Some effects of stress in Goss-oriented silicon-iron

The magnetic characteristics of Goss-oriented 3% silicon-iron are dependent to a large extent on mechanical stress. This paper describes some effects of applying orthogonal planar stresses to single samples of commercial silicon-iron. Tensile or compressive stresses up to 10 MN/m²were applied simultaneously along and perpendicular to the rolling direction and the material was magnetized along either direction sinusoidally up to 1.7 T. Power loss and magnetostriction were measured under various stress conditions. The stress dependence of the properties did not vary with flux density in the samples tested. Orthogonal stresses of opposite signs always caused a degradation of properties whereas stresses of the same sign usually improved the characteristics. Previously, it has been shown that a stress in the transverse direction had the same effect as a longitudinal stress of half its value. In these experiments this was found not to be the case possibly because the elastic properties of the steel were different due to complex coating stresses.