Magnetic characterization of HSLA steel by power-law decay exponents of Barkhausen emission signal

The general trend of magnetic behaviour of materials is that the mechanically hard materials are also magnetically hard. However for the high strength low alloy (HSLA) steel tempered at various aging temperatures, the correlation was reported as negative. The anomaly could not be explained by the magnetic parameters like RMS voltage calculated from the Barkhausen emission signal and the coercivity from the magnetic hysteresis loop. This paper reports another magnetic parameter known as power-law decay exponent which shows excellent correlation with the mechanical properties and thus explains the progressive evolution of the microstructural constituents in HSLA steel.