Modeling of magnetostriction in particulate composite materials

By combining a magnetostrictive material with a polymer or a metal, the magnetostrictive composites can have a reasonably large magnetostriction response for various sensor and actuator applications. In this paper, a relatively simple model for studying the magnetostrictively induced deformation behavior of magnetostrictive composites is presented. For illustrative purposes, we calculate the magnetostriction responses of composites containing Terfenol-D and nickel. Through numerical calculation, we have obtained the macroscopic longitudinal strains parallel to the applied magnetic field for Terfenol-D/glass composite and both longitudinal and transverse strains for the nickel/epoxy composite. Comparison with experimental data for both material systems shows our model is applicable up to very high volume fraction of magnetostrictive inclusions.