Modelling the magnetoinductive effect for coil-less magnetomechanical strain and force sensors

A magnetoelastic tensile force sensor, utilizing the magnetoinductive effect (MI), is proposed. The sensor is free of both magnetizing and sensing windings that are found in other solutions described in the literature. An entirely coil-less mechanical construction allows for simplicity of the sensor, while magnetoelastic effects provide a high gauge factor. In the proposed solution, tensile stress influenced B-H curves of an iron-chromium-aluminum alloy (FeCrAl) wire. Based on the measured magnetic and magnetoelastic parameters, finite elements method (FEM)-based simulations of the MI were performed. Simulations utilized the generalized model of interaction between the stress tensor and the tensor of magnetic permeability. The results of modelling were in good agreement with experimental results, which opens up the possibility of optimizing the functional characteristics of the proposed sensor to meet practical needs.