Magnetic Brake in 3D

SOLVED WITH COMSOL MULTIPHYSICS 3.5a

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Magneti c Brake in 3D
Introduction
A magnet brake in its simplest form consists of a disk of conductive material and a permanent magnet. The magnet generates a constant magnetic field, in which the disk is rotating. When a conductor moves in a magnetic field it induces currents, and the Lorentz forces from the currents slow the disk.

Model Definition
This 3D problem is solved using a stationary formulation for the electromagnetic part coupled to an ordinary differential equation for the rotational rigid body dynamics. It also illustrates the proper use of a Lorentz type induced current density term. An ungauged A-V formulation is used to solve the electromagnetic part in a fast and memory efficient way. For a disk rotating with angular velocity about the z-axis, the velocity v at a point (x, y) is given by

v = ( y, x, 0 )
Maxwell-Ampres law, expressed using a magnetic vector potential A, a scalar electric potential V, and an induced current density term of Lorentz type is the fundamental field equation used in this model. It is complemented by a current balance but no explicit gauging is provided.

MAGNETIC BRAKE IN 3D

 ( A ) v ( A ) + V = 0 ( v ( A ) + V ) = 0 Such a formulation is inherently singular because the divergence of the magnetic vector potential is not uniquely determined and there is an infinite number of possible solutions to the problem. All such solutions yield the same magnetic flux and current densities, however. It is further known that the above formulation, when solved using an iterative solver, converges quickly and robustly provided that any explicitly supplied source current density (zero here) is divergence free and no direct coarse grid solver is involved in the solution scheme. The induced Lorentz current density term is a common source of confusion in electromagnetic modeling. In situations when the moving domain is of bounded extent in the direction of the motion or varies in this direction or contains magnetic sources that also move, Lorentz terms cannot be used. This is because the part of the magnetic flux generated by moving sources must not be included in the Lorentz term. In this situation, the induced current distribution is stationary (it stays where the magnet is and does not move with the spinning disk). Thus, the moving domain does not contain any magnetic sources that move along with it and it is unbounded and invariant in the direction of the motion. The magnetic and electric boundary conditions on external boundaries are n A = 0, nJ = 0

Now consider how the system evolves over time. The induced torque slows the disk down, described by an ordinary differential equation (ODE) for the angular velocity . d Tz ------- = ------ , dt I Where the torque Tz is obtained as the z component of the vector T =

disk

r ( J B )dV

and the moment of inertia I for a disk with radius r and unit thickness equals r r I = m ---- = ----------2 2 Here m is the disk mass and is the density.
2 4

MAGNETIC BRAKE IN 3D

Results and Discussion

The COMSOL Multiphysics model is set up for a 1 cm thick copper disk with a radius of 10 cm and an initial angular speed of 1000 rpm. The magnet consists of a 1 T, hard (r = 1) permanent magnet connected to an iron yoke with a 1.5 cm air gap in which the copper disk spins. The figures below show the induced eddy current density and the time evolution of the angular velocity, braking torque and dissipated power repectively.

The eddy current magnitude and direction at t = 0 s.

MAGNETIC BRAKE IN 3D

The time evolution of the angular velocity.

The time evolution of the braking torque.

MAGNETIC BRAKE IN 3D

The time evolution of the dissipated power.

MAGNETIC BRAKE IN 3D