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Experiment 1 Design & Simulation of An Electromagnet in A 2-D Planar Geometry Using FEMM Software Aim

This experiment models a simple permanent magnet in 2D using FEMM software. It defines a neodymium magnet that is 2 inches by 1/2 inches by 1/4 inches thick. The software is used to define the magnet material, apply a magnetization direction, generate a mesh, and solve for the flux density and field intensity plots. The results show the field lines within the magnet and variations in field strength, demonstrating how FEMM can model permanent magnet properties and fields.

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Nokhwrang Brahma
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137 views5 pages

Experiment 1 Design & Simulation of An Electromagnet in A 2-D Planar Geometry Using FEMM Software Aim

This experiment models a simple permanent magnet in 2D using FEMM software. It defines a neodymium magnet that is 2 inches by 1/2 inches by 1/4 inches thick. The software is used to define the magnet material, apply a magnetization direction, generate a mesh, and solve for the flux density and field intensity plots. The results show the field lines within the magnet and variations in field strength, demonstrating how FEMM can model permanent magnet properties and fields.

Uploaded by

Nokhwrang Brahma
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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EXPERIMENT 1

Design & Simulation of an Electromagnet in a 2-D planar geometry using FEMM


software
Aim:
a. To model a simple permanent magnet and demonstrate how the material and direction of
permanent magnets are defined.

Model and Brief Description:

About FEMM:
Finite Element Method Magnetics (FEMM) is an open source finite element analysis software
package for solving 2D planar and 3D axisymmetric low frequency electromagnetic problems
including both electrostatics and magnetostatics. The program addresses linear and nonlinear
harmonic magnetic and magnetostatic problems and linear electrostatic problems. Several
applications in areas such as electromagnetics, materials science, industry, medicine,
experimental and particle physics, robotics, astronomy and space engineering can be found.
( http://www.femm.info )

Model geometry:

Figure 1: 2" x 1/2" x 1/4" N42 magnet

This example will consider a bar magnet 2 inches long, 1/2 inches wide, and ¼ inches thick,
magnetized through the thickness dimension. The magnet material is N42--the "N" denoting a
Neodymium-Iron-Boron (NdFeB) material and the "42" denoting a nominal energy product of
42 MGOe. The magnet is pictured in Figure 1.
In the picture, the top side of the magnet is a "N" pole and the bottom side of the magnet (which
you can't actually see from this view) is the "S" pole face.

Procedure:
1. Open FEMM software and open a new file (‘Ctrl+N’)
2. Choose ‘Magnetics Problem’ (the problem under study is a magnetostatic
problem) and select OK. The workspace should now appear.
3. Click on the ‘Problem’ tab and choose the appropriate units for the problem
(inches in this case) and select OK.
4. Switch Nodes mode by pressing the Operate on nodes toolbar button . Place nodes at
(-0.5, -2), (0.5, -2), (0.5, 2) and (-0.5, 2) defining the extents of the coil. One can place nodes
either by moving the mouse pointer to the desired location and pressing the left mouse button,
or by pressing the <TAB> key and manually entering the point coordinates via a popup dialog.
Zoom in or out accordingly.

5. Select the line option (Operate on segments toolbar button (second button from the left with
a blue line)) and click on the two points that need to be connected to join them (A line will
appear after the second point is selected). Repeat till the required model for the magnet is
drawn.

6. Draw the boundary by plotting points around the magnet drawing at (3, 3), (-3,-3), (3,-3) and
join the lines.

7. Click the ‘Properties’ tab and select ‘Materials Library’. Select the required materials for the
model. Click and hold on ‘Air’ under ‘Library Materials’, drag and drop it under ‘Model
Materials’. Repeat the procedure for NdFeB magnet. (Under PM Material → NdFeB Magnets
→ Select NdFeB 37 MGOe)

8. Choose the ‘Operate on Block Labels’ tool (icon with the concentric green circles (on the
right of ‘operate on segments’)

9. Click inside the magnet and plot the first point and the next one outside the magnet but inside
the boundary. The result should look like this, (Figure.2)

Figure 2: Model without materials defined

10. Right click on the point inside the magnet and press ‘space’ to enter the material properties.
Choose the block type as ‘NdFeB 37 MGOe’ and set the magnetization direction to ‘90’i.e at
90 degrees and click OK.
11. Similarly, enter the block properties for the point outside the magnet, within the boundary
to be ‘Air’ and click OK.

Figure 3: Model with material properties defined


12. Save the file as ‘permanent_magnet’ at any suitable location and click OK.

13. Generate the mesh by clicking the after saving the file. The mesh with a required
number of nodes is generated.

14. Click on the solve icon , to solve the generated mesh.

15. To see the simulated results, click on the ‘show results’, tab.

Results obtained:
1. The field lines for the magnet are as follows (Figure 4), as one can observe the
lines going from the north face to the south face, (a bigger boundary would show all the lines)
Figure 4: Field lines for the magnet
2. Click on the icon to plot the density plot by selecting the ‘Show density plot’ after clicking
the tool. The plotted values can be for ‘Flux Density’, ‘Field Intensity’, and ‘Current Density’.
Since there is no current or coil defined in this model, current density will be zero. The results
obtained are as follows:

Figure 5: Flux density plot

Figure 6: Field Intensity plot

Conclusions:
This example showed how to define the magnetization direction of a permanent magnet in
FEMM. It is interesting to note that even though a constant magnetization is applied across
the magnet, the resulting field in the permanent magnet doesn't necessarily point along the
direction of magnetization. There is a lot of variation in the strength of the field inside the
magnet.
Resources related to the project:
1. These additional notes might be interesting with respect to understanding
how the operating point of a magnet is related to the magnetization and the
energy stored in a permanent magnet:
http://www.femm.info/Archives/misc/BarMagnet.pdf
http://www.femm.info/wiki/PMEnergy
http://www.femm.info/wiki/Analogies
2. ‘Introduction to Finite Element Analysis’ , Chapter 1,
https://www.mm.ethz.ch/CSM/FEMNotes.pdf
3. FEMM Manual: http://www.femm.info/Archives/doc/manual42.pdf

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