IEEE MELECON 2004, May 12-15, 2004, Dubrovnik, Croatia

Magnetic Field and Force Evaluation in Open

Boundary Axisymmetric Structures
A. Lopes Ribeiro
Instituto Superior TCcnicolDep. of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Lisbon, Portugal
e-mail: arturlrO,ist.utl.Dt

Abstract-This paper presents a method to obtain the potential or in terms of an equivalent flux function. The
magnetic field resulting from currents in coils and correct field distribution is finally obtained by imposing
permanent magnets in structures with axial symmetry and the appropriate boundary conditions along the spherical
open boundaries. The finite element method (FEM) is used boundary surface.
inside a sphere containing the structures and a Legendre
polynomial expansion is used to represent the field in the
outside region. The polynomial expansion is truncated to an
order equal to the number of grid nodes along the spherical
boundary resulting from the FEM discretization. The
polynomial coefficients are determined in order to
guarantee the field continuity in those nodes. The method is
then utilized to preview the interaction force between a
Samarium-Cobalt (Sm-CO) magnet and a solenoid.

I. INTRODUCTION
Different numerical methods to obtain the magnetic
forces can be found in the literature. The finite difference
method (FDM)[1,2] and the finite element method [3,4]
were used to obtain the field quantities necessary to derive
those forces. In [I] the FDM was used to obtain the field
in terms of the scalar potential. The torque/displacement
relation in saturated variable reluctance step motors was
obtained using the Maxwell field stress method. In [2] the
problem is addressed, being the magnetic forces
originated by currents, changes of material permeability
and the presence of permanent magnets. In [3] the
necessity of computing the field twice, inherent to the
virtual displacement method is avoided by determining the
local jacobian derivative. In [4] the magnetic force
distribution is obtained via the flux densities in each one
of the finite elements and the magnetizing currents along
the border lines of each element.
The comparison of the main three methods (energy,
Maxwell's stress and equivalent currents ) is made in [5,7]
and the physical and mathematical meaning of the
equivalent magnetizing currents for the force calculation
is discussed in [6]. A presentation of the equivalent
sources methods is made in [SI for the case of
axisymmetric problems and in [9] the magnetostriction is
taken into account to obtain the deformations in
ferromagnetic materials.
This paper presents a method to obtain the magnetic
field in open boundary structures with axisymmetric
geometry [lo] as shown in figure 1. The open space is
divided by a spherical surface, enclosing all the field
sources. These sources may consist of electrical currents
or magnetized media. In the sphere interior the field is
obtained by using the FEM [3,4,11], and in the outside
volume the field is developed using a series of orthogonal
Legendre polynomials. In the two zones the field is
obtained in terms of the azimuthal vector magnetic
Figure 1. Relative position of the solenoid and the Sm-Co magnet.
2 Hc=720 W m .
Magnet data: B ~ 1 . 0 T,
The method was used to determine the spatial
distribution of the magnetic field due to a cylindncal
Samarium-Cobalt magnet and a coaxial solenoid, and to
preview the interaction force between them [ 121.
The demagnetizing characteristic of the Sm-CO magnet
is a straight line between the points (H=O, B=B,) and
( H = - H c , B = O ) . The magnet material may be
considered as a constant magnetization in a linear medium
with magnetic permeability very close to po. Therefore it
was possible to take advantage from linearity separating
the field in two parts, one originated by the solenoid and
the other by the magnet.
11. FIELDEVALUATION IN THE INTERNAL SPHERE
To evaluate the axisymmetric magnetostatic field in the
internal zone the finite element method was used. The
field may be described in terms of the azimuthal
component A+ of the vector magnetic potential or in terms
of the scalar flux hnction I,U, being A = A,& and
y~ = 2npA+, where p is the cylindncal radius and \v is the
magnetic flux across a circle of radius p (see Fig.2).
In terms of the flux y ~ , the variational principle
equivalent to the given boundary-value problem may be
formulated as
being rl the external boundary segment coincident with
the radial symmetry axis where the magnetic potential
(and the \v) must vanish. The functional F ( y ) is given by

0-7803-827 1-4/04/$20.00 02004 IEEE 71

 The same procedure was applied later to obtain the field
due to the coil or to the magnet, with the difference that
for the magnet the last term in the functional F(w)
corresponds to a surface current density, being the
corresponding integral performed in the internal boundary
segment coincident with the position of the cylindncal
magnet surface.

111. FIELDEVALUATION IN THE EXTERNAL REGION

To evaluate the axisymmetric magnetostatic field in the
external zone the following analytical procedure was used.
In the outer region the field was described in terms of the
azimuthal component A+(r,Q) of the vector magnetic
potential, satisfying necessarily the Laplace equation,
which in spherical coordinates is written as

Figure 2: Half section with the boundaries and coordinate systems

used to perform the field computation.

It is well known that the solution of (6) may be an

expansion of Legendre polynomials or the corresponding
associated functions. In our case the solution is expressed
as an expansion of the Legendre functions of the first lund
associated to the polynomials of degree n,

where r2 is the circular boundary segment that separates

the internal from the external zone. The stationary
condition in (1) is now formulated as
However, the arbitrary constants C, are still to be
determined by imposing the appropriate continuity
conditions along the r2boundary.

