Influence of mechanical and water-jet cutting on the dynamic magnetic properties of NO Fe-Si steels

•Non-oriented steels cut through guillotine and water-jet technologies.•Strain-hardened band width estimation using hyperbolic dependence based on magnetization curves.•Analysis of losses by identifying their components in strain-hardened zones.•Phenomenological formulation for hysteresis and excess loss dependence on strip width.•General and simple model to be applied for different cut profiles and technologies. Magnetization curve and energy losses have been analyzed in non-oriented (NO) Fe-Si alloys with variable thickness (0.20 mm–0.35 mm), cut at widths ranging between 5 mm and 60 mm, in order to assess the impact of cutting, either done by punching or water-jet techniques. Measurements were performed by means of a digitally controlled single strip tester, from dc up to 1.5 kHz, at peak polarization values Jp = 1.0 T and 1.5 T. The evolution of the magnetization curve and the structure-dependent hysteresis Wh and excess Wexc loss components have been assessed as a function of the strip width using a simple phenomenological model, by which the extension of the damaged area at the edges of the cut sheets is estimated. Such a model assumes a hyperbolic dependence of the measured polarization on the cut strip width. The limiting values of Wh and Wexc for the fully damaged and the pristine sheets are in this way estimated, showing that one can simply and affordably predict the magnetic behavior of NO Fe-Si steels subjected to cutting.