Magnetoactive elastomers (MAEs) have gained significant attention in recent years due to their wide range of engineering applications. This paper investigates the important interplay between the particle microstructure and the sample shape of MAEs. A simple analytical expression is derived based on geometrical arguments to describe the particle distribution inside MAEs. In particular, smeared microstructures are considered instead of a discrete particle distribution. As a consequence of considering structured particle arrangements, the elastic free energy is anisotropic. It is formulated with the help of the rule of mixtures. We show that the enhancement of elastic moduli arises not only from the induced dipole-dipole interactions in the presence of an external magnetic field but also considerably from the change in the particle microstructure.
Keywords: anisotropic particle distribution; effective elastic properties; magnetoactive elastomers; smeared microstructures.