel ALICI
Creep and recovery behaviors of magnetorheological
elastomers
© Higher Education Press and Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2010
Abstract This paper presents experimental and model-
ing study of creep and recovery behaviors of magneto-
rheological elastomers (MREs) under constant stresses.
Experimental study was accomplished using a rheometer
with parallel-plate geometry. Under constant stresses
ranging from a small value to a large one, the resultant
strains were recorded. The experimental results demon-
strated that MREs behave as linear visocleastic properties.
The effects of the magnetic field and stress on MRE creep
behaviors were discussed. Moreover, a four-parameter
viscoelastic model was developed to describe MRE creep
behaviors. The comparison between the experimental
results and the modeling predictions indicates that the
model can predict MRE creep behaviors very well.
Keywords magneto-rheological elastomers (MREs),
creep, recovery, linear viscoelastic model
1 Introduction
Recently, magnetorheological (MR) materials have
attracted considerable interests in both industrial and
academic areas. MR materials include three categories:
MR fluids, MR elastomers, and MR foams [1]. Over the
past two decades, MR fluids have got wide applications,
including dampers, brakes and engine mounts [2–4].
However, MR fluids have distinct shortcomings so that
their mechanical performances were seriously limited by
particle sedimentation because of density mismatch [1].
MR elastomers (MREs), the solid analogy of MR fluids,
have well overcome the shortcomings existing in MR
fluids. Thus, these materials have shown an increasing
interest recently. MREs are suspensions of polarised
particles in a non-magnetic solid or gel-like matrix.
These polarised particles can be arranged in chains in
Received February 1, 2010; accepted March 16, 2010
✉
Weihua LI ( ), Yang ZHOU, Tongfei TIAN, Gursel ALICI
School of Mechanical, Materials & Mechatronic Engineering, University
of Wollongong, Northfield Avenue, NSW 2522, Australia
E-mail: weihuali@uow.edu.au
polymer media such as silicon rubber and natural rubber.
When a magnetic field is applied, MRE materials can
perform a controllable shear modulus with magnetic field.
Three components, the matrix, particles, and additives, are
used in the sample of MRE. Both anistropic and isotropic
MREs were fabricated and tested by a number of groups
[5–11].
The physical phenomena in MR elastomers are very
similar to those in MR fluids. However, the particle chains
within the elastomer composite are intended to operate in
the preyield regime, whereas MR fluids typically operate
within a postyield continuous shear or flow regime [1].
Thus, a typical MRE consists of viscoelastic materials,
powdery solids (metals), and viscous liquids. The MR
effect of MR elastomers is described as a reversible change
in modulus in an applied magnetic field. This has been
confirmed in several studies [7–10]. Based on this
characteristic, MREs have been used to develop new
tunable vibration absorbers [12–14]. Their vibration
absorption efficiencies were experimentally and theoreti-
cally verified. It is noted that MRE devices often operate in
various modes, where the MR material is sometimes
subjected to instantaneous shear loading. Though the
development of MR elastomers and devices requires
knowledge of their response under such conditions, the
MRE behavior under such conditions has not been studied
extensively and is not well understood. For example, few
reports about the behavior of MR elastomers at zero-to-
low-flow rate can be found, though it is believed that
MREs at such condition behave as viscoelastic materials.
This is the major motion of this work.
In this study, creep testing will be conducted to
understand MRE behaviors under constant loading condi-
tions. By monitoring the creep and recovery behavior of
MR elastomers at various stress levels, viscoelastic
properties of MREs are investigated.
2 Creep and recovery behavior of
viscoelastic materials
Creep is the time-dependent increase in strain (g) of a
viscoelastic material under sustained stress (t0). Some of
342 Front. Mech. Eng. China 2010, 5(3): 341–346
the time-dependent deformation is recoverable with time
after the removal of stress. The creep and recovery curve of
a typical viscoelastic material at a constant temperature is
shown in Fig. 1 and is characterized by two phases,
namely, the creep phase and the recovery phase.
Fig. 1 Creep and recovery behavior to applied constant stress for
linear viscoelastic materials. (a) τ – t; (b) g – t
2.1 Creep phase
Referring to Fig. 1(a), a constant stress τ 0 is applied
instantaneously at time t = 0 to the sample and maintained
at that level for a fixed period t0. In response, the time
dependence of creep strain gC of the viscoelastic material
can be expressed as follow:
gC ðtÞ ¼ gs þ gd ðtÞ þ gv ðtÞ,
where gs is the instantaneous strain, gd ðtÞ the retardation
strain, and gv ðtÞ the viscous flow.
For linear viscoelastic materials, the instantaneous strain
gs represents the elastic property of the material. It is
reversible and disappears on the removal of the applied
stress and is usually represented as ge .
The second component gd ðtÞ is referred to the delayed
elastic strain, and it shows a steadily decreasing trend with
time. It is also elastic and requires time for complete
recovery. It is attributable to the chain uncoiling [15].
The third component gv ðtÞ is the viscous flow, which is
an irreversible component of strain. For linear viscoelastic
fluid, it may linearly increase with time [15]. For
viscoelastic solid with large flow viscosity, the viscous
contribution gv ðtÞ, which defines the Newtonian flow, can
be neglected.
Because the magnitudes of the three components of the
creep strain are proportional to that of the input stress τ 0 , a
creep compliance function JC ðtÞ can be defined as
gC ðtÞ
JC ðtÞ ¼ ¼ Je þ Jd ðtÞ þ Jv ðtÞ: (2)
τ0
Substituting Eq. (2) into Eq. (1), the creep strain can then
be represented as


