Evaluation of the Rheological Behaviour of Magnetorheological Fluids Combining Bulge Tests and Inverse Analysis

Magnetorheological Fluids (MRFs) are included in the so called “smart materials”: they are suspensions of magnetically responsive particles in a liquid carrier, whose rheological behaviour (e.g., its viscosity) can be changed quickly and reversibly if subjected to a magnetic field. Their application as forming medium in sheet metal forming processes is gaining interests in the recent years since the thickness and the strain distribution on the formed part can be affected by properly changing the properties of the MRF. In order to widely adopt MRFs in such processes, the evaluation of their rheological behaviour according to the applied magnetic field plays a key role. But there are still few works in the literature about the most effective way to characterise the MRFs to be used in sheet metal forming applications. In this work, the rheological behaviour of a MRF is carried out by means of an inverse analysis approach using data from bulge tests performed using an MRF as forming medium. Bulge tests were conducted on sheets having known properties using an equipment with a solenoid to generate the magnetic field, which was specifically designed and manufactured. Pressure rate and magnetic flux density were varied according to a Design of Experiments (DoE) while the strain experienced by the sheet material was acquired by means of a Digital Image Correlation (DIC) system in order to compare it with the numerical one. In particular, the fitting between numerical and experimental data was obtained by changing the MRF’s rheological properties using an inverse analysis technique. The proposed methodology allows to evaluate the MRF behaviour at different levels of both magnetic field and pressure rate, which are determinant for the FE simulation of sheet metal forming processes.