Steel that has silicon added to it is called silicon steel. Steel's electrical resistance is increased by adding silicon, and its capacity to be penetrated by magnetic fields is improved. Its hysteresis loss is also decreased. This kind of steel is utilized in a variety of electrical applications, including transformers, magnetic coils, and electric motors, where electromagnetic fields play a significant role.
Without a question, the most significant soft magnetic material now in use is silicon steel. The quantities needed for different applications ranging from a few ounces in tiny relays or pulse transformers to tons in generators, motors, and transformers. Better steels have been needed to reduce energy wasteful dissipation in electrical apparatus and to reduce the physical dimensions of the increasingly powerful equipment now necessary due to the continued expansion in the production of electrical power.
Iron, which had many impurities, was the first soft magnetic substance. Adding silicon boosted resistivity, lowered hysteresis loss, increased permeability, and almost completely eliminated aging, according to the researchers. Power and distribution transformers employ oriented steel in significant amounts. Nonoriented silicon steel, which is frequently employed wherever a low-cost, low-loss material is required, notably in rotating equipment, hasn't been replaced, though.
Resistivity, saturation induction, magneto-crystalline anisotropy, magnetostriction, and Curie temperature are a few of the crucial physical characteristics of silicon steels. Iron has a relatively low resistivity, which increases significantly when silicon is added. Higher resistivity reduces the eddy current component, which lowers the core loss. Lower magnetostriction is achieved by increasing silicon content, but processing becomes more challenging. Iron's high Curie temperature will be lowered by alloying elements, but silicon steel users aren't particularly concerned about this.