MAGNETIC CIRCUITS

Abstract
This experiment determines and explains the basic functions of important components of a basic magnetic circuit. During the experiments magnetic and electrical components were used in order to make a circuit that in many ways was analogous to an electrical circuit. This showed certain characteristics of magnetic circuits, and was also used to obtain certain electrical and magnetic quantities, which are put to use in equipment around us in our daily lives around us, such to give a better understanding of them.

Aim of the Experiment

The use of magnetic circuits are wide spread anywhere in the world. From the simplest everyday machines to the high-tech, magnetic circuits play a significant role to give us all a much more convenient life. The initial aim of the experiment is to understand how a magnetic circuit works and looks like. Also to understand the different ways of manipulating a magnetic circuit such to get desired values of certain electrical quantities and effects which correspond to those quantities. The eventual aim of this report however has been to have a more thorough understanding of magnetic circuits, the usage of these circuits in our lives and also to analyse the level to which the experiment that was conducted was successful by comparing graphs and values obtained with the expected ones for this particular experiment. An attempt has been made to find out the uses of magnetic circuits in different types of industries.

Introduction and Theory

Magnetic circuits are in many ways analogous to an electric circuit. The basic difference is that for the force that drives the two different kinds of circuits. Whereas the electric circuit is driven by a voltage or potential difference (Electromotive force) between two points in a circuit which drives the current, the magnetic circuit is driven by a magnetomotive force which drives the flux within the circuit.

EMF= Current (I) x Resistance MMF= Flux () x Reluctance (R)..(0)

The direct analogy is clearly visible as the current and flux may be thought as analogous to each other since these are the physical quantities that go around the circuit. And both the Rs , Reluctance and resistance are quantities that oppose this flow.

The MMF quantity is better understood by the Ampere Circuit Law which states,

Hj x lj= I= Ni=MMF..(1) J=Limb number of the circuit H= the magnetic field strength N=number of turns in the coil I = total current, i= current in every coil.
So it can be understood that the driving force in the magnetic circuit is nothing but the current flowing through the circuit. In the analogy, the current ends up playing the voltages role in an electrical circuit. From previous analogies and the MMF equation provided in the beginning it can be guessed that the flux and current depend on each other and both of them depend on the magnetic field strength. The following equations demonstrate the connection on these quantities. The continuity of flux equation:

=H11A1=Hj jAj (this signifies that the flux in the entire circuit is always the same).... (2) = the absolute permeability of any limb A= area of the limb.
Considering both the previous equations it can be inferred that:

MMF=Ni= (.l1)/ 1A1 + (.l2)/ 2A2 +.+( .lj)/ jAj .. (3)

Also once the above equation is divided throughout by it can be seen that

Rtotal=R1+R2+R3+..+Rj (4)
This further strengthens the argument that the magnetic circuits indeed are very much analogous to the electric circuits and just like there can be parallel circuits for electrical components, there are also parallel components for magnetic circuits which adds the total reluctance in exactly the same way as resistance is calculated. When a constant current I is put around the circuit to establish an MMF then the flux is also constant. A constant flux in really hard to measure but a change in flux is not. And thus it is much

easier this way to make a measurement of the voltage by means of a sense coil or a secondary coil, across the circuit using the Faradays principle of Magnetic Induction:

V(t)=n.d /dt. (5) 0=v0/n0 ..(6)

Here 0 is the peak flux in the sense coil, n is the number of turns and 0 is the equivalent of 2f where f is the frequency. Inferences from the previous statements and formulae: 1. If = 0 sin t, v= v0cost= n 0 cos t. Hence it can be observed that the voltage and flux would be exactly in an anti-phase situation at all times. 2. At constant MMF, N and are directly proportional to each other. 3. At constant frequency, the peak voltage is not affected by the number of coil turns as the peak flux adjusts itself to balance all the effects out.

Apparatus

Figure: The picture of the apparatus setting as shown in the lab manual.

