Stoichiometric study of Tb(x)Dy(1-x)Fe2 particulate composites for passive damping

Magnetostrictive particulate composites promises to be a revolutionary new damping solution with possible loss factors similar to current viscoelastic systems but coupled with a significantly higher modulus ~ 10GPa. Magnetostrictive particulate composites fabricated from Terfenol-D (TbxDy1-xFe1.92) particles and epoxy resin, were mechanically tested under cyclic compressive loads in an MTS load frame to determine hysteric losses, from which an approximate tanδ was derived to quantify damping performance. DMA results on the same composites corroborated the MTS results. Various off-stoichiometric compositions of Terfenol-D were studied with varying Tb composition of x = 0.35, 0.4, 0.45, 0.5, 0.75 and 1.0. Results indicated better damping with higher Tb compositions peaking at Tb=0.5.