Magnetic and Tunable Sound Absorption Properties of an In-Situ Prepared Magnetorheological Foam

Conventional polyurethane foam has non-tunable sound absorption properties. Here, a magneto-induced foam, called magnetorheological (MR) foam, was fabricated with the feature of being able to tune sound absorption properties, primarily from the middle- to higher-frequency ranges. Three different samples of MR foams were fabricated in situ by varying the concentration of Carbonyl Iron Particles (CIPs) (0, 35, and 75 wt.%). The magnetization properties and tunable sound absorption characteristics were evaluated. From the magnetic saturation properties, the results showed very narrow and small coercivity of hysteresis loops relative to the soft magnetic properties of the CIPs. MR foam with 75 wt.% CIPs showed a higher magnetic saturation at 91.350 emu/g compared to MR foam with 35 wt.% CIPs at 63.896 emu/g. For tunable sound absorption testing, the effect of ‘shifting’ to higher frequency was also observed when the magnetic field was applied, which was ~10 Hz for MR foam with 35 wt.% CIPs and ~130 Hz for MR foam with 75 wt.% CIPs. As the latest evolution of semi-active noise control materials, the results from this study are valuable guidance for the advancement of MR-based devices.