Influence of alloy elements on magnetic properties of electrical steels

Nowadays great efforts are done in order to improve the performance of soft magnetic materials due to their wide use in industrial applications. This paper deals with a comparative analysis of the influence of the alloying elements on magnetic properties of several grades of electrical steels. The magnetic characteristics are obtained in the sinusoidal magnetization regime at low frequency, of 1 Hz, and as indicators of magnetic performance are proposed magnetic induction and density of magnetic energy corresponding to 2500 A/m magnetic field strength. The content of Si and Al and other elements are determined using the spark optical spectroscopy technique. Those alloying elements decrease the losses by increasing the electrical resistivity and modifying the grain size of the magnetic material. The results have shown that for electric steel grades with content of (0.5-2.5) wt. % Si and (0.02-1.2) wt. % Al, the magnetic induction indicator varies between (1.6-1.7) T, and the magnetic energy density indicator between (40-75) mJ/kg.