Effects of the magnetic field on the viscoelastic wave propagation and dynamic material properties

•The ferromagnetic (Fe-Cr-Al alloy) rod displays abnormal dispersion.•The magnetic field almost doesn't affect the abnormal dispersion characteristic.•The real part of the complex Young's modulus is affected by the magnetic field.•The imaginary part of the complex Young's modulus is insensitive to the magnetic field.•The specific damping capacity decreases with increasing the magnitude of the magnetic field. In this paper, the longitudinal wave propagation of a thin ferromagnetic (Fe-Cr-Al alloy) rod under the transverse magnetic field is investigated analytically without ignoring the viscoelastic characteristics of this alloy. The analysis is based on the Bernoulli-Euler rod theory and a 4-element viscoelastic model based on the experimental observation. The viscoelastic wave characteristics and the behaviours of dynamic material properties under the magnetic field are investigated. The analytically results show that the longitudinal wave propagation and the dynamic material properties of the rod are affected by the magnetic field existence (for magnetic field magnitude values greater than about 107A/m), except the imaginary part of the complex elasticity modulus. Furthermore, in a large frequency range, depending on the ratio of the group velocity to the phase velocity an abnormal dispersion characteristic is observed.