The evaluation of anisotropic particle structures of magneto-rheological elastomers by means of pair correlation function

Abstract The particle arrangement in magnetorheological elastomers imposes a major impact on the macroscopic behaviour of these smart materials. This paper presents a convenient method to characterize particle structures obtained by X-ray microtomography. A direction dependent approach of the pair correlation function was established, which enables a highly sensitive evaluation of the anisotropy of particle structures found in magnetorheological elastomers. To verify the applicability, the presented method was applied to experimental data exhibiting the magnetically driven transition of an isotropic arrangement of magnetic particles to particle chains. The results provided by the pair correlation function enable a detailed insight in the spatial distribution of the particles and reveal detailed information regarding the progression of the chain formation process.