Experiments and modeling of mechanically-soft, hard magnetorheological foams with potential applications in haptic sensing

This study proposes a family of novel mechanically-soft and magnetically-hard magnetorheological foams that, upon deformation, lead to robust and measurable magnetic flux changes in their surroundings. This allows to infer qualitatively and even quantitatively the imposed deformation and, eventually from that, an estimation of the stiffness and average stress on the sample even in complex loading scenarios involving combinations of uniform or nonuniform compression/tension with superposed shearing in different directions. The work provides a complete experimental, theoretical and numerical framework on finite strain, compressible magneto-elasticity, thereby allowing to measure and predict coupled magneto-mechanical properties of such materials with different particle volume fractions and then use it to estimate and design potential haptic sensing devices.