The improvement of physical and mechanical properties of some hard-to-deform metals under influence of an external magnetic field was investigated for the last 30 years. Until now the magnetic filed treatment technology has not been applied widely in the field of engineering. Deformed specimens of commercial high strength steel were treated here by pulsed magnetic field. It was shown that, when the deformed specimens were subjected to a pulsed magnetic process, the residual stress in the specimens was reduced by about 15–35%, and the dislocation substructure was changed due to the motion of dislocations. The behavior might be attributed to the effects of thermal and athermal activation of dislocations and magnetic field induced strain (magnetostriction).

Effect of a Pulsed Magnetic Treatment on the Dislocation Substructure of a Commercial High Strength Steel. G.Tang, Z.Xu, M.Tang, X.Chen, H.Zhou, A.Lu: Materials Science and Engineering A, 2005, 398[1-2], 108-12