Linear viscoelasticity of an inverse ferrofluid

A magnetorheological fluid consisting of colloidal silica spheres suspended in an organic ferrofluid is described. Its linear viscoelastic behavior as a function of frequency, magnetic field strength, and silica volume fraction was investigated with a specially designed magnetorheometer. The storage modulus G' is at least an order of magnitude larger than the loss modulus G" at all magnetic field strengths investigated. G' does depend only weakly on frequency, and linearly on volume fraction. A model is presented for the high frequency limit of the storage modulus G'(infinity). In the model our system is treated as a collection of single noninteracting chains of particles. Assuming a dipolar magnetic interaction, theory and experiment show reasonable agreement at high frequencies.