The Experiment
Method:
TASK 1 a. The signal was set at 5 KHz and the resistance at 1k. b. Channels 1 & 2 of the CRO were used to show the resistance and the sense coil voltage respectively. c. i was set to 1mA by putting VR to be 1 V. d. The signals in the CRO were calibrated and measured. e. Frequency was altered and the effects of such an alteration were observed. f. The coils were then put in different positions to observe to visible or measurable effect.

g. Two coils in series are put in the same orientation/direction and then one was reversed to observe that the voltages for these different settings are very different. h. Different numbers of drive coils were not used with one sense coil as instructed by the demonstrator. TASK 2 a. The method used and the method recommended by the lab book differ significantly in this experiment. Initially, as a group, a mistake was made that of recording only V0 along with the CRO voltages rather than the frequencies. Nine of such readings were taken. b. To get back on track with the recommended method, the whole method was reverse engineered, i.e. using the voltage values the frequencies were calculated according to given formulae. c. The sense coil voltage was measured, varying the frequency but keeping the current constant at 1mA. TASK 3 a. The only part to this task was to measure all the dimensions of the limbs of the ferrite yore provided. They were measured using Vernier callipers as instructed also find the relative permittivity of the ferrite. TASK 4 a. The peak voltage of the sense coil was established at 0.8V, with the bar closed. b. The bar was removed and the peak voltage was measured. c. The bar was replaced and the peak voltage measured again. d. The three sets of spacer pairs thicknesses were measured using a micrometer.

e. Each spacer pair was placed between the vertical limbs and the horizontal bar at different times and the voltages, peak and sense, were measured. (As shown and instructed in the Lab book) TASK 5 a. Spacers were removed and the closing bar was replaced. b. The resistor was removed from the circuit and the Channel 1 of the CRO was connected to the single drive coil along with the signal generator. c. To achieve double output, the two sense coils were put in series and in the same orientation, as the single primary coil. d. In order to achieve the same phase, the primary and secondary coils were put in the same direction. The secondary coils were put in parallel to each other. To get the coils to be in antiphase the directions of the coils must be opposite to each other.

Results:
TASK 1 a. Voltage v and current I were found to be sinusoidal and cosinosoidal respectively as chosen for greater convenience. ( this can be understood from the first inference mentioned in the theory part) b. The peak amplitude of the sense coil was measured to be 0.24V when i= 1 mA. c. The frequency and peak voltage are directly proportional to each other when the net flux is the same. (This can be explained by the flux continuity and the equation no.6). d. According to equation no.5, we can understand that when the number of turns is doubled to 100, the voltage dropped would also be doubled, since the change of flux is still the same as before. e. For this part only N=50 was used as per instructions received during the experiment. But it can be understood theoretically that if the values N=100 and N=150 were used the voltages measured would be a half and a third of the one measured when N=50. This is because when I=Ni and I is constant, N and i are inversely proportional to each other. This determines the current through each of the secondary coils.

TASK 2 a.
2.5 Current, I in mA 2 1.5 1 0.5 0 0 0.1 0.2 0.3 0.4 0.5 Flux in microWb Figure 1. : Current vs. flux graph for initial readings. y = 5.1798x + 0.0231

From the graph it can be seen that the flux and current are directly proportional to each other, which is something that could be inferred if it is taken into consideration that current would be the quantity that drives the flux in the circuit. Also, thinking in terms of electrical quantities only, the flux depends on the voltage or potential difference across the ferrite yore. Considering the fact that the actual setting has no change in resistance when no equipment is added or removed, voltage and current would be directly proportional to each other, which implies that current, would indeed be directly proportional to the flux. The actual numbers found from these measurements can be found in the appendix section. b. When the drive current is kept constant at i=1 mA
0.5 0.45 0.4 0.35 Voltage, V 0.3 0.25 0.2 0.15 0.1 0.05 0 0 2 4 6 frequency, KHz Figure 2: the change of the voltage against the frequency at a constant current. 8 10 12 y = 0.0432x + 0.0143

With constant current, the voltage is directly proportional to the frequency in the circuit. According to equation 6 it can be seen that when the peak flux is constant, which it is in this case because of the constant drive current, the voltage and frequency must be directly proportional to each other, for reasons previously explained in the theory part. Using the slope and the equation 6, the value of the flux calculated =1.374microWb. Task 3 Area of each of the ferrite columns= 25mm x 25mm =625mm2 (both width and length were 25mm). Length of the closing bar= 10.22cm (mean value from 10.19cm, 10.21cm, 10.25cm) Height of each of the columns= 5.22cm (mean value from 5.19cm, 5.21cm, 5.25cm). Standard deviation for both the measurements= 0.0325cm

