3D-Printed Soft Structure of Polyurethane and Magnetorheological Fluid: A Proof-of-Concept Investigation of its Stiffness Tunability

In this study, a soft structure with its stiffness tunable by an external field is proposed. The proposed soft beam structure consists of a skin structure with channels filled with a magnetorheological fluid (MRF). Two specimens of the soft structure are fabricated by three-dimensional printing and...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Micromachines (Basel) 2019-09, Vol.10 (10), p.655
Main Authors: Hong, Seong-Woo, Yoon, Ji-Young, Kim, Seong-Hwan, Lee, Sun-Kon, Kim, Yong-Rae, Park, Yu-Jin, Kim, Gi-Woo, Choi, Seung-Bok
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
3-D printers
Channels
Electric fields
Fused deposition modeling
Investigations
Magnetic fields
magnetic responsivity
magnetorheological fluid
Magnetorheological fluids
Nozzles
Permanent magnets
Polyurethane resins
Silicones
Smart materials
soft structure
Stiffness
Three dimensional printing
tunable elastic stiffness
Urethane thermoplastic elastomers
Viscoelasticity
Viscosity
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Summary:In this study, a soft structure with its stiffness tunable by an external field is proposed. The proposed soft beam structure consists of a skin structure with channels filled with a magnetorheological fluid (MRF). Two specimens of the soft structure are fabricated by three-dimensional printing and fused deposition modeling. In the fabrication, a nozzle is used to obtain channels in the skin of the thermoplastic polyurethane, while another nozzle is used to fill MRF in the channels. The specimens are tested by using a universal tensile machine to evaluate the relationships between the load and deflection under two different conditions, without and with permanent magnets. It is empirically shown that the stiffness of the proposed soft structure can be altered by activating the magnetic field.
ISSN:2072-666X
2072-666X
DOI:10.3390/mi10100655