Flow behaviour of extremely bidisperse magnetizable fluids

In this paper we investigated the rheological and magnetorheological behaviours of an extremely bidisperse (nano–micro) magnetizable fluid (sample D1) for comparison of a commercial magnetorheological fluid (MRF-140CG; LORD Co. (USA)) with the same magnetic solid volume fraction, using the Physica MCR-300 rheometer with a 20 mm diameter plate–plate magnetorheological cell (MRD180). D1 sample is a suspension of micrometer range Fe particles in a transformer oil based magnetic fluid as carrier. For both types of samples, the experimental data for zero and non-zero magnetic field conditions were fitted to equations derived from the Newtonian and Cross type flow equations, as well as the Herschel–Bulkley model. The main advantage of both rheological equations for the quantitative description of the magnetic field behaviour of samples is that they can be used in regular CFD codes to compute the flow properties of the magnetorheological fluid and of the bidisperse magnetizable fluid for practical applications.