One of the main assumptions in this has been that all the parts of the circuit is uniform and is made of the same material. Which is effect ignores any slight breakages in the ferrite yore itself. The reluctance of the ferrite yore was found using slope of the graph for vs i and also by using the equation RF=Ni/. RF was found to be 2.59e05. Using equation 3, the absolute permeability was found to be approximately 2x10-3 and the relative permeability was found to be 1516, this value is roughly twice the amount that was expected. TASK 4 a. Spacer None Spacer 1 Spacer 2 Spacer 3 Width(mm) N/A 2.84 5.81 1.16 V0 with bar and spacer(V) 0.65 0.0475 0.03 0.015 3.6e-08 2.27e-08 1.14e-08 Flux (Wb/ Vs)

Table showing the characters and effects of the spacers.

b. Spacer Reluctance of spacer (x 106) AWb-1 1.12 1.94 4.136 % of total R provided by spacer 99.98 99.99 99.994 Permeability of Spacer Hm-1 (10-6) 4.04 4.78 4.136 Relative Permeability of spacer 3.22 3.81 0.357

1 2 3

Keeping both the tables in consideration, it can be seen that there is no connection between the spacer thickness and the Reluctance of the spacers. Also it can be noticed that the relative permeability is quite low, which means there is a similar permeability to vacuum in these spacers. There are also a few very noticeable trends in all the values. For example the total reluctance dropped in each of the spacers is a lot higher than the Reluctance in the entire circuit, but that is due to the fact that plastic and Perspex like material would provide a much greater block in the flow of magnetic flux across the circuit because of their non-ferromagnetic character. However it can be noticed that the relative permeability of each of the spacers is not that high, this is because it is relative to the permeability of vacuum which itself is not very inclined to letting flux pass. The spacers in this experiment take up the role of resistors or impedances in an electric circuit. And the thickness in this case acts like the length of the resistors which increase the resistance proportionately. The values were obtained by using equations (0), (4) and (3) and also another, where the R value for equation 4 represented total Reluctance for both the ferrite and the spacers. TASK 5 a. The graph corresponding to 2:1 ratio for secondary to primary coil is as follows; here the secondary coils are in series and have the same orientation as the primary ones. This is due to the fact that the current in each of the turns stays the same but the number of turns i.e. coils are doubled.

b. The following is the observed shape on the CRO when the ratio is still 2:1 but the orientation of the secondary and primary coils are opposing and also the secondary coils themselves are parallel to each other.

Scope of the Experiment & Practical Use of Magnetic Circuits

An experiment such as this would enable us to understand magnetic properties of certain metallic and non-metallic material. It also helps in understanding the nature of a magnetic circuit and how it is really similar to an electrical circuit in both form and usage. According to http://www.shinetsurare-earth-magnet.jp/e/application/index.html, it was understood that the future of the automobile industry as well as the present (to some extent) depends quite heavily on the usage and correct operation of magnetic circuits. Whether it is car safety, performance, reducing carbon footprints or just simple braking and accelerating, magnetic circuits are stealing the thunder of electric circuits and previously used more mechanical technology. In the same website it could be found that there are a lot of other uses of magnetic circuits and an enormous bunch of them is in the medical fraternity. In medical imaging, the use of magnetic circuits is extensive examples would be NMRs and MRIs. Magnetic circuits could even be found in electric motors and generators since it can be used as a transformer and it largely increases the efficiency of such motors due to its transformer characteristics. And the most obvious use of such a circuit would be in power plants, where energy is made and spent all the time. As for the scope of improvement within the setup itself, the first and most obvious one would be the ferrite yore in the setup. There are wear and tear in certain places and it also looked like it had been used a lot, which would bring into question how it could affect the magnetization speeds and other related factors. There was no provision of doing an experiment with a different yore to check how it may affect the whole experimental process. Also, for the spacers the samples that were provided were of one thickness for one material of spacer, which resisted the understanding of the effect of different thicknesses. But it can be predicted that much like the character of resistors, the reluctance

would increase as the length of the material in the direction of flow of flux in increased. There is also no way to understand how much flux is lost due to the exposure of the wires in the coil to the surroundings. It may be very little but the flux values are already quite low so a small fluctuation could make a difference.

