Electric current flowing through a wire wound around an iron nail creates a magnetic field, which caused an iron nail to become a temporary magnet. The nail can then be used to pick up paper clips. When the electric current is cut off, the nail loses its magnetic property and the paper clips fall off.
1. International Journal of Industrial Electronics and Electrical Engineering, ISSN(p): 2347-6982, ISSN(e): 2349-204X Volume-5, Issue-8, Aug.-2017, http://iraj.in ELECTROMAGNETS AND THEIR APPLICATIONS SHAHINKARIMAGHAIE Bachelor of Electrical Engineering, Yazd Branch, Islamic Azad University, Yazd, Iran E-mail: [email protected] Abstract- Electric current flowing through a wire wound around an iron nail creates a magnetic field, which caused an iron nail to become a temporary magnet. The nail can then be used to pick up paper clips. When the electric current is cut off, the nail loses its magnetic property and the paper clips fall off. The students will make an elecromagnet that will attract a paper clip. They will then increase the strength of an electromagnet(improve on their initial design) so that it will attract an increased number of paper clips. The participants will also compare the properties of magnets and electromagnets. However, unlike a permanent magnet that needs no power, an electromagnet requires a continuous supply of current to maintain the magnetic field. Electromagnets are widely used as components of other electrical devices, such as motors. Electromagnets are also employed in industry for picking up and moving heavy iron objects such as scrap iron and steel. We will investigate engineering and industrial applications of the case study. Keywords- Electromagnet, Application, Engineering. I. INTRODUCTION William Sturgeon. If you have ever played with a really powerful magnet, you have probably noticed Electromagnet, device in which magnetism is one problem. You have to be pretty strong to separate produced by an electric current. Any electric current the magnets again! Today, we have many uses for produces a magnetic field, but the field near an powerful magnets, but they wouldn’t be any good to ordinary straight conductor is rarely strong enough to us if we were not able to make them release the be of practical use. A strong field can be produced if objects that they attract. an insulated wire is wrapped around a soft iron core and a current passed through the wire. The strength of In 1820, a Danish physicist, Hans Christian Oersted, the magnetic field produced by such an electromagnet discovered that there was a relationship between depends on the number of coils of wire, the electricity and magnetism. Thanks to Oersted and a magnitude of the current, and the magnetic few others, by using electricity, we can now make permeability of the core material; a strong field can huge magnets. We can also cause them to release be produced from a small current if a large number of their objects. turns of wire are used. Unlike the materials from which permanent magnets are made, the soft iron in II. BAR MAGNET the core of an electromagnet retains little of the magnetism induced in it by the current after the The lines of magnetic field from a bar magnet form current has been turned off. closed lines. By convention, the field direction is This property makes it more useful than a permanent taken to be outward from the North pole and in to the magnet in many applications. Electromagnets are South pole of the magnet. Permanent magnets can be used to lift large masses of magnetic materials, such made from ferromagnetic materials. as scrap iron. They are essential to the design of the As can be visualized with the magnetic field lines, the electric generator and electric motor and are also magnetic field is strongest inside the magnetic employed in doorbells, circuit breakers, television material. The strongest external magnetic fields are receivers, loudspeakers, atomic particle accelerators, near the poles. A magnetic north pole will attract the and electromagnetic brakes and clutches. south pole of another magnet, and repel a north pole. Electromagnetic propulsion systems can provide The magnetic field lines of a bar magnet can be motive power for spacecraft. Electromagnets are also traced out with the use of a compass. The needle of a essential to magnetic levitation systems. compass is itself a permanent magnet and the north indicator of the compass is a magnetic north pole. Such systems often use a special kind of The north pole of a magnet will tend to line up with electromagnet whose coil is made of a the magnetic field, so a suspended compas needle superconducting metal. Because the coils of a will rotate until it lines up with the magnetic field. superconducting electromagnet offers no resistance to Unlike magnetic poles attract, so the north indicator the flow of electricity, no energy is wasted by the of the compass will point toward the south pole of a development of heat, and the magnetic field produced magnet. In response to the Earth's magnetic field, the by the magnet can be very strong. Superconducting compass will point toward the geographic North Pole magnets are used in magnetic-resonance imaging, and of the Earth because it is in fact a magnetic south can also be used for energy storage. The first practical pole. The magnetic field lines of the Earth enter the electromagnet was invented early in the 19th cent. by Earth near the geographic North Pole. Electromagnets and their Applications 60
2. International Journal of Industrial Electronics and Electrical Engineering, ISSN(p): 2347-6982, ISSN(e): 2349-204X Volume-5, Issue-8, Aug.-2017, http://iraj.in V. TRANSFORMERS A transformer is simply two electromagnets which are magnetically coupled together. There is electrical isolation between the two windings, but power can be transferred from one winding (the primary) to the other winding (the secondary) via the alternating magnetic field. They work on AC voltages. The ratio of the secondary output voltage to the primary input voltage is equal to the ratio of the number of turns in the secondary winding to the number of turns in the primary winding. (i.e., Vout/Vin = Nsecondary/Nprimary) The photo on the left is a control transformer, and takes 230Vac in and drops it to 115Vac out for control circuits in industry. You can also turn it around and put 115Vac in and get 230Vac out. III. ELECTROMAGNET Transformers have a kVA rating which is the rated output Voltage times the rated output Amps divided Electromagnets are usually in the form of iron core by 1000. The one above is rated at 0.200kVA or solenoids. The ferromagnetic property of the iron 200VA. The two photos on the right show how to core causes the internal magnetic domains of the iron demonstrate the transformer action using two coils to line up with the smaller driving magnetic field and the AC electromagnet from our electromagnet produced by the current in the solenoid. The effect is experiments. the multiplication of the magnetic field by factors of This transformer was called a Sparker or Ignition tens to even thousands. coil, used to create the spark needed for the spark- plugs in cars from the '30s. It has a few turns for a primary winding, and lots of turns for a secondary winding. The mechanism at the end would open and close the circuit several times a second creating an AC like voltage on the primary (Since it was operated from a 12V battery, and transformers don't work on DC, a method was needed to create an AC type of voltage on the primary coil). The secondary has thousands of turns on it, creating a high voltage of around 30,000V which will arc about 10mm through the air. VI. CURRENT DENSITY AND MAGNETIC FLUX DