Question on inductance and magnetostriction.

Question

I recently borrowed an Agilent 4294A Impedance analyzer for research. I ran a sweep from 10kHz to 50kHz(50mV oscillator) on a piece of magnetostrictive nickel inside a coil to measure how the inductance would change in that range. One of my co workers claims that the inductance will be different than what the impedance analyzer is telling me when subjected to more current. Is this possible?(I'm not asking about the impedance I am asking about the inductance)

Answer 1

The inductance will reduce at high currents, but this has nothing to do with magnetostriction. It is caused by magnetic saturation of the nickel. The magnetostrictive effect works at arbitrarily low currents, but has very little effect on the inductance.