Effects of compressive stress on a steel cube using tensor magnetization and magnetostriction analysis

Measurements of the effects of a compressive stress on magnetization and magnetostriction loops of a cubic sample from a steel pipe are presented. The compressive stress was applied perpendicularly to the magnetic field and, in order to take account of the anisotropy of the sample, measurements were performed in all three orthogonal directions with field applied successively parallel to each direction of the cube edges. This gives rise to 3×3 matrices defining the magnetization and magnetostriction tensors. Analysis of each element of the tensors enabled, firstly, the initial preferential orientation of the magnetic domains due to the texture to be identified and, secondly, permitted us to follow the changes in the bulk easy axis induced when the compressive stress was applied. Valuable information about these changes in the domain arrangements was obtained from analysis of the off-diagonal elements of the magnetization tensor.