IV. THEPERMANENT MAGNET CHARACTERISTIC

The Samarium-Cobalt magnet presents a linear
magnetic characteristic with coercive field
H , = 720 kAJm and remanent flux density B, = 1.02 T .
However it is convenient to express the integral along
The slope B,/H, = 1.127 p, is slightly greater than p,, .
r
2 in terms of the tangential zenithal magnetic field Ho in
order to satisfy the appropriate continuity boundary The magnetization may be considered as a superposition
condition across the spherical surface. This relation is of a constant value M , = B r / p , and a term ( x , H )
easily expressed by . proportional to the magnetic field

being the normal derivative taken along the spherical

radial distance to the origin.
When using the finite element method the domain S
was discretized in triangular elements and linear basis Po
h c t i o n s were used inside each element. p o
e----- r n
The nodal values of the flux function satisfy a matrix
equation of the form

Figure 3: Modelization of the magnet by surface currents around a

linear soft material with permeability p, .

where each term is related to the corresponding term in the constant magnetization MO may be replaced by an
the functional stationary condition (3). equivalent surface current density J, = M, x n and the

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term x,H is taken into account by considering a relative
permeability p, = 1.127 in the volume occupied by the
magnet, as shown in figure 3 .
v. CONTINUITY IN THE SPHERICAL BOUNDARY
To solve the stationary condition (3) for a given
elementary discretization of the internal zone, it is
necessary to relate the nodal values of the zenithal
magnetic field HB to the nodal values of the magnetic flux
v, along the circular boundary segment r2.
Considering the polynomial decomposition (7) of A+
along l-1 ( p r o ) ,and truncating it to an order NT2 equal to
the number of nodes in the boundary segment T2we have
Taking into account the relation between He and
4,the tangential field is expressed as
and by substitution of (9) in (10) we obtain a similar
polynomial expansion for He :
n=l
Considering that A4 is linearly interpolated between the
boundary nodes along r2,the coefficients C, may be
related to the actual values of the potential in the
discretized internal zone. Considering the orthogonal
property of the polynomials of different order and having
previously normalised them, we obtain
being Ai a piecewise linear approximation for the true
potential A+ . The numerical evaluation of (12) produces a
square matrix [MI of order (Nr2xNr2)relating the NT2
nodal values of Ab with the NT2 coefficients C, :
(C)=[MI(A$
According to the equation (11) the coefficients R,
appearing in the tangential field He along the circular
boundary r2are closely related to the coefficients C, of
the polynomial decomposition of A + . Therefore the
relation between them may be expressed as
being [D] a diagonal matrix with D,, = ,uro/n . When
determining the relation between the polynomial
coefficients R, and the actual nodal values of the
tangential field Hg, the procedure is exactly the same as
used before in (12), and the same matrix [MI is obtained,
being
Relating (15) with (13 ) we obtain
Remembering that \v is related to the potential A , by
ty = 2npiA, , pi =yo sinei (17)
being pi and Bi the axial distance and the zenithal angle in
the circular boundary node (i), the flux nodal values are
related to the potential values by the matrix equation
being [F] diagonal with Fi,=2n ro sin Oi . The final relation
between the flux nodal values cy) and the zenithal
magnetic field (He) is given by
VI. NUMERICAL RESULTS
The magnetic flux lines were obtained and the results
were presented in figure 4 for the attractive and repulsive
cases respectively. However, to obtain the attraction or the
repulsive forces it is only necessary to obtain the magnetic
field to the coil current and compute the resulting force
over the magnet equivalent superficial current.
The coil field was obtained separately for a structure
with dimension given in figure 5. With this dimensions
the repulsion force could be compared to the results in
[Ill.
(13)
Figure 4: Magnetic flux density lines in the attractive (left) and
repulsive (right) configurations. Each flux tube encloses AV = 60 pwb .
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I
I FEM in the sphere interior and a Legendre polynomial
&....-..__-.-.A
RL,
Figure 5: Relative position of the coil and the Sm-CO magnet. Magnet
data: H , = 720 kA / m , R, = 1S O mm, H , = 1.60 mm . Coil data: 280
turns, Hs = 1.52 mm , R , , , = 1.52 mm, R,, = 1.98 mm , intensity
1=100 d .
The Sm-Co magnet field was also obtained separately
and the magnetic flux across the coil was computed.
These results allow the calculation of the repulsion force
between the magnet and the coil as a function of the
distance d between the two components. For equal forces,
a systematic difference, of the order of one tenth of
millimeter, was observed between our results and those in
~31.
Figure 6 shows the repulsion force between the Sm-Co
magnet and the coil, and the magnet flux across the 280-
turn coil.
0 0 6 1 60 1
'Od.0 ' 0:2 ' Oj4 ' 016 0:s ' '
distance d [mm]
Figure 6: Axial force (lower curve) and the magnetic flux (upper curve)
across the coil turns due to the magnet field.
For a repulsion force of 35mN, corresponding to a
overall mass of 3.56 grams, the derivatives of the two
curves were calculated to obtain the equivalent spring
constant and the corresponding minimum damping
constant, necessary to overdamp the axial oscillations. The
obtained value show that the coil resistance must be of the
order of one Ohm, implying a decrease in the number of
turns.
VII. CONCLUSIONS
In this paper the repulsion force between a magnet and
a solenoid was estimated. The problem presents
axisymmetric geometry with open boundaries. TO obtain
the magnetic field the structure was enclosed by a
spherical surface. The field was determined using the
expansion in the external zone.
The determined results agree with those obtained using
an experimental apparatus.
The present work shows that the coil resistance must be
reduced to obtain optimum electromagnetic damping.
Therefore we intend to study a new structure with a ring to
obtain the necessary mechanical damping by eddy
currents.
ACKNOWLEDGMENT
T h s work was supported by the project POCTI/ESE/
46998/2002 under the sponsorship of the Fundaqgo para a
Ciencia e Tecnologia (FCT).
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