Variational asymptotic micromechanics modeling of heterogeneous magnetostrictive composite materials

A new micromechanics model is developed to predict the effective properties as well as the local fields of heterogeneous magnetostrictive composite materials using the variational asymptotic method for unit cell homogenization (VAMUCH), a recently developed micromechanics modeling technique. Starting from the total magnetic enthalpy of the heterogenous continuum, we formulate the micromechanics model as a constrained minimization problem taking advantage of the fact that the size of the microstructure is small compared to the macroscopic size of the material. To handle realistic microstructures in engineering applications, we implement this new model using the finite element method. A few examples are used to demonstrate the application and accuracy of the proposed theory and the companion computer program-VAMUCH.