S Talebian - Mechanical Department, Faculty of Engineering, Tarbiat Modares University, Tehran, Iran
Y Hojjat - Mechanical Department, Faculty of Engineering, Tarbiat Modares University, Tehran, Iran
M Ghodsi - Mechanical Department, Faculty of Engineering, Tarbiat Modares University, Tehran, Iran
M.R Karafi - Mechanical Department, Faculty of Engineering, Tarbiat Modares University, Tehran, Iran

Terfenol-D is a giant magnetostrictive material, which is widely used in actuators and transducers. There are power losses during the conversion of magnetic energy to mechanical energy in these actuators that reduce the efficiency. In this paper, effects of eddy currents and hysteresis losses on the efficiency of Terfenol-D actuator are studied. Initially, based on Maxwell’s equations of electromagnetism, mathematical models for eddy currents and hysteresis losses are presented that lead to identify the effective parameters on the actuator’s efficiency. Then, an experimental set-up is provided and various tests in different frequencies are performed to obtain essential data for mathematical models. Results show that eddy currents and hysteresis losses have remarkable effects of the efficiency of Terfenol-D actuator especially in high frequencies.

Terfenol-D; magnetostrictive actuator; eddy currents loss; hysteresis loss;