Compression cycling and magnetic response of single crystalline Ni-Mn-Ga particles/polymer composite: In-situ and ex-situ study

Ni-Mn-Ga particles/polymer composites are new magnetostrain active materials suitable for actuation and sensing. In the present work, we prepared mechanically anisotropic samples of the “30 vol% single crystalline Ni-Mn-Ga particles/silicone” composite material and systematically studied their cyclic stress-strain (S-S) evolutions along and perpendicular to the particle chains, while monitoring changes of magnetization curves. Four different compression cycling routes with the strain amplitude of 30% were explored. Magnetic measurements were served as the probes to indirectly detect microstructure changes of composite samples, whereas X-ray micro-CT images, alongside dimensions control of samples, were used for direct microstructural observations. The influences of the compression cycling routes on the parameters of S-S behaviors, such as an output stress, effective stiffness, and stress hysteresis, were revealed. It was found that the composite material after achieving equilibrium showed a rather good compression cycling stability of the mechanical and magnetic properties. It was revealed that composites being strongly deformed either along easy-magnetization axis (along the particle chains) or along hard-magnetization axis (perpendicularly to the particle chains) exhibited a magnetically harder behavior along the particle chains and magnetically easier behavior in the orthogonal direction, respectively. These unusual effects of a strong deformation of composite on its magnetization processes were discussed in terms of the particle rearrangements in the chains. •Cycling behavior of Ni-Mn-Ga/silicone composite compressed up to 30% was studied.•Dependencies of output stress, effective stiffness, and stress hysteresis were analyzed.•Mechanical stability of composite material was revealed after 30 compression cycles.•Impact of the continuous cycling was stronger than that of the non-continuous one.•Magnetization control was effective tool to monitor structural changes of composites.