Conclusion
In conclusion it can be said that there are quite a few takeaways from this particular experiment. None more so obvious and yet important is the fact that any magnetic circuit is, in all its sense and purposes, very similar to an electric circuit (hence implicitly advising new budding physicists like ourselves to not be too concerned when presented with one). Also another major understanding was that the current in these circuits are the major driving force and because it drives magnetic fluxes all around the circuit any non-ferromagnetic material will pose as a very big source of reluctance, which is the analogous quantity to resistance in magnetic circuits. Another take away in this is that the ferromagnetic yore that is used in this experiment may well be considered to be like wires in an electric circuit when spacers are put in. The reluctance provided by the yore in this case is minimal and the ones from the spacers are quite high, which unsurprisingly is also another character analogous to the electric circuit. Wires are made to be such that they have minimum resistance such as to not waste power just to operate. As far as the results are concerned in this experiment, most of the values were found to be within experimental value except for the one relative permittivity value of the ferromagnetic yore which turned out to be far off its expected one. But surprisingly, no other value was affected by this since almost all the other values tended to stick to the literature values provided in the hyperphysics website (which has been a very reliable source, thus far in this course). The summary table of the experiment (on the next page) puts together all the aspects in a very concise manner for convenience.

Task

Quantities measured

Slopes( if found, then the quantity found and value)

Not found

Quantities calculated and their values

N/A

Expectation vs. Results found

Results were as expected.

1 2a

Frequency and sense coil voltage With a fixed frequency, VR,V0 and i were found at 9 different points.

Reluctance found to be 2.59e05, this was used in task 3.

9 values of flux ranging from 0.182mWb to 0.436mWb No other values calculated

Current and flux found to be directly proportional as it was expected. The values are believable and expected.

2b

Voltage and frequency at nine different points

Flux was found to 1.374e-06

L2=L4=10.22(+/- 0.03)cm and L1=L3=5.22cm (+/-0.03)

N/A

Absolute and relative permeability of ore found to be 1.91e-3 H/m and 1516 respectively.

There is a discrepancy of a factor of 2, as the relative permeability should be about 700 as per http://hyperphysics.p hyastr.gsu.edu/hbase/s olids/ferro.html

3 sets of spacer thickness values were measured to be 2.84, 5.81 and 1.16mm respectively and the voltages for these spacers were 0.0475, 0.03 and 0.015V respectively.

The absolute permeability of the spacers were found to be 4.04e-6, 4.78e-6 and

Reluctance values for the 3 spacers found to be 1.39e06, 2.20e06 and 4.39e06 A/Wb.

No real expectations because we were never told what the spacers were made of.

No measurements, just observation of waveforms

N/A

Expectation similar to results

Appendix
The results for task 2 are given below: Table for the results in the first part of Task 2 VR(V) 1 1.125 1.3 1.45 1.6 1.7 1.8 1.95 2.1 2.3 V0 (V) 0.24 0.3 0.31 0.375 0.4 0.425 0.45 0.5 0.525 0.575 (microWb) i(mA) 0.182 0.227 0.235 0.284 0.303 0.322 0.341 0.379 0.398 0.436 1 1.125 1.3 1.45 1.6 1.7 1.8 1.95 2.1 2.3

Table for the second part of Task 2 Frequency 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 Voltage 0.1 0.14 0.19 0.23 0.28 0.32 0.35 0.4 0.45

Error Analysis
TASK 1 The error associated in this part of the task is entirely the possible error in the peak voltage which was assumed to be 0.005V as per the minimum readable scale available. And the percentage error for that was 2.083%. TASK 2 The errors in this part was due to the voltage and the frequency, not by the flux all by itself because of the fact that the flux was calculated rather than observed and the calculation was done using the frequency and voltage errors. The error for the flux was found to be 0.052microWb, which seems to be quite large but that is the maximum possible error when the values of the flux become larger and larger. TASK 3 The error per dimension in the yore was 0.5mm as that was the minimum possible measurement which corresponds to a 2% error and the area, therefore, had an error of 2.83% associated with it. TASK 4 The percentage error in flux and reluctance would be exactly the same as the error in the peak voltage which was 2.083% . The percentage error for the Reluctance of the 3 spacers were found to be 2.9%, 1.64% and 3.8% and the absolute permeability of the 3 spacers were found to be 4.1%, 2.319% and 5.374%. TASK 5 No errors involved in this part of the experiment.