Single crystal anisotropy and coupled stability analysis for variant reorientation in Magnetic Shape Memory Alloys

Magnetic Shape Memory Alloys (MSMAs) have been the subject of much research in recent years as potential high-actuation-energy multifunctional materials. In this work we analyze coupled magneto-mechanical stability analysis of a variant reorientation mechanism for a single crystal based on a proposed 3-D magneto-mechanically coupled constitutive equations, derived in a consistent thermodynamic way. Discrete symmetry is considered to take into account single crystal anisotropy in the modeling. Analytical results are presented to demonstrate the influence of coupling and anisotropy in the stability of such a material system. Finally, a coupled Boundary Value Problem (BVP) using finite element analysis is performed by considering actual specimen geometry and boundary conditions that are used in the experiments. The numerical simulation reveals localization zones in the solutions due to the loss of ellipticity of the coupled magneto-mechanical problem.