Hybrid magnetoactive elastomer with a soft matrix and mixed powder

This study focusses on a magnetoactive elastomeric composite based on a polydimethylsiloxane matrix highly filled with a mixed magnetic powder. The powder contains a mixture of carbonyl iron and magnetically hard NdFeB alloy spherical microparticles. Magnetoactive elastomer samples with different ratios of the magnetically hard and soft filler were synthesized and characterized using dynamic axial loading. Behavior of the composites was compared with the behavior of a conventional magnetorheological elastomer based solely on magnetically soft particles. It was found that the passive state and active state properties of the magnetoactive composites with mixed powders can be separately tuned. The passive state properties may be changed by pre-magnetization of the magnetically hard particles influencing composite’s remanence, while the active state properties can be controlled by applying external magnetic field. The range of passive tuning and active control depends on the amount of magnetically hard and soft components. Using external fields up to 1500 mT for a pre-magnetization and fields up to 240 mT for investigation of the active control, it was found that the passive change of samples’ storage modulus and loss factor may reach up to \(\sim \) 30–100%, while within active control these parameters can be changed up to \(\sim \) 50–200%.