Practical relevance of the “hard directions” of h.g.o. Si–Fe

Abstract Crystallographically, the magnetically “hard direction” (h.d.) of goss-textured Si–Fe arises in an angle Ψ h.d. close to 55° from the rolling direction. This paper reports the “effective h.d.” for h.g.o. Si–Fe subject to rotational magnetisation (RM). While circular RM yielded two values exceeding 55°, elliptical RM showed much lower values, which in addition proved to be affected by the intensity of magnetisation as well as by mechanical stress. Generally, the h.d. showed minimum values of magnetostrictive strain.