Articles you may be interested inSelf-sensing atomic force microscopy cantilevers based on tunnel magnetoresistance sensors Appl. Phys. Lett. 102, 153104 (2013); 10.1063/1.4801315 Steel stress monitoring sensor based on elasto-magnetic effect and using magneto-electric laminated composite A three dimensional rate equation model for the dynamical sensing effect of magnetostrictive Galfenol A three dimensional rate equation model can be used to calculate the magnetization response in a Galfenol sample under the application of any or all components of stress (axial and shear) [P. Weetman and G. Akhras, J. Appl. Phys. 109, 043902 (2011)]. For a Galfenol based stress sensor, one is essentially interested in the inverse of that calculation: from magnetization measurements, determine which stresses are acting on the system. A conceptual design of a Galfenol based three dimensional dynamical sensor is presented. One assumes the time-varying magnetization and its time derivative in all three directions can be measured for different external magnetic bias fields at different points in time. It is shown that the rate equation model can be used to calculate all the stresses acting on the system from knowledge of the magnetization and the time derivative of magnetization. The necessary calculations are presented and then applied to a sample set of magnetization values, which were generated from a benchmarked sensing model that used up to three axial stresses. V C 2013 AIP Publishing LLC. [http://dx.