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

Magnetorheological elastomer (MRE) is a new kind of smart materials whose mechanical properties can be controlled under external magnetic field and it is mainly consist of matrix materials and magnetic particles. In this work, the natural rubber (NR)/polybutadiene rubber (BR) hybrid matrix based MRE were prepared and the compatibility of NR and BR were studied. The hybrid matrix was prepared by physical mixing method. The characterization results showed that the BR had excellent compatibility with NR. The measurement result using rheological showed that the MR effect can be increased to 44.19% by adding of BR. The dynamic thermomechanical analysis showed that the hybrid matrix formed a homogeneous system when the ratio of BR and NR is 1/9 and 3/7. The particles was mixed with matrix using physical technology. The process of mixing was analyzed by numerical simulation. The simulation result showed that the increase of diameter of particles would increase the temperature and velocity of matrix in mixing. The particles was distributed evenly at enough mixing time and the mixing time was decreased with the diameter of particles.