Grant: Discovery Grants Program - Individual

The science of emerging materials is now at the stage where many basic concepts have been developed, verified and demonstrated. The next stage involves an improved understanding of their behaviour through experimental, analytical and numerical modelling. Various configurations need to be tested, studied and modeled to produce effective designs in order to minimize design costs and create more efficient structures and systems. Testing and prototyping are always performed to verify the design, but simulation and modelling have become standard practice throughout the design process. Therefore, it is desirable to have, in addition to the experimental and analytical studies, adequate computational tools to predict the behaviour and response of these materials to the environment. In the last years, emerging materials such as magnetostrictive Terfenol and Galfenol as well as ferromagnetic shape memory alloy (FSMA) have been proposed for actuation and sensing purposes. The sensing response has also been extended to energy harvesting.The objective of the proposed research program is to improve our knowledge of these emerging materials by performing experimental tests and formulating analytical and numerical methods to simulate their action for sensing response to be used in smart structures in general and in energy harvesting in particular. The research will examine Terfenol, Galfenol and FSMA. Part I of this proposal will deal with theoretical modelling, numerical simulation and experimental testing of Tefenol and Galfenol while Part II will focus on the actuation and sensing response of FSMA based actuators and sensors. Various geometries and loading conditions will be applied to complement and calibrate the theoretical, analytical and numerical models, which will then be used to refine the energy harvesting circuitry design.