The Study of Magnetorheological Elastomer Based on Natural Rubber (NR)/Thermoplastic Elastomer SEBS Hybrid Matrix: Experimental and Numerical Simulation

Magnetorheological elastomers (MREs) is one kind of smart materials which is mainly made up of matrix materials and magnetic particles, their mechanical properties can be controlled under an external magnetic field. Applications of MREs are limited as a result of their poor MR effect and mechanical performance, so enhancing MR effect of MREs are critical for their application. This study aimed to fabricate MREs with high MR effect, the thermoplastic elastomer styrene-ethylene butylene-styrene triblockcopolymer (SEBS) was added into natural rubber (NR) and physical blending technology was used to fabricate hybrid matrix based MREs. The results of dynamic mechanical analysis showed that, with the addition of SEBS, zero modulus of MREs increased from 0.50 MPa to 0.64 MPa and MR effect increased from 28.00% to 43.75%. The multiphase model in ANSYS software was adopted to analysis the process of physical blending. The numerical simulation result showed that it was more easy to mix matrix evenly with the increase of volume fraction of SEBS.