A General Magneto-Elastic Model of Terfenol-D Particle Actuated Composite Materials

A new theory is presented of the nonlinear multi-axial magneto-elastic behavior of magnetostrictive particle actuated composite materials. The analysis assumes a uniform external magnetic field is operating on a large number of well-distributed, crystallographically and shape parallel ellipsoidal magnetostrictive particles encased in an elastic, nonmagnetic composite matrix. Comparisons between experimental and model magnetostriction results show that the model is able to provide a quantitatively correct dependence on particulate volume fraction and longitudinal stress and quantitatively accurate magnetostriction curves for both homogenous Terfenol-D rod and magnetically ordered Terfenol-D particulate actuated epoxy matrix composites over experimentally applied field ranges.