The effect of dc magnetic bias field on the magnetoelectric coupling of a two-component magnetoelectric composite structure is investigated numerically using the finite-element method, in which the nonlinear magnetostress coupling for the magnetostrictive component is taken into account. It is shown that the magnetostress coupling coefficient increases first and then falls down with increasing of the bias field, and this behavior is argued to be responsible for the dependence of magnetoelectric yield on the bias field. The numerical modeling using the ANSYS5.5 finite element algorithm for the Tb0.3Dy0.7Fe1.9-epoxy/Pb(Zr0.52Ti0.48)O3-epoxy composite structure gives fairly consistent results with the experiments.

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.