Magnetic Hybrid-Materials

Externally tunable properties allow for new applications of suspensions of micro- and nanoparticles in sensors and actuators in technical and medical applications. By means of easy to generate and control magnetic fields, fluids inside of matrices are studied. This monnograph delivers the latest insigths into multi-scale modelling, manufacturing and application of those magnetic hybrid materials

Mechanical characterization, constitutive modeling and applications of ultra-soft magnetorheological elastomers

Mención Internacional en el título de doctorSmart materials are bringing sweeping changes in the way humans interact with engineering devices. A myriad of state-of-the-art applications are based on novel ways to actuate on structures that respond under different types of stimuli. Among them, materials that respond to magnetic fields allow to remotely modify their mechanical properties and macroscopic shape. Ultra-soft magnetorheological elastomers (MREs) are composed of a highly stretchable soft elastomeric matrix in the order of 1 kPa and magnetic particles embedded in it. This combination allows large deformations with small external actuations. The type of the magnetic particles plays a crucial role as it defines the reversibility or remanence of the material magnetization. According to the fillers used, MREs are referred to as soft-magnetic magnetorheological elastomers (sMREs) and hard-magnetic magnetorheological elastomers (hMREs). sMREs exhibit strong changes in their mechanical properties when an external magnetic field is applied, whereas hMREs allow sustained magnetic effects along time and complex shape-morphing capabilities. In this regard, end-of-pipe applications of MREs in the literature are based on two major characteristics: the modification of their mechanical properties and macrostructural shape changes. For instance, smart actuators, sensors and soft robots for bioengineering applications are remotely actuated to perform functional deformations and autonomous locomotion. In addition, hMREs have been used for industrial applications, such as damping systems and electrical machines. From the analysis of the current state of the art, we identified some impediments to advance in certain research fields that may be overcome with new solutions based on ultrasoft MREs. On the mechanobiology area, we found no available experimental methodologies to transmit complex and dynamic heterogeneous strain patterns to biological systems in a reversible manner. To remedy this shortcoming, this doctoral research proposes a new mechanobiology experimental setup based on responsive ultra-soft MRE biological substrates. Such an endeavor requires deeper insights into the magneto-viscoelastic and microstructural mechanisms of ultra-soft MREs. In addition, there is still a lack of guidance for the selection of the magnetic fillers to be used for MREs and the final properties provided to the structure. Eventually, the great advances on both sMREs and hMREs to date pose a timely question on whether the combination of both types of particles in a hybrid MRE may optimize the multifunctional response of these active structures. To overcome these roadblocks, this thesis provides an extensive and comprehensive experimental characterization of ultra-soft sMREs, hMREs and hybrid MREs. The experimental methodology uncovers magneto-mechanical rate dependences under numerous loading and manufacturing conditions. Then, a set of modeling frameworks allows to delve into such mechanisms and develop three ground-breaking applications. Therefore, the thesis has lead to three main contributions. First and motivated on mechanobiology research, a computational framework guides a sMRE substrate to transmit complex strain patterns in vitro to biological systems. Second, we demonstrate the ability of remanent magnetic fields in hMREs to arrest cracks propagations and improve fracture toughness. Finally, the combination of soft- and hard-magnetic particles is proved to enhance the magnetorheological and magnetostrictive effects, providing promising results for soft robotics.Los materiales inteligentes están generando cambios radicales