Computation of Magnetic Contact Forces

• Published in: IEEE transactions on magnetics Vol. 50; no. 2; pp. 525 - 528
• Main Authors: Seo, Jang Ho, Choi, Hong Soon
• Format: Journal Article Conference Proceeding
• Language: English
• Published: New York, NY IEEE 01.02.2014; Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers; The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, Inc. (IEEE)
• Subjects: Air gaps; Contact forces; Cross-disciplinary physics: materials science; rheology; Electromagnets; Exact sciences and technology; finite-element analysis; Force; Iron; magnetic forces; Magnetism; Magnetomechanical effects; Materials; Materials science; Maxwell stress tensor; Other topics in materials science; Physics; Stress; virtual air-gap; Finite element method; Maxwell stress tensor; Contact forces; finite-element analysis; magnetic forces; virtual air-gap; Modelling; Air; Magnetic properties
• ISSN: 0018-9464; 1941-0069
• DOI: 10.1109/TMAG.2013.2283106

It is well known that the conventional force methods have failed in calculating the contact forces when magnetic materials are touching each other. This paper presents a general scheme for computation of contact forces without any thin air-gap insertion between the materials. Maxwell stress tensor method, one of the most popular methods, is adopted by using the virtual air-gap scheme. By using the scheme, general contact situations such as iron versus iron, iron versus magnet, magnet versus magnet, irregular shaped objects, and high field saturation can be resolved in a consistent way. The proposed scheme is easily applicable by just implementing in the post-processing step. For validation, a simple electromagnet system was devised and fabricated for comparison of numerical calculations and experimental measurements.