PHYSICS PROJECT

EDDY CURRENT BRAKING

SYSTEM

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SL NO. TOPIC PAGE NUMBER
1. Teacher’s certificate 3
2. Acknowledgement 4
3. Introduction 5
4. Experiment 1 6
5. Experiment 2 7
Undesirable effects of
6. 8
eddy currents
7. Minimization 9
8. Applications 10
9. Applications(continued) 11
10. Principle of model 12
11. Bibliography 13

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 TEACHER’S CERTIFICATE

This is to certify that Sampurna Ghosh, student of class XII S4 of Bhavan’s

Gangabux Kanoria Vidyamandir has done her project “EDDY CURRENT
BRAKING SYSTEM” under my guidance.

Signature of teacher Signature of

External

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 ACKNOWLEDGMENT

The euphoria and joy, accompanying the

successful completion of my task would be
incomplete without the special mention of
those people whose guidance and
encouragement made my effort successful.

I steal this opportunity to express my sincere

heartfelt gratitude to my respected Physics
teacher Dr. Maitreyee Banerjee who with zeal
encouragement, benevolent and outstanding
patience helped me in making this endeavor
grand success, her invaluable timely advice,
enthusiasm, thought and guidance are
reflected on every page of this report.

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My gratitude to my Lab Assistant sir for his
cooperation.
Last but not the least I owe my sincere thanks
to all those who helped me in many tangible
and intangible ways.

Marisha Ghosh

INTRODUCTION

Currents can be induced, not only in

conducting coils, but also in conducting sheets
or blocks. Whenever the magnetic flux linked
with a metal sheet or block changes, an emf is
induced in it. The induced currents flow in
closed paths in planes perpendicular to the
lines of force throughout the body of the metal.
These currents look like eddies or whirlpools in
water and so they are known as eddy
currents. As these currents were first

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discovered by Focault in 1895, they are also
known as Focault currents.

EXPERIMENT 1 TO DEMONSTRATE
EDDY CURRENTS

We have taken a pendulum having its bob in the form

of a flat copper plate. It is free to oscillate between
the pole pieces of an electromagnet. In the absence
of any magnetic field, the pendulum swings freely. As
the electromagnet is switched on, the oscillations of

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the pendulum get highly damped and soon it comes
to rest. This is because as the copper plate moves in
between the pole pieces of the magnet, magnetic
flux threading through it changes. So eddy currents
are set up in it which according to Lenz’s law, oppose
the motion of the copper plate in the magnetic field.
Eddy currents flow anticlockwise as the plate swings
into the field and clockwise as the plate swings out of
the field.

EXPERIMENT 2 T DEMONSTRATE EDDY

CURRENTS

Now we have taken the pendulum of a flat copper

plate with narrow slots cut across it. As the

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electromagnet is switched on, eddy currents are set
up in the plate, but this plate swings for longer
duration than the plate without slots. This is because
the loop has much larger paths for the electrons to
travel. Larger paths offer more resistance to
electrons and so the eddy currents are sufficiently
reduced. As a result, the opposition to the oscillations
becomes very small.

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 UNDESIRABLE EFFECTS OF EDDY
CURRENTS

Eddy currents are produced inside the iron

cores of the rotating armatures of electric
motors and dynamos, and also in the cores of
transformers which experience flux changes
when they are in use. Eddy currents cause
unnecessary heating and wastage of power.
The heat produced by eddy currents may even
damage the insulation of coils.

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 MINIMISATION

The eddy currents can be reduced by using

laminated core which instead of a single solid mass
consists of thin sheets of metal, insulated from each
other by a thin later of varnish. The planes of the
sheets are placed perpendicular to the direction of
the currents that would be set up by the emf induced
in the material. The insulation between the sheets
then offers high resistance to the induced emf and
the eddy currents are substantially reduced.

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APPLICATIONS OF EDDY CURRENTS

• Electric brakes: A strong magnetic field

is applied to the rotating drum attached to
the wheel. Eddy currents set up in the
drum exert a torque on the drum to stop
the train.
• Electromagnetic damping: When a
current is passed through a galvanometer,
its coil suffers few oscillations before
coming to rest in the final position. As the
coil moves in the magnetic field, induced
current is set in the coil which opposes its
motion. The oscillations of the coil are
damped. This is called electromagnetic
damping. The electromagnetic damping
can be further increased by winding the
coil on a light copper or aluminum frame.
As the frame moves in the magnetic field,
eddy currents are set up in the frame which
resist the motion of the coil. This is how a
galvanometer is rendered dead beat, i.e.,
the coil does not oscillate – it deflects and
stays in the final position immediately.

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 APPLICATIONS (CONTINUED)

Apart from the above mentioned devices,

eddy currents also find applications in:

• Induction furnace
• Speedometers
• Induction motor
• Electromagnetic shielding
• Inductothermy
• Energy meters

Eddy currents can be induced in biological

tissues. For example, the cavity of the eye is
filled with a conducting fluid. A large transient
magnetic field of 1T alternating at a frequency
of 60 Hz then induces such a large current in
the retina that is produces a sensation of
intense brightness.

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 PRINCIPLE OF EDDY CURRENT BRAKE

Eddy current brake works according to

Faraday’s law of electromagnetic induction as
explained earlier. During breaking, the metal
disc is exposed to a magnetic field from an
electromagnet, generating eddy currents in the
disc. The magnetic interaction between the
applied field and the eddy currents slow down
the rotating disc. Thus, the wheels of the
vehicle also slow down since the wheels are
directly coupled to the disc of the eddy current
brake, thus producing smooth stopping motion.

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 BIBLIOGRAPHY

The following websites and books were

incorporated as references and were crucial in
the completion of the project:
• Fundamentals of Physics by Halliday,
Resnick and Walker
• New Simplified Physics by S.L. Arora
• https://www.sciencedirect.com
• https://content.iospress.com

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