Numerical modeling of magnetoelectric effect in a composite structure

The mechanical coupling effect in a magnetoelectric (ME) composite structure in which a magnetostrictive component is bonded with a piezoelectric one is simulated by numerical technique, focusing on an optimization of the magnetoelectric coupling output. The simulation starts from an experimentally developed ME composite structure and takes into account the mechanical coupling mechanism between the two components. A numerical optimization algorithm is developed, predicting a significant enhancement of the ME output by optimizing the component dimension. This algorithm can also be used for optimum design of other ME composite structures in terms of the largest ME output. (C) 2003 American Institute of Physics.