See discussions, stats, and author profiles for this publication at: https://www.researchgate.

net/publication/243291974

Design of a magnetic braking system

Article  in  Journal of Magnetism and Magnetic Materials · September 2006

DOI: 10.1016/j.jmmm.2006.01.149

CITATIONS READS

25 21,639

3 authors, including:

Min Jou
National Taiwan Normal University
71 PUBLICATIONS   925 CITATIONS   

SEE PROFILE

All content following this page was uploaded by Min Jou on 04 November 2020.

The user has requested enhancement of the downloaded file.

 ARTICLE IN PRESS

Journal of Magnetism and Magnetic Materials 304 (2006) e234–e236

www.elsevier.com/locate/jmmm

Design of a magnetic braking system

Min Joua,, Jaw-Kuen Shiaub, Chi-Chian Suna
a
National Taiwan Normal University, No. 162, Section 1, Ho-Ping East Road, Taipei 106, Taiwan, ROC
b
Tamkang University, 151 Ying-chuan Road, Tamsui, Taipei County, Taiwan 25137, ROC
Available online 2 March 2006

Abstract

A non-contact method, using magnetic drag force principle, was proposed to design the braking systems to improve the shortcomings
of the conventional braking systems. The extensive literature detailing all aspects of the magnetic braking is briefly reviewed, however
little of this refers specifically to upright magnetic braking system, which is useful for industries. One of the major issues to design upright
magnetic system is to find out the magnetic flux. The changing magnetic flux induces eddy currents in the conductor. These currents
dissipate energy in the conductor and generate drag force to slow down the motion. Therefore, a finite element model is developed to
analyze the phenomena of magnetic flux density when air gap and materials of track are varied. The verification shows the predicted
magnetic flux is within acceptable range with the measured value. The results will facilitate the design of magnetic braking systems.
r 2006 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Keywords: Permanent magnet; Magnetic braking; Finite element analysis

1. Introduction Analysis of magnetic field and calculation of magnetic

A magnetic drag force is produced to slow down the
motion when a conducting material is moving through a
stationary magnet or a magnet is moving through a
stationary conducting material. The changing magnetic
flux induces eddy currents in the conductor. These currents
dissipate energy in the conductor and generate drag force.
This phenomenon is also called eddy current braking. The
advantage of the eddy current braking is that they are non-
contacting components which can eliminate the short-
comings of conventional braking systems such as heating,
wearing, vibrations, and contaminations due to contact
friction. Therefore, this method has been proposed to
enhance notational stability of the dual-spin satellite
system [1] and to suppress vibrations in spacecrafts [2].
Eddy current braking concept is also applied in dynam-
ometers [3]. The benefits of magnetic drag force are
employed to develop various damping elements [4–7] for
operating without needs of electronic devices and external
power supplies.
Corresponding author. Tel.: +886 0223923105;
fax: +886 0223929449.
E-mail address: joum@ntnu.edu.tw (M. Jou).
drag force are essential for the design of braking devices by
using permanent magnet. However, the entire process is
complex and difficult; it needs to solve Maxwell’s equations
in a time-dependent situation. Besides, many variables
involve in this issue and have to be taken into account. The
major parameters including geometry of permanent mag-
net (i.e., shape and size), materials of magnet, air gap,
conducting materials and distribution of magnetic flux
density. A simple approximate treatment is possible in
some special cases. Smythe [8] starts from a simple method
to calculate the path of the eddy currents and torque, by
using Maxwell’s formula, in a rotating disk. The assump-
tion in his calculation is the disk is so thin that the
thickness effect and air gap are neglected. Numerical
solutions for the torque on a rotating disk due to magnetic
drag are derived by Schieber [9,10] and Wiederick et al.
[11]. The common assumption in these works is that
the magnetic field is uniform with the ‘‘footprint’’ region of
the magnets and zero outside this area. Heald [12] replace
this simplification by a more realistic theory that allows for
the fact that the eddy currents tend to concentrate toward
the ends of the footprint and are not orthogonal to the
velocity of the conducting sheet. Marcuso et al. [13]
computed the braking force on a rotating disk under

