title: Mechanical properties of magneto-sensitive elastomers: unification of the continuum-mechanics and microscopic theoretical approaches.
abstract: A new theoretical formalism is developed for the study of the mechanical behaviour of magneto-sensitive elastomers (MSEs) under a uniform external magnetic field. This formalism allows us to combine macroscopic continuum-mechanics and microscopic approaches for complex analysis of MSEs with different shapes and with different particle distributions. It is shown that starting from a model based on an explicit discrete particle distribution one can separate the magnetic field inside the MSE into two contributions: one which depends on the shape of the sample with finite size and the other, which depends on the local spatial particle distribution. The magneto-induced deformation and the change of elastic modulus are found to be either positive or negative, their dependences on the magnetic field being determined by a non-trivial interplay between these two contributions. Mechanical properties are studied for two opposite types of coupling between the particle distribution and the magneto-induced deformation: absence of elastic coupling and presence of strong affine coupling. Predictions of a new formalism are in a qualitative agreement with existing experimental data.
authors.affiliation: Leibniz-Institut für Polymerforschung Dresden e.V., Hohe Str. 6, 01069 Dresden, Germany. grenzer@ipfdd.de.
authors.forename: Dmytro
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Ivaneyko
authors.forename: Vladimir
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Toshchevikov
authors.forename: Marina
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Saphiannikova
authors.forename: Gert
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Heinrich