Vibration damping of high-chromium ferromagnetic steel and its dependence on magnetic domain structure

The aim of the present work is to study the vibration damping capacity of annealed high-chromium (16%) ferromagnetic steel. The alloys were prepared from raw materials of 99.9% purity melted in a high frequency induction furnace under high vacuum. The samples were heat-treated in vacuum at various temperatures (800–1200 °C) for 1 h followed by slow cooling (120 °C/h). The duration of 1 h considered was the same for all the specimens and no other duration was considered for evaluation. The inverted torsional pendulum method was used to evaluate the vibration damping capacity. The results indicated that the vibration damping capacity of the alloys is influenced by annealing and there exists a critical annealing temperature after 1000 °C. When the alloy is annealed over the critical temperature, the size of the magnetic domains becomes larger so that the domain wall area in metal decreases, making the damping capacity decrease as well.