en la forma que los humanos interactúan con dispositivos ingenieriles. Distintas aplicaciones punteras se basan en formas novedosas de actuar sobre materiales que responden a diferentes estímulos. Entre ellos, las estructuras que responden a campos magnéticos permiten la modificación de manera remota tanto de sus propiedades mecánicas como de su forma. Los elastómeros magnetorreológicos (MREs) ultra blandos están compuestos por una matriz elastomérica con gran ductilidad y una rigidez en torno a 1 kPa, reforzada con partículas magnéticas. Esta combinación permite inducir grandes deformaciones en el material mediante la aplicación de campos magnéticos pequeños. La naturaleza de las partículas magnéticas define la reversibilidad o remanencia de la magnetización del material compuesto. De esta manera, según el tipo de partículas que contengan, los MREs pueden presentar magnetización débil (sMRE) o magnetización fuerte (hMRE). Los sMREs experimentan grandes cambios en sus propiedades mecánicas al aplicar un campo magnético externo, mientras que los hMREs permiten efectos magneto-mecánicos sostenidos a lo largo del tiempo, así como programar cambios de forma complejos. En este sentido, las aplicaciones de los MREs se basan en dos características principales: la modificación de sus propiedades mecánicas y los cambios de forma macroestructurales. Por ejemplo, los campos magnéticos pueden emplearse para inducir deformaciones funcionales en actuadores y sensores inteligentes, o en robótica blanda para bioingeniería. Los hMREs también se han aplicado en el ámbito industrial en sistemas de amortiguación y máquinas eléctricas. A partir del análisis del estado del arte, se identifican algunas limitaciones que impiden el avance en ciertos campos de investigación y que podrían resolverse con nuevas soluciones basadas en MREs ultra blandos. En el área de la mecanobiología, no existen metodologías experimentales para transmitir patrones de deformación complejos y dinámicos a sistemas biológicos de manera reversible. En esta investigación doctoral se propone una configuración experimental novedosa basada en sustratos biológicos fabricados con MREs ultra blandos. Dicha solución requiere la identificación de los mecanismos magneto-viscoelásticos y microestructurales de estos materiales, según el tipo de partículas magnéticas, y las consiguientes propiedades macroscópicas del material. Además, investigaciones recientes en sMREs y hMREs plantean la pregunta sobre si la combinación de distintos tipos de partículas magnéticas en un MRE híbrido puede optimizar su respuesta multifuncional. Para superar estos obstáculos, la presente tesis proporciona una caracterización experimental completa de sMREs, hMREs y MREs híbridos ultra blandos. Estos resultados muestran las dependencias del comportamiento multifuncional del material con la velocidad de aplicación de cargas magneto-mecánicas. El desarrollo de un conjunto de modelos teórico-computacionales permite profundizar en dichos mecanismos y desarrollar aplicaciones innovadoras. De este modo, la tesis doctoral ha dado lugar a tres bloques de aportaciones principales. En primer lugar, este trabajo proporciona un marco computacional para guiar el diseño de sustratos basados en sMREs para transmitir patrones de deformación complejos in vitro a sistemas biológicos. En segundo lugar, se demuestra la capacidad de los campos magnéticos remanentes en los hMRE para detener la propagación de grietas y mejorar la tenacidad a la fractura. Finalmente, se establece que la combinación de partículas magnéticas de magnetización débil y fuerte mejora el efecto magnetorreológico y magnetoestrictivo, abriendo nuevas posibilidades para el diseño de robots blandos.I want to acknowledge the support from the Ministerio de Ciencia, Innovación y Universidades, Spain (FPU19/03874), and the European Research Council (ERC) under the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme (grant agreement No. 947723, project: 4D-BIOMAP).Programa de Doctorado en Ingeniería Mecánica y de Organización Industrial por la Universidad Carlos III de MadridPresidente: Ramón Eulalio Zaera Polo.- Secretario: Abdón Pena Francesch.- Vocal: Laura de Lorenzi

