7th ECCOMAS Thematic Conference on Smart Structures and Materials SMART 2015 A.L. Araújo, C.A. Mota Soares, et al. (Editors) © IDMEC 2015 INVESTIGATION ON LAMINATED MAGNETOELECTRIC COMPOSITE Jerzy Kaleta, Daniel Lewandowski, Rafał Mech, Karolina Woźniak Department of Mechanics, Materials Science and Engineering, Wrocław University of Technology, Smoluchowskiego 25 Str. 50-370 Wrocław, POLAND, E-mail: daniel.lewandowski@pwr.edu.pl Key words: Terfenol-D, Smart materials, Magnetostriction, Hybrid materials, PZT. Summary: In this paper, a novel magnetoelectric laminated composite system consisting of a one layer of longitudinally polarized piezoelectric material sandwiched between two layers of transversally magnetized Terfenol-D magnetostrictive composite was presented. Terfenol- D composites were fabricated by embedding and aligning Terfenol-D particles with a size distribution of 5-300 μm in a Epolam 2015 epoxy matrix with volume fraction 0.7. Their quasistatic and dynamic magnetic and magnetomechanical properties were measured as functions of magnetic field. The PZT material was a commercially available material which was supplied by Smart Material company. The P1 type of micro fiber composite (MFC) was chosen. Behavior of this hybrid material in a variety of external magnetic field directions was investigated. Based on the obtained results, it was found that the prepared composite material exhibits magneto-electric effect in the case of work in a variable magnetic field. 1 INTRODUCTION Currently, the research on new materials exhibiting cross effects, coupled by the mechanical and magnetic fields are directed to combine these materials with other materials which exhibiting completely different properties. The most promising of these additional materials tend to be those which are characterizes by an electric properties. Usually in the literature a combination of these two kind of materials is known as hybrid material. They can be characterized by the capability to work under the influence of various external factors. Most of these new materials based on polymer matrices. Polymer-based magnetoelectric (ME) materials are one of the most interesting, challenging and innovative materials and thus these materials are in a field of interest of many research centers. Due to the unique properties of these materials, it is believed that in the near future, the gap between basic research materials and real applications will be filled. Materials exhibiting magneto-electric effect are sort of bridge connecting the magnetic and electrical properties [1-3]. The interest in the effect of ME is increasing due to its potential applications in areas such as data storage, multi-state memory, sensors, actuators, transformers, gyros, microwave devices, optical waves, diodes, and other [4-8]. In order to positively match the technological requirements of these and other applications, a strong ME effect at room temperature has been obtained from multiferroic (MF) composites, which is generally obtained by combining piezoelectric and magnetostrictive components [9].