In recent years Ni-Mn-Ga has attracted considerable attention as a new kind of actuator material. Off-stoichiometric single crystals of Ni 2 MnGa can regularly exhibit 6% strain in tetragonal martensites and orthorhombic martensites have shown up to 10% strain when subjected to a magnetic field. These crystals are brittle and the production of single crystals can be quite costly. Terfenol-D, a commercially available giant-magnetostrictive material, suffers from some of the same drawbacks. It was found that composite materials made from Terfenol-D particles in a polymeric matrix could solve the issue of the brittleness while retaining a large fraction of the strain output of the alloy. At first glance a similar approach could be used to solve the brittleness issue of Ni-Mn-Ga, but the low blocking force of these alloys reduces the chances of achieving a Ni-Mn-Ga/polymer composite actuator. However, the stress-strain loops for Ni-Mn-Ga show a large mechanical hysteresis. This ability to dissipate energy makes this alloys very desirable for damping applications, and by putting particles of Ni-Mn-Ga in a composite, their brittleness becomes less of an issue. It is shown that by curing Ni-Mn-Ga/polymer composites under a magnetic field it is possible to align the particles in chains and to orient them so they will respond to a uniaxial load. The magnetic measurements show that there are twin boundaries in the particles that can be moved by an external stress. Stress-induced twin boundary motion in the particles is confirmed more directly by x-ray diffraction measurements, transmission electron microscope micrographs, and scanning electron microscope micrographs. Finally we demonstrate the ability of the Ni-Mn-Ga/polymer composites to dissipate mechanical energy when subjected to cyclic loads. The Ni-Mn-Ga/polymer composites can dissipate more than 70% of the energy they are given in every cycle, while pure polymer, Fe-filled and Terfenol-filled control samples dissipate less than 50% of the input energy in every cycle. The additional loss in these composites is shown to be due to the motion of twin boundaries. Simple numerical models reproduce the cyclic stress-strain behavior of the composites and explain non-conventional features observed in the Ni-Mn-Ga composites.

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