Projet dinterface generique 2 PHYSICAL MODEL

Physical model

Paramagnetic particles (such as iron-rich lunar regolith) are subjected to a net force when placed in a non-uniform magnetic eld, or a magnetic eld gradient. Such a eld can be obtained by circulating current around a conductive loop. In the case of a long solenoid (wire coil), the magnetic eld is father uniform at the center of the coil, and as such the gradients and paramagnetic forces are weak. However, the eld diverges at the extremities of such a coil and thus there are elevated gradients at these extremities (see Fig. 1). Such a divergence is called the edge eect and is of primary importance in this design, as it will provide the driving force to move the regolith particles.

Fig. 1 Magnetic eld lines inside a current coil. The eld is rather uniform in the center while it diverges at the extremities In order to maximize this edge eect, we will be using short coils so that the uniformeld section is reduced to a minimum. Furthermore, to ensure that the particles are constantly surrounded by a high eld gradient, several coils will be overlapping each other so that the lowest eld gradient section of one coil is coincident to the highest eld gradient of the next. These coils will then be activated sequentially in order to generate a kind of magnetic peristaltism, causing the particles to migrate from one coil to the next (see Fig. 4). Concurrently to this paramagnetic eect, the regolith particles, which possess an electrostatic charge, should also be submitted to a Lorentz force. This force describes the behaviour of a particle of charge q moving at speed s in a magnetic eld of strength B. The resulting force is given as FL = q(s B. Since this force is the result of a vector product between the speed of the particle and the magnetic eld, it is perpendicular to both these vector quantities and as such is of very little interest to us. Indeed, the goal we seek is to accelerate the particles linearly and a perpendicular acceleration will only induce a circular (or helicoidal) motion. Consequently, we will neglect this Lorentz force in this mathematical treatment. The paramagnetic force exerted on a ferromagnetic particle of magnetic susceptibility m placed in a magnetic eld B0 is given by 3
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 Projet dinterface generique 2 PHYSICAL MODEL

FP = (M B0 ) , where M = m

(1)

B0 is the induced magnetic moment, in the particle, thus giving 0 m |B0 |2 . 0 (2)

FP =

If we consider N coils of current I and of area a, the eld B0 they produce is equivalent to the one produced by a magnetic moment m = N Iam, wich can be expressed as B0 (r) = 0 3r(m r) mr2 . 4 r5 (3)

For a coil along the z axis, m = (0, 0, N Ia), and 0 3r((0, 0, N Ia) r) (0, 0, N Ia)r2 2 |B0 (r)| = 4 r5 2 30 N Ia xy = . 4 r5
2

(4) (5)

Thus, the force is given by FP = m |B0 |2 0 m 30 N Ia xy 2 = . 0 4 r5 (6) (7)

The complete expression of this force is too large and unpractical to justify its presentation here, but can be easily be obtained from the above equation by computing the value of the gradient. However, we can rather simply obtain a numerical approximation of the value of this gradient. Lets consider coils formed by N = 50 loops of current of radius r = 3/8. The regolith particles are composed of approximately 2% of iron1 . We shall approximate their apparent magnetic susceptibility as a linear combination of the susceptibility of its components. Supposing that the iron content of the regolith is in the form of iron oxides and that other components of the lunar dust are non-magnetic, we obtain2
1 2

Lunar Source book Value taken from http ://hyperphysics.phy-astr.gsu.edu/HBASE/Tables/magprop.html

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 Projet dinterface generique 2 PHYSICAL MODEL

Regolith 0, 02F eO = 0, 02 720 105 = 14, 4 105 . m m

(8)

To get an idea of the gradient surrounding the extremity of such a coil, lets dene a hemispheric surface S of radius r centred on the coil (see Fig 2) An davoir une ide de la valeur du gradient entourant lextrmit dune telle bobine, e e e dnissions une surface S hmisphrique de rayon gal ` la bobine et centre sur celle-ci. e e e e a e

Bobine centre en (0,0,0)

z y

Surface tudie

Fig. 2 Denition of surface S By integrating the gradient of the squared eld intensity over the surface S, we can obtain an approximate value of the eld gradient in the vicinity of the coil :
2 S |B0 | dA S

|B0 |

dA

(9)

A computer numerical calculation has given a value of |B0 |2 9, 6 1010 5

2 N 2 I 2 0 . a

(10)

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 Projet dinterface generique 2 PHYSICAL MODEL

With the previously dened parameters and a current of 1 A, we obtain an average force of FP S 1.64 1014 N (11)

over the whole surface. This rather small valu prompts us to investigate dierent means of increasing the eld gradient. Increasing the current and number of coils show the most promise given their squared inuence on the resulting force. Further experimental testing is needed to determine feasibility.

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