Temperature-dependent dynamic response in epoxy-free and epoxy-bonded ME composite: a comparative study

This work presents an experimental comparative study of the frequency-dependent response of the epoxy-free magnetoelectric (ME) composite against epoxy-bonded two-phase and three-phase ME composites of various configurations at varying operating temperatures. Conventionally, ME composites are prepared by bonding the piezoelectric and magnetostrictive material phases by means of an epoxy material. Therefore, the response of the composite becomes a function of the properties of the epoxy used. Since the epoxy properties degrade significantly with increase in temperature, the ME response of the ME composite becomes poor at elevated temperatures. In this work, two-phase and three-phase epoxy-free ME composite has been fabricated by employing a press-fit embedded structure and compared with similar epoxy-bonded embedded structure as well as conventional layered ME composite. Frequency-dependent experiments have been conducted at various temperatures and the responses from the two types of composites have been compared. Magnetostriction measurements at different temperatures have been conducted on individual magnetostrictive constituents to observe the effect of piezomagnetic coefficient on the ME response. It is observed that the ME responses of the epoxy-free composites at room temperature are nearly equivalent to their epoxy-bonded counterparts, whereas at higher temperatures the epoxy-free ring composite offers a much better response. The effect of demagnetizing field on the response of composites of various configurations is studied at different temperatures and a similar result is obtained. The resonant frequency of the ME composite is seen to decrease with an increase in temperature owing to the decrease in the effective Young's modulus of the composite.