REVIEW VOLUME 67, NUMBERS 11 AND 12 JUNE LAND 15 Demagnetizing Factors of the General Ellipsoid J. A. Osnons: [Nasal Ordnance Laboratory, Washington, D. C. (Received March 24, 1945) Charts and tables of the demagnetizing factors of prolate and oblate spheroids are readily available; however, demagnetizing factors of ellipsoids of three different axes are incompletaly tabulated and laborious to caleulate. This article presents chartaand tables which make possible ‘easy determination of the demagnetizing factor Tor any principal axis of an ellipsoid of any shape. Pormulas for the demagnetizing factors of the genera ellipsoid are included together ‘with supplementary formulas which cover a large numberof special eases, I. INTRODUCTION F a ferromagnetic body of irregular shape is brought into a uniform applied field HZ, the magnetizing force inside the material differs in ‘magnitude fom the applied field and varies in direction throughout the body in an unknown manner. This is usually a great disadvantage in research on magnetic materials, because such research usually requires studies of the relation between the magnetization J and the magnetizing force. However, for homogeneous bodies whose surface is of the second degree,’ IZ and J (after suitable magnetic treatment) are uniform throughout, though they are not necessarily the same in direetion as Zo. The ellipsoid has the only surface of the second degree that is finite, s0 materials in this form are frequently used in precise investigations of magnetic materials Inside any ellipsoid the component of Z along any principal axis is determined by the relation Nd ca) where Ny is a constant called the demagnetizing factor; it is determined by the ratios of the axes. Hence, if the magnetization components and the lengths of the axes of the ellipsoid are known, II inside the body may be found.* ‘The determination of NV is rather involved, except for the special cases of ellipsoids of revolu- tion, Therefore, it is believed that caleulation of N for various axial ratios of the general ellipsoid Hy= (ih) 1], C, Maxwell, lectriity and Mopnetism (The Caron ‘dor, Press, Oxford, 1908), thied edition, Va. 2, pp. 66-70. Tete posible to find Zt at the center ofa cylindrical bar ita Kind of demagnetizing factor ferent from that forthe ellipsoid is dened. ‘The vse of these s0 called. baltic ‘demagnetizing factors is dacuased by RM. Bozorth and DME Chapin, J- App. Phys. 12,520 (1942) will serve a useful purpose. Naturally, it is impossible to include values of the demagnetizing factor for all axial ratios, so graphs of N have been made that will allow interpolation for those ratios not explicitly included. The following section gives the formulas from which the de- magnetizing factors have been calculated, to- gether with comments on the method by which they were obtained, FORMULAS FOR THE DEMAGNETIZING FACTORS OF THE GENERAL ELLIPSOID ‘The equations given below are for the demag- netizing factorsalong the three axes of the general llipsoid under the assumption that a2b>c20, where a, b, and ¢ are the ellipsoid semi-axes. The demagnetizing factors (corresponding to the semi ‘axes a, b, and ¢) will be labeled L, Af, and N. ‘Then, as indicated in Eq. (1.1), to find the component of the magnetizing force along any principal axis, the component of the applied field (Ze); along that axis must be considered together with the appropriate magnetization component Jyand demagnetizing factor. The formulas for L, M, and N are £05 08 3 ——[F(b, 8) — B(h, 8), Sint sin? a @4) cos 9 60s 3 sin? @ sint a cos? cost aP(b, 8) — 351382 cos coe 9 [sin 9 cos N/ae: ee en oh} 23) Sir deo al cond where cos dmc/n, (O<0SH/D, — (2A) com eb/e, (OSPS42), (28) peony see 1 (ejay “sin (O1 (very slender protate spheroid), L/x~(1/me)(n2m=1), (2.12) M/4r=N/te=3{1~ (in 2m—1)/me]. 218) () tka>bze (very slender ellipsoid, L/A=(befa%\In 4a/(6-40) 1), es) M/A =c/(0-+0)~Mbe/a*) in 4a/(6-+0) Hbelab+o tare), 215) N/4e=b/(b-0)—Mbe/o?) tn (4a/(6+0)) bed+30//4a"G+e). 2.16) (9 Wa, 62¢ (elliptic eyinder), M/te=c/0+0, ear) N/se=8/(640. 218) (@) Ha=b (oblate spheroid), mtn —tyt Xare sin Cin?