gC ðtÞ ¼ τ 0 JC ðtÞ ¼ τ 0 Je þ Jd ðtÞ þ Jv ðtÞ : (3)
2.2 Recovery phase
From Fig. 1(b), it is seen that unloading the sample at t0,
the instantaneous elastic response recovers immediately,
but the delayed elastic response recovers gradually,
whereas the viscous flow remains. Hence, the time
dependence of recovery strain gR ðtÞ is
gR ðtÞ ¼ ge þ gd ðtÞ: (4)
Similarly, a recovery compliance function JR ðtÞ can be
defined as
gR ðtÞ
JR ðtÞ ¼ ¼ Je þ Jd ðtÞ: (5)
τ0
Assuming the linear viscoelastic behavior, the total
creep strain gðtÞ at any instant of time t > t0 is then the
superposition of the two individual strains:
gðtÞ ¼ τ 0 JC ðt0 Þ – τ 0 JR ðt – t0 Þ ðt > t0 Þ , (6)
where gC ¼ τ 0 JC ðt0 Þ corresponds to the creep strain at
t ¼ t0 , and gR ¼ τ 0 JR ðt – t0 Þ corresponds to unloading at
t ¼ t0 .
2.3 Creep and recovery behavior of nonlinear viscoelastic
materials
(1)
For linear viscoelastic materials, the instantaneous strain
gs upon the loading is a solely elastic component
ðgs ¼ ge Þ, which can be entirely recovered on unloading.
However, for nonlinear viscoelastic-plastic materials, the
instantaneous strain gs may consist of an elastic compo-
nent ðge Þ and a plastic component ðgp Þ, i.e., gs ¼ ge þ gp .
As shown in Fig. 2, the instantaneous recovery strain is
gr ¼ ge , and the plastic component ðgp Þ cannot be
recovered after unloading.
3 Experiments
3.1 MRE sample preparation
For MRE sample preparation, three material components,
including particles, matrix, and additives, were used to
 Weihua LI et al. Creep and recovery behaviors of magnetorheological elastomers 343