0304-8853/$ - see front matter r 2006 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
doi:10.1016/j.jmmm.2006.01.149
 ARTICLE IN PRESS
M. Jou et al. / Journal of Magnetism and Magnetic Materials 304 (2006) e234–e236 e235

non-uniform magnetic field. Experimental results are close
to the theoretical predictions except near the disk edge [14].
The edge effects on the braking torque are further revealed
by Aguirregabiria et al. [15].
The other mechanism, using a magnet falling inside a
cylindrical conductor, is designed to study braking force
[16]. A comprehensive study of eddy currents has been
made to calculate the terminal velocity of the falling
magnet. MacLatchy et al. [17] derived an equation to
improve the accuracy of the predicted terminal velocity.
Most of the previous studies emphasize on analyzing the
phenomenon of magnetic field and developing approaches
to calculate magnetic braking force for rotating disks. From
engineering viewpoint, it is required to design the entire
structure of the braking system with practical applications,
to control the magnetic braking force to achieve the design
goal, and to stabilize the braking system during operation.
2. Design and analysis
design for assemble. Therefore the considerations and their
corresponding assumptions are as followings:
(1) Rectangular magnets are used in this study. This will
reduce the model from 3D to 2D.
(2) The magnets are mounted in symmetry in order to
reduce the vibrations due to unbalance of forces. Thus,
the analysis can be treated as 2D and symmetric
problem.
The distance between front magnet and rear magnet is
equal to two times of the air gap plus the thickness of track.
The simulation of magnetic flux density is shown in Fig. 2.
One of the computation results for 1 mm air gap is
displayed in Fig. 3. In this study, the magnetic flux density
for nine different air-gaps is analyzed and its average value
is listed in Table 1. The results indicate that increasing air
gap will decrease the average value of magnetic flux

In this project, an upright magnetic braking system was

designed (Fig. 1) using permanent magnet which can be
used in elevators as one of the safety features, particularly,
for skyscrapers. The guiding track is designed as the
conducting plate which is easy to construct with building or
join with existed elevators. Two pairs of permanent
magnets (NdFeB-35) are mounted with the loading table
in both front and rear side.
The objectives of this study were: (1) to develop a FEM
to analyze the magnetic field for calculation of the braking
force; and (2) to obtain the effect of track materials and air
gap on the magnetic flux density.
The approaches to design the magnetic braking system
are based on the principle of design for manufacturing and

Fig. 2. Magnetic flux density for 1 mm air gap.

Fig. 1. Structure of magnetic braking system. Fig. 3. Computation result of magnetic flux density.
 ARTICLE IN PRESS
e236 M. Jou et al. / Journal of Magnetism and Magnetic Materials 304 (2006) e234–e236

Table 1
Average value of magnetic flux density

Air gap (mm) 1 2 3 4 6 8 10 15 20

B (T) 0.5479 0.5436 0.5232 0.5122 0.4817 0.4767 0.4735 0.4688 0.4553

density. The verification shows the predicted magnetic flux References

is within 5% difference with the measured value. There-
fore, the magnetic flux density computed by the developed [1] G.A. Haines, C.T. Leondes, J. Astronaut. Sci. 21 (1973) 1.
[2] B.E. Tossman, J. Spacecr, Rockets 8 (1971) 743.
FEM model can be applied during the design stage of
[3] M.D. Ripper, U.G. Endean, Proc. IEE 301 (1975) 122.
magnetic braking systems. [4] D. Karnopp, Vehicle System Dyn. 18 (1989) 187.
[5] Y. Okada, K. Matuda, H. Hashitani, J. Vibr. Acoust. 117 (1995) 411.
3. Conclusion [6] H. Teshima, M. Tanaka, K. Miyamoto, K. Nohguchi, K. Hinata,
Physica C 274 (1997) 17.
A FEM model of magnetic braking has been presented. [7] Y. Matsuzaki, Y. Ishikubo, T. Kamita, T. Ikeda, J. Intelligent Mat.
Sys. Struct. 8 (1997) 751.
The model analyzes and computes the magnetic flux [8] W.R. Smythe, IEE Trans. Elec. Eng. 61 (1942) 681.
density at an early level of braking system design. This [9] D. Schieber, Proc. IEE 119 (1972) 1499.
project demonstrated that the air gap has a significant [10] D. Schieber, Proc. IEE 121 (1974) 117.
effect on the magnetic flux density from FEM model. An [11] H.D. Wiederick, N. Gauthier, D.A. Campbell, P. Rochon, Am.
experimental investigation shows good correlation between J. Phys. 55 (1987) 500.
[12] M.A. Heald, Am. J. Phys. 56 (1988) 521.
calculated and measured values of magnetic flux density. [13] M. Marcuso, R. Gass, D. Jones, C. Rowlett, Am. J. Phys. 59 (1991)
The results of this study can provide for the industries to 1118.
promote the implementation of magnetic braking systems. [14] M. Marcuso, R. Gass, D. Jones, C. Rowlett, Am. J. Phys. 59 (1991)
1123.
[15] J.M. Aguirregabiria, A. Hernandez, M. Rivas, Am. J. Phys. 65 (1997)
Acknowledgments
851.
[16] W.M. Saslow, Am. J. Phys. 60 (1992) 693.
The author gratefully acknowledges the partial support [17] C.S. MacLatchy, P. Backman, L. Bogan, Am. J. Phys. 61 (1993)
for this study from the National Science Council of Taiwan 1096.
and the National Taiwan Normal University.

View publication stats