High-frequency performance of ferromagnetic shape memory alloys

We conduct systematic dynamic experiments on the martensite reorientation in different samples of the single crystal Ni–Mn–Ga Ferromagnetic Shape Memory Alloy (FSMA) driven by a high-frequency magnetic field and a compressive stress. It is found that the output reversible strain strongly depends on the loading frequency, with the maximum output strain up to 6 % at the resonance frequency; and this resonance frequency can be changed by modifying the setting of the compressive stress (the pre-stress level). That provides an alternative way to control/design the system’s optimal working frequency range, besides modifying the spring stiffness and sample geometry. On the other hand, temperature rise accompanies the high-frequency field-induced strain because of the energy dissipation of the martensite twinning and eddy current, which depend on both the frequency and the sample geometry. With these results, some guidelines for improving the FSMA engineering designs are given and some challenging issues for further theoretical study such as the magneto–thermal–mechanical coupling are pointed out.