Unidirectional magnetostrictive terfenol/epoxy composite

Abstract

We have developed a unidirectional composite for improving magnetostrictive properties and mechanical properties of giant magnetostrictive composite. The composite consists of bulk RFe2 dendrites with a preferred orientation of <112> and an electrically insulated binder between the dendrites, which is analogous to a lamination pattern. We investigated the magnetostrictive properties of composites by varying the volume fraction of RFe2 phase in the range of 60%-80%. The results demonstrated that the unidirectional composites had much higher strain and d(33) than a monolithic Terfenol-D at the same volume fraction of RFe2 phase and these results were compared with the model for uniform strain. (C) 2004 American Institute of Physics.