Magnetic Hybrid-Materials

Externally tunable properties allow for new applications of suspensions of micro- and nanoparticles in sensors and actuators in technical and medical applications. By means of easy to generate and control magnetic fields, fluids inside of matrices are studied. This monnograph delivers the latest insigths into multi-scale modelling, manufacturing and application of those magnetic hybrid materials

Research Activities of JWRI

Abstracts of the Article

From interparticle interactions to emergent behavior of smart fluids

Functional nano or microparticles in solution can form stimuli-responsive smart fluids that exhibit drastic property changes in the presence of magnetic or electric fields that originate from the interparticle interactions. For example, the most commonly utilized type of particle-based smart fluid are magnetorheological fluids (MRF) that contain ferromagnetic microparticles that allow them to reversibly solidify when they experience a magnetic field. The tunable nature of these materials not only make them useful in a variety of industries, but also make them a versatile system in which to study the influence of interparticle interactions on emergent behaviors. In this dissertation, we explore methods for tuning interparticle interactions with applied fields, additives, and functionalized particles and develop, through both experimentation and modeling, design rules for realizing new classes of smart fluids. First, we address a common limitation on the performance of MRF, namely slip failure, through the use of a shear-thickening additive to reinforce MRF particle chains as slip begins. Through flow- and oscillation-mode rheology, we find that a shear-thickening MRF has 60% higher yield stress than a conventional shear-thinning MRF. The shear-thickening additive allows us to affect the microstructure of the fluid in order to increase bulk performance by changing its failure mode. Next, we explore the hypothesis that highly anisotropic 2D sheets can reinforce conventional MRF as an additive by supporting the particle chains. Interestingly, the 2D sheets affect the performance of the fluid minimally in a boundary-driven flow because of the alignment of the sheets in the fluid velocity profile. However, we find that the 2D sheets increase MRF performance in pressure-driven flows by up to 45%. We determine through modeling that this performance improvement stems from the anisotropic sheets physically reinforcing the particle chains. This work has consequences for the design of MRF for applications using pressure-driven flows, such as soft robotics. In addition to studying the additives as a path to strengthening MRF, we investigate whether the magnetic particles themselves can be modified to chemically adhere to one another, thus providing additional attractive forces to supplement the magnetic force between particles. Using flow- and oscillation-mode rheology, we quantify the performance using both the yield stress and chain stiffness as performance metrics. By developing two different adhesive MRF, we find that linked chains exhibit a 40% increase in yield stress and a 100% increase in stiffness. Using thymine-functionalized particles, we present a dynamic method for linking particles in an MRF for increased performance. Finally, a system of polarizable nanoparticles is investigated after it is observed to exhibit a macroscopic cellular phase with particle-poor voids and particle-rich walls in a fluid cell when applying an AC and DC field. By tuning the applied AC and DC fields, we identify the conditions necessary for the phase transition using fluorescence microscopy. We also find through Cahn-Hilliard analysis and additional experiments that the cellular phase is the result of various types of electrically-induced interactions. Specifically, electrophoresis causes the particles to accumulate on one electrode, then electroosmotic and electrohydrodynamic flows occur and exert attractive and repulsive forces on the particles. When the electrohydrodynamic flow dominates, voids nucleate at high field regions at which point spinodal decomposition into the cellular phase occurs. This understanding allows us to explore ways to tune this behavior such as using photolithography to control the location of the voids, and thus the structure of the material

Nanofluid Flow in Porous Media

Studies of fluid flow and heat transfer in a porous medium have been the subject of continuous interest for the past several decades because of the wide range of applications, such as geothermal systems, drying technologies, production of thermal isolators, control of pollutant spread in groundwater, insulation of buildings, solar power collectors, design of nuclear reactors, and compact heat exchangers, etc. There are several models for simulating porous media such as the Darcy model, Non-Darcy model, and non-equilibrium model. In porous media applications, such as the environmental impact of buried nuclear heat-generating waste, chemical reactors, thermal energy transport/storage systems, the cooling of electronic devices, etc., a temperature discrepancy between the solid matrix and the saturating fluid has been observed and recognized

Development, characterization and applications of magnetorheological fluid based "smart" materials on the macro-to-micro scale

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Mechanical Engineering, February 2007.Includes bibliographical references (p. 193-208).Magnetorheological fluids belong to the class of field-responsive fluids that undergo large, reversible and fast changes in their rheological properties when acted upon by an external magnetic field. 'Smart' or controllable composite materials have been obtained by doping polymers, foams, fabrics etc. with these field-responsive fluids. The resulting composite materials have potential applications in numerous fields ranging from adaptive energy absorption, automotive crash protection to microfluidic valves, mixers and separation devices. A series of stable magnetorheological (MR) fluids have been systematically characterized under steady shearing, creep and large amplitude oscillatory shear (LAOS) flow conditions. A rheometer fixture for applying nearly uniform magnetic fields up to 0.4 T has been fabricated to measure both steady-state and transient changes in the fluid properties under applied fields. Stable MR fluids with a markedly improved dynamic response (yield stress as a function of magnetic field) compared to commercial fluids have been formulated by increasing the constituent particle size and by stabilizing the system against sedimentation. A new "soft-glassy rheology" model has been used to model the fluid response time and visco-elasto-plastic response under creep conditions and oscillatory loadings.(cont.) The experiments and model show that the evolution of chain structure and plastic collapse in these suspensions exhibits a universal scaling with the dimensionless stress s = [sigma]/[sigma]y. Structure evolution, pattern formation and dynamics of MR fluid flow in microchannel geometries has been analyzed using high-speed digital video microscopy. In order to elucidate the mechanisms that control MR structure formation, experiments have been performed while varying the magnetic field, particle size, channel geometry, concentration and fluid composition. Excellent qualitative agreement has been obtained with Brownian Dynamics simulations and useful scalings based on interplay of magnetostatic & viscous forces have been extracted to understand the field-dependent fluid response on the macro & micro scale. Novel MR elastomeric materials and microparticles have been synthesized by doping photo-curable or thermo-curable polymers with field-responsive fluids. A high-throughput micromolding technique for synthesis of controllable particles of anisotropic shapes and sizes has been developed. Flexible and permanent chain-like structures have also been synthesized using amidation chemistry. Potential microfluidic applications such as field-responsive valves, mixers and separation devices using these 'smart' materials have also been investigated.by Suraj Sharadchandra Deshmukh.Ph.D