A general nonlinear magneto-elastic coupled constitutive model for soft ferromagnetic materials

Abstract

In this study, a new general nonlinear magneto-elastic coupled constitutive model was proposed for soft ferromagnetic materials under magnetic field and pre-stress. The model is based on thermodynamic theory of magnetic materials and Jiles theory on magnetomechanical effect, considering demagnetization field. This model can accurately predict the changes of magnetostrictive strain and magnetization under pre-stress; in particular, it can obviously predict the nonlinear change of magnetostrictive strain according to compressive pre-stress. In addition, this model is concise by not including the inverse function of magnetization relationship and the piecewise function of stress in its mathematical form and can be degenerated to the previous general constitutive model for giant magnetostrictive materials. The prediction result by this model is well-consistent with experimental data. In comparison with the existing constitutive models for soft ferromagnetic materials, this model was demonstrated to have obviously-improved prediction accuracy, particularly in the compressive state. In conclusion, the proposed model can fully describe the effect of pre-stress on magnetostrictive strain and magnetization and the effects of magnetic field and pre-stress on Young’s modulus and relative magnetic permeability, reflecting the effect of demagnetization field on magnetomechanical characteristics.