This Small Business Innovation Research Phase I project will attempt to design and build a variable geometry rheometer and a companion package of data reduction and modeling software that allows for the study of field dependent fluids, under application of varying electric or magnetic fields. Understanding and quantifying the phenomenology of smart materials is essential to their widespread use in industrial and technological settings, where issues of reliability and quality control are essential. Such understanding requires a broad class of material models to characterize, interpret, and extrapolate the experiments. By the use of plug-ins and fittings, the rheometer to be developed will allow for both steady and oscillatory experiments to be conducted in the cone-cup, plate-cup, and Couette geometries under conditions of both controlled stress and strain rates. These geometries allow for the measurement of shear stresses and certain normal stress differences, as well as for cross correlations with models. There is significant potential for field dependent fluids to be used in industries ranging from automotive to rehabilitation. Many companies are working towards developing numerous devices which use field dependent fluids. A key role will be played by measurement and modeling packages, that allow for the accurate characterization of these fluids.