Fig. 2 Creep and recovery behavior of nonlinear viscoelastic

materials Fig. 3 Diagram of experimental setup

fabricate a sample of MRE. The particles used were where φ is the rotation angle of the upper disk, R is the disk
carbonyl iron power, C3518 (Sigma-Aldrich Pty LTD) radius, and h is the sample thickness (gap distance).
with a mean particle size of approximately 5 μm. Silicone
rubber (HB Fuller Pty. LTD) was used for the matrix of MR 3.3 Results and discussion
elastomers. The particles were wetted with silicone oil (DC
200/200cs, Dow Corning Corporation, USA) and then For the MRE sample, three typical magnetic fields of 0 mT,
mixed with silicone rubber and silicone oil. All the 200 mT and 400 mT were selected for creeping testing. At
ingredients were stirred in a beaker for about 5 min at room each magnetic field, three typical categories of constant
temperature. The mixture was put into a vacuum case to stresses (1, 2, and 3 kPa) were applied to the MRE sample.
remove the air bubbles and then poured into a mould. After The time dependence of strains was recorded. Figure 4
being cured for approximately 24 h at room temperature shows the MRE creep and recovery behaviors without a
under a constant magnetic flux density of 1 Tesla magnetic field. It can been seen that the MRE creep curve
(electromagnetic system, Peking EXCEEDLAN Inc., is classical, where the creep strain comprises clear
China), the MR elastomer samples were prepared. The instantaneous strain at the starting point, and the retarda-
weights of the particles, silicone oil, and silicone rubber tion strain increases with time. After removal of the stress
were in a ratio of 14∶3∶3. at the time of 50 s, the strain immediately drops to a low
level. Here, the instantaneous elastic strains on application
3.2 Experimental setup and that on removal of the stress are equal, which means
that the MR elastomers behave as a linear viscoelastic
The creep and recovery behaviors of the MRE sample were material.
measured with a rotational rheometer (MCR 301, Anton
Paar Companies, Germany) and a Magneto Rheological
Device (MRD 180), equipped with an electromagnetic kit
that can generate a magnetic field perpendicular to the
direction of the shear flow. A 20-mm diameter parallel-
plate measuring system with 1.0-mm gap was used. The
samples were sandwiched between a rotary disk and a
base. In this study, a steady-state rotary shear and
oscillatory shear were both used for the experiments. The
schematic of the experimental setup is shown in Fig. 3. The
stress and strain signals were output from two ports
detected and processed by a data acquisition (DAQ) board
and a computer.
The creep and recovery behavior is investigated with the Fig. 4 MRE creep and recovery behaviors without magnetic
field
stress-controlled mode applied to the MRE sample; the
strain responses were recorded. A constant stress is then
instantaneously applied for 100 s and suddenly removed. Similar experiments were conducted when MREs were
The time dependence of strain is measured at various field applied to magnetic fields. Figures 5 and 6 show MRE
strengths. Note that the strain at the disk edge g is creep and recovery behaviors under magnetic fields of
200 mT and 400 mT, respectively. It is found that the curve
g ¼ φR=h, (7) shapes are quite similar to those without the magnetic field.
344 Front. Mech. Eng. China 2010, 5(3): 341–346
Fig. 5 Relationship of shear strain and time for various constant
stresses (B = 200 mT)
Fig. 6 Relationship of shear strain and time for various constant
stresses (B = 400 mT)
Also, the recovery strains are the same as the instantaneous
strains. These results demonstrate that MREs perform
within the pre-yield region, which is different from MR
fluids [16,17]. Comparing these three figures, it is found
that the instantaneous strain decreases steadily with the
increment of the magnetic field, which indirectly reflects
that the MRE modulus shows an increasing trend with the
magnetic field. This is the mechanism that MRE can be
used to develop variable stiffness devices, like tuned
vibration absorbers [12–14].
4 Modeling approach
4.1 Four-parameter linear viscoelastic model
As shown in Figs. 4–6, the creep & recovery experimental
results demonstrate that MRE behaves as linear viscoelas-
tic properties. In principle, a linear Kelvin-Voigt model can
simply be used to model its behavior. However, unlike MR
fluid, MRE also exhibits variable stiffness property. To this
end, we proposed a four-parameter viscoelastic model to
describe the properties of MRE because it is an extension
of the Kelvin-Voigt model. A spring is included in the
model to represent change in the field dependence
modulus. Besides this model, a Maxwell model and
Kelvin-Voigt model are very commonly used to describe
the viscoelastic material; however, a Maxwell model is
hard to predict creep behavior, and a Kelvin-Voigt model is
rather poor at predicting stress relaxation [15]. The four-
parameter viscoelastic model can better understand the
elastic and viscous characteristics of practical viscoelastic
materials. Figure 7 shows the plot of the four-parameter
viscoelastic model for MR elastomers.
Fig. 7 Four-parameter viscoelastic model for MR elastomers
In this model, k1, k2, and c2 are for a standard solid, and
kb is placed from a viscoelastic theory; therefore, the
relationship between the shear stress and the shear strain
can be represented as
8
>
¼ k b ε þ
1 ,
<

1 ¼ k1 ε 1 , (8)
>
:

