Innovative Fiber Reinforced Composite Materials for Acoustic Window Applications (MSC P1B16-102)

Objectives of this program include the development of magneto-active materials that yield improved performance, such as greater strain and reduced hysteresis loss, when compared to the current parameters of the magnetostrictive material Terfenol-D. Wepropose to consider the use of a recently discovered class of highly active ferromagnetic shape memory alloys (FSMAs). One of these FSMAs, Ni2MnGa, shows strains as high as 6 % and the possibility of low hysteresis loss; and thus, offers potential as ahigh-output transduction material. To this end we plan to use current and new measurements on the FSMA material to characterize it for transducer applications by state-of-the-art modeling. R. C. O'Handley's group at MIT will perform the FSMA materialmeasurements. Based on this, analytical transducer models would be developed and used to evaluate the material as a transducer driver in potential transduction devices and applications. Our models would include electrical equivalent circuits, the finiteelement program ATILA and the program FLEXT. Transducers such the Tonpilz, X-spring and flextensionals would be considered as well as selected actuators. Our results will lead to optimized designs that could be fabricated in a Phase II effort.Thedevelopment of this technology will permit the design and fabrication of high power actuators and transducers for military as well as commercial applications in the aerospace, automotive and control industries.