The influence of punching process on residual stress and magnetic domain structure of non-oriented silicon steel

•The residual stress distribution on sheared edge was measured.•The residual compressive stress was generated around the sheared edge.•The width of residual stress affected zone was about 0.4–0.5 mm.•The shape and width of the domain structure would be changed by annealing.

The main purpose of this paper is to investigate the influence of punching process on residual stress and magnetic domain structure. The residual stress in non-oriented silicon steel after punching process was measured by nanoindentation. The maximum depth was kept constant as 300 nm during nanoindentation. The material around indentation region exhibited no significant pile-up deformation. The calculation of residual stress was based on the Suresh theoretical model. Our experimental results show that residual compressive stress was generated around the sheared edge after punching. The width of residual stress affected zone by punching was around 0.4–0.5 mm. After annealing treatment, the residual stress was significantly decreased. Magnetic domain structure was observed according to the Bitter method. The un-annealed sample exhibited complicated domain patterns, and the widths of the magnetic domains varied between 3 µm and 8 µm. Most of the domain patterns of the annealed sample were 180°-domains and 90°-domains, and the widths of the domains decreased to 1–3 µm.