1 ¼ k2 ðε – ε1 Þ þ c2 ðε_ – ε_ 1 Þ:
We may use a complex stress-strain equation for
representation

1 ¼ k2 ðε –
1 =k1 Þ þ c2 ðε_ –
_ 1 =k1 Þ, (9)
where k1, k2, and c2 are the three parameters in the Kelvin-
Voigt model, respectively; kb is the stiffness of the spring in
a parallel connection with the Kelvin-Voigt model; ε and s
are represented as shear strain inputs and shear stress
outputs, respectively; and ε1 and s1 are the shear strain and
shear stress for the internal node.
By simplifying Eq. (8), we can obtain
(

1 ¼
– kb ε,
(10)

_ 1 ¼
_ – kb ε_ :
By substituting Eq. (10) into Eq. (9), the shear strain and
shear stress for the internal node can be eliminated
ðk1 þ k2 Þ
þ c2
_
¼ ðk1 kb þ k2 kb þ k1 k2 Þε þ c2 ðk1 þ kb Þε_ : (11)
Equation (11) can be simplified to
 Weihua LI et al. Creep and recovery behaviors of magnetorheological elastomers 345

þ p1
_ ¼ q0 ε þ q1 ε_ , (12) versus time curves compared with the practical experi-

mental curves. It can be seen from the plots that the model
where we can determine that can simulate the experimental data very well.
c2 k k þ k2 kb þ k1 k2
p1 ¼ , q ¼ 1 b ,
k1 þ k2 0 k1 þ k2
c2 ðk1 þ kb Þ
q1 ¼ : (13)
k1 þ k2
To better discuss on material’s creep behavior, consider
the effect of sudden stress:

ðtÞ ¼
0 HðtÞ )
¼
0 =s,
_ ¼ s
¼
0 : (14)
After transition, a more useful equation can be obtained:

0
εðtÞ ¼
k1 þ kb

0
þ
c22 ðk1
þ kb Þ2
ðk1 þ k2 Þðk1 kb þ k2 kb þ k1 k2 Þ – c22 ðk1 þ kb Þ
$ð1 – e – t=τ1 Þ, (15)
where
0 represents the constant stress applied, and from
which the four-parameter solid has instantaneous elastic
value and progressive value of equilibrium:
8
0
>
< εð0 Þ ¼ k þ k ,
þ
>
1 b
ðk1 þ k2 Þðk1 kb þ k2 kb þ k1 k2 Þ
0 (16)
>
: εð1Þ ¼
> :
c2 ðk1 þ kb Þ
2 2

4.2 Parameter identification and results comparison

The proposed viscoelastic model includes four parameters,

i.e., kb, k1, k2, and c2. The model uses the constant shear
stress as an input and then gets the shear strain from Eq.
(15). The four parameters are estimated based on the non-
linear least squares method to minimize the error between
the model-predicted strain and the experimental result.
This optimization was done with the MAPLE optimization
function. Different groups of the four parameters can be Fig. 8 Comparison between experimental data with model-
identified for each experimental case. Table 1 shows these predicted results. (a) Magnetic field as 0 mT; (b) magnetic field
four parameters kb, k1, k2, and c2 for different magnetic as 200 mT; (c) magnetic field as 400 mT
fields. Obviously, all the modeling parameters increase
steadily with the increment of magnetic field.
Using the parameters estimated from the system 5 Conclusions
identification process, the shear strain versus time was
reconstructed and compared with the experimental data In this paper, both experimental and modeling studies of
curve. Figures 8 shows the reconstructed shear strain the creep and recovery behavior of MR elastomers are
reported. Experimental results demonstrate that the MRE
Table 1 Identified parameters resultant strains under constant stresses consist of
magnetic field/mT kb/Pa k1/Pa k2/Pa c2/(Pa%s) instantaneous strain and retardation strain. The fact that
0 215 24199 216 2994 the recovery strain is equal to instantaneous strain
200 328 42932 330 4718 demonstrates that MRE performs linear viscoelastic
400 476 79499 472 7511
behaviors either under a magnetic field or without it. The
field dependence of modulus demonstrates that MRE has
346 Front. Mech. Eng. China 2010, 5(3): 341–346
variable stiffness properties. The four-parameter viscoe-
lastic model can precisely predict MRE creep behaviors.
Acknowledgements This study was supported by the University of
Wollongong through a URC Small Grant.
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