Single crystal Ni-Mn-Ga ferromagnetic shape memory alloys (FSMAs) are active materials that produce strain when a magnetic field is applied. The large saturation strain (6%) of Ni-Mn-Ga and material energy density comparable to piezoelectric ceramics make tetragonal Ni-Mn-Ga an interesting active material. However, the usefulness of the material is limited by the need for electromagnets to produce a magnetic actuation field. In this paper, an actuation method for shape memory alloys in the martensitic phase is described, in which asymmetric acoustic pulses are used to drive twin boundary motion. Experimental actuators were developed using a combination of Ni-Mn-Ga FSMA single crystals and a piezoelectric stack actuator. In bidirectional actuation without load, strains of over 3% were achieved using repeated pulses (at 100 Hz) over a 30 s interval, while 1% strain was achieved in under 1 s. The maximum strains achieved are comparable to the strains achieved using bidirectional magnetic actuation, although the time required for actuation is longer. No-load actuation also showed a nearly linear relationship between the magnitude of the asymmetric stress pulse and the strain achieved during actuation, and a positive correlation between pulse repetition rate and output strain rate, up to a pulse repetition rate of at least 100 Hz. Acoustic actuation against a spring load showed a maximum output energy density for the actuator of about 1000 J/m3, with a peak-to-peak stress and strain of 100 kPa and 2%, respectively.
Magnetic-field-induced strain in single crystals of Ni-Mn-Ga magnetic shape memory alloys were studied under cyclic field conditions using a compression spring to reset the sample as H→0. Low frequency actuation strain of 2.5% degraded to about 1.5% at an actuation frequency of 500 Hz. Two resonant-like features appear in the ε(f) data, which appear to correspond to a broad test system resonance (100-200Hz) and a sample longitudinal resonance near 350 Hz. The relative phase of field and strain support the assignment of the 350 Hz resonance to the sample.
Field-induced strains up to 10% at room temperature have been observed in magnetic shaep memory alloys based on off-stoichiometric compositions of the intermetallic compound Ni2MnGa. This occurs by the motion of twin boundaries in the ferromagnetic martensitic state under magnetic fields of a few kOe. Some data illustrating the interdependence of strain, stress, and magnetic field are reviewed. Phenomenological models describe many of these observations by minimization of free energy terms including Zeeman energy, magnetocrystalline anisotropy energy, stored elastic energy and fractional twin-boundary distribution. Two important questions have been raised about field-induced strain in FSMAs. They are 1) the role of body forces (due to action of the field on the sample), and 2) the role of magnetostriction (stress/strain in a single variant under magnetization rotation) in the twin boundary motion. These questions are addressed in light of published data and models.
Ferromagentic shape memory alloy composites exhibit good qualities as vibration absorbers. Loss ratios in excess of 25% have been measured in polymer samples containing 20 vol% Ni-Mn-Ga. The ability to dissipate large amounts of energy is due to the same mechanism that is also responsible for the large strains observed in single crystals used as actuators, namely twin-boundary motion. The loss ratios of the FSMA-loaded composites are compared to those for pure polymer samples and polymer loaded with inert filler. The effects of the pre-processing of the filler material on its performance are also shown.
A recently developed class of magnetic field sensors is based on the action of a magnetostrictive material on a piezoelectric material. Described here is a significant improvement on this class, a passive magnetic field sensor made of layers of Terfenol-D {Fe2(Dy0.7Tb0.3)} magnetostrictive material and ceramic PZT-5. These devices show a large magnetic field sensitivity of order 6 kV/T. Application of this device to harvesting vibration energy indicates that more than 10 mW of electrical power can be harvested using a Terfenol-D/PZT/ Terfenol-D sandwich (volume = 1 cm3) from 30 Hz vibrations having an acceleration of 0.5 g.
Ferromagnetic shape memory alloys can exhibit magnetic-field-induced strains of several percent at room temperature. These strains have been shown to correlate with the motion of twin boundaries in the crystals. Twin boundaries advance by the motion of stacking faults along the twin boundary. Such mechanical defects have as an upper limit of their velocity, the speed of sound. It is an important matter to understand the mobility of twin boundaries in ferromagnetic shape memory alloys from a scientific perspective. Namely, how does their velocity depend on field strength, crystal structure and perfection, what are the roles of inertia and threshold field, and does the velocity ever approach anything like the speed of sound. From a practical point of view, it is important to know the twin boundary dynamics in order to understand the bandwidth capabilities of these new active materials as well as their response to different field wave forms that may optimize the response for particular applications. In the present paper we describe a pulse field experimental setup and preliminary results that begin to address the issues raised above.
The dynamic field-induced strain response at 2Hz is reported for a ferromagnetic shape memory alloy (FSMA), Ni49.8Mn28.5Ga21.7. For the d31 actuation mode, longitudinal strain response was measured as a function of longitudinally applied bias stress and transverse applied field. Under a 1.5MPa compressive bias stress, dynamic strains of 2.6% were achieved at fields of 6 kOe. However, dynamic field-induced strain is largely blocked under a compressive bias stress of 4.2MPa. The 'coercive field' hysteresis in the field versus strain loops was observed to be as low as 100kA/m at 1.5MPa and increase linearly at greater stresses. Peak piezomagnetic d31 coefficients measured from these field versus strain loops approached 1.3 X 10-7 m/A. Dynamic stress versus strain loops were recorded for compressive bias stresses from 0 to 4.2MPa. Stiffnesses of approximately 40MPa in the active twinning stress range were recorded, and the stiffness approached 5 times the twinning stiffness beyond the twinning range. The mechanical loss measured in stress versus strain loops, when normalized to the output strain, resulted in a linear increase of 6.84 kJ/m3 per MPa bias stress. Current investigations are attempting to isolate the factors that contribute to the extraordinary behavior exhibited in these properties of the Ni-Mn-Ga system.
Micro magnetic and analytic models have been sued to describe the equilibrium twin structure and quasistatic actuation behavior of ferromagnetic shape memory alloys. However, these models do not incorporate microscopic aspects of the twin-boundary strain field, interactions with defects or non-equilibrium behavior. A model is described that accounts for the interaction of a 90 degree domain wall with such a twin boundary. Application of a magnetic field can displace the domain wall from a pinned twin boundary with the Zeeman energy being stored elastically in the domain- wall anisotorpy energy. Finally, the departure of the magnetization and twin structure from equilibrium configurations can be incorporated in thermodynamic models to describe AC behavior and hysteresis.
Very large DC field-induced strains ((epsilon) approximately equals 6%) have been reported for Ni-Mn-Ga single-crystal ferromagnetic shape memory alloys (FSMAs) at room temperature. Described here is an AC test system that provides a dynamic bias stress to an FSMA sample. The low- frequency (epsilon) -H curves show a stress dependence consistent with the DC results, i.e. the maximum output strain peaks for a bias stress of order 1.4 Mpa. The AC (epsilon) -H hysteresis at sub-optimal bias stress can be considerably smaller than that for DC actuation. A thermodynamic model of field-induced twin-boundary motion is expanded to include external stress, threshold field and hysteresis in the twin boundary motion. Twin-boundary motion is driven by the Zeeman energy difference across the domain wall, 2MsH, in the high anisotropy limit and is suppressed by domain magnetization rotation in the weak anisotropy limit. The magnitude of the threshold field and hysteresis can be obtained from features on mechanical stress-versus-strain curves. The field dependence and stress dependence of the AC strain are reasonably well accounted for by the model.
A Ni-Mn-Ga ferromagnetic shape memory alloy was tested for strain versus applied field and strain versus stress. Field- induced strains up to 6 percent were measured with a hysteresis of about 160 kA/m. The results are compared with the predictions of modeling with a focus on hysteresis. The model is applied to the case in which the magnetic external field and external load are orthogonal to each other. It predicts the magneto-mechanical hysteresis as a function of the yield stress in a twinned martensite. Magnetization versus applied field was measured on a sample that was mechanically constrained in order to understand the magnetization behavior of the sample in the absence of twin motion. These measurements give the magnetic anisotropy and are used to estimate the demagnetization fields. The measured behavior of strain with stress at constant field is approximated by the model.
Large magnetic field induced strain shave been reported in ferromagnetic shape memory alloys. two such alloys, Ni-Mn-Ga and Fe-Ni-Co-Ti are explored. A single crystal of Ni-Mn-Ga is shown to deformed by bending approximately six degrees under the influence of an applied field. This deformation is caused by the motion of a single twin boundary with stable variants of martensite on either side. This effect was demonstrated using either divergent or homogeneous field. Fe-Ni-Co-Ti is a shape memory steel with high saturation magnetization being developed as a magnetic shape memory material. Material properties in this alloy can be controlled by composition and heat treatment and the effects of both are explored. Variation of the Ni to Co ratio has been found to have a strong effect on the martensite transition temperatures. Aging treatments cause Ni3Ti3 precipitates to form, which affect the martensite transition and subsequently the magnetization. The structure of most of the Fe-Ni-Co-Ti alloys tested showed lenticular martensite at room temperature with a single sample showing retained thin plate martensite in austenite after cooling to 77K.
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