Abstract

The mathematical modelling of the behaviour of magneto-sensitive (MS) elastomers is complicated due to the strong nonlinear coupling of the mechanical and electromagnetic responses. An additional problem is that one needs to consider the surrounding space in the calculation of the electromagnetic fields. Finding appropriate and simple variational formulations is an important step towards solving the governing equations using numerical methods. Variational formulations for a number of boundary-value problems are given, and different possible models for the mechanical and magnetic boundary conditions are studied. © Springer Science+Business Media B.V. 2008.