Evaluating the level of residual stresses in anisotropic electric steel.

The level of residual stresses (RS) in anisotropic electric steel (AES) is its most important functional characteristic that is responsible for losses of electric power in magnetic circuits of transformers during their service life. Reasons are given for the emergence of RS in AES and the known estimation methods are provided, the main shortcoming of the latter being the lack of quantitative estimates of RS. A simple and practically feasible method is suggested for estimating RS based on measurement of the anisotropy of magnetic properties of AES. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]