=D4/m]=1], 219)DEMAGNETIZATION FACTORS 383 Irate 1. Demagnetzing factors ofthe genera ellipsoid calculated from formulas of section I de wir | ee “o17is2 50000 034900 outer | 61279 ‘Sino ‘S361 ‘33029 ‘2136 0008 E98 5986 mash 087156 7600 17365 od see 93969 nso? “east i202 1855518555 ost tei77 tna: 1822119807 Wiss “bioss 110833128 tet “26200 “igo 0880 1328 3su85 11924 “41886 nals 44391354 J. A. OSBORN nL TL, Demagnesizing factors of the general llipsnid for Ba equal to integral multiples of 0. be ele Lae Mite 1000 72 ots 4628 9 2845 iis 1330 2000 | 17 ng0s tag os. a Baa O39 nist G9 ‘ous 7a, oy 300028880366 427 i130 S000 ‘ogra asi 380) ‘0819 iss51 “ons 4003020 aoLe 9000 ass ios “439 i730 nes “2092 os? DNS “Hats 39 on? 75 ‘os77 500) soy aS AL a) iy Ae . to Tiss mss “223 cae ‘oni? bist 308 “Ral ouo 202 000 5000 190636384487 320 “Isig 3923821 258 ass asm) “aah 1739 Wag taps “fats (Os? 050080 “R98 0319 301 N/4e=m*/(m*—1) {1 —1/(mt— 1) Af >t are sin [(m' (very flat oblate spheroid), 1)¥/m]}. (2.20) L/Ae= M/Ano(x/4m)(1-4/xm), (2.21) N/dewt—x/2m-+2/ mt. (©) a>o>e (very flat ellipsoid), where K and E are complete elliptic « K-E L/te Mjag=s— a ee) N/Ae (2.22) (2.23) (2.24) (2.28) integrals? whose argument is c= (1-Day, (2.26) ML, CONSTRUCTION AND USE OF TABLES ‘AND GRAPHS. Construction ‘he values of the clemagnetizing factors for the ‘general ellipsoid given in Table I are determined by the quantities # and k (2.1)-(2.3). These were chosen so that # and a covered the region from 0 to 70° in 10° steps, and from 70° to 90°, @ varied in 5° and a in 10° steps. Some gaps in the values of the demagnetizing factors were revealed when the final graphs were plotted, as explained below; hence, additional values were subsequently computed to make the graphs complete. The axial ratios of the ellipsoids were then determined by Eqs. (2.4)-(2.6). L/4x and N/4x were determined directly from Eqs.DEMAGNETIZATION FACTORS 355 DEMAGNETIZING FACTORS OF THE GENERAL ELLIPSOID ALONG THE 9 SEMI-AXIS. ELLIPSOID SEMI-AXES ARE aebec, | | { [ (2A) and (2.3), and Mf/4x was then determined in most cases by means of Eq. (2.7). L/4x and N/4r in Table I are accurate to at least the fourth decimal place, M/4r is somewhat Tess accurate than the other factors because it involves a difference. ‘The valuesof ¢/a and b/a obtained from 9 and a are such that interpolation for the demagnetizing, factors of other ellipsoids is not easy. To reduce this difficulty, each factor was separately plotted on a large scale against b/a, with c/a as a pa- rameter. This gave a family of curves for each factor, L, M, and 4V. Each family of curves was then considered by itself. A value of 6/a equal to an integral multiple of 0.1 was selected, and a value of the demagnetizing factor in question read from each curve. The constant value of 6/a ‘was now taken as a parameter and a new curve plotted with the factors (read from the above family of curves) as ordinates and the values of a «fa (the parameter of the above family of curves) as abscissas. This process was repeated for different b/a values until a new family of curves was obtained with the parameter 6/a equal to integral multiples of 0.1 from 0.1 to 1. These ‘curves (shown in Figs. 1-3) warrant graphical interpolation to three decimal places. Table If contains the values of L/4x, M/4x, and N/4x for various c/a (with d/a as a parameter) from which Figs. 1-3 were plotted. These values are accurate to three decimal places and are probably in error several units in the fourth place. Use of Graphs ‘To use the graphs, any value of c/a may be chosen within the limitations azbacz0 and b/a may be found by interpolation. It is most important to remember that: L corresponds386 J A. OSBORN Pie, 2 10.4, the longest semi-axis; M corresponds to by the intermediate semivaxis; and N corresponds toc, the shortest semi-axis. Two examples are given below illustrating the procedure for use of the graphs. Examples: (1) Suppose the semi-axes of an cllipsoid are 4, 3, and 2 and it is desired to find the demagnetizing factor along the axis of length 3. Then and; bed; and m2, ‘The factor is then read from the curves for M/4 with axial ratios ¢/a=0.500 and $/a=0.750. |M/4m =0,306 when read from the curve. (2) Sup pose the axis lengths are 3, 2, nd 1 and the factor along length 3 is wanted, Here beds In this ease the factor is read from the curves for L/4mwith axial ratios c/a =0,333 and b/a =0.667. L/4x=0.156 when read from the curve IV, APPLICATION TO SPECIAL MATERIALS If the magnetization curve is linear, and if the material either is isotropic or has its principal axes of magnetic anisotropy along the principal axes of the ellipsoid, then TiaxHe= (us WH/4e, © (AN) where the susceptibility x; and the permeability and; and c=1.DEMAGNETIZATION FACTORS 357 1 T THE DEMAGNETIZING FACTORS OF THE GENERAL ELLIPSOID ALONG THE ¢ SEMIWAXIS. ELLIPSOID “SEMI-AXES ARE a=bec ui, corresponding to axis i, are constant (For isotropic materials the three x's are equal.) ‘Therefore I= (He): NJe= (Hi) Noxlh, so that H=(H)i/A+Nix, and Je xi(UTa)s/ (1+ Nox) = (Un) Wet V/x) (4.2) (43) aa) By use of these formulas, the magnitucle and direction of the magnetizing force and mag- netization may be found if the magnitude and direction of the applied field are given. V. ACKNOWLEDGMENT ‘The author gratefully acknowledges the assist- ance of Mr. T. Mico and Mrs. E. F. Gittings in making the calculations, and the help of Dr. W. F. Brown in making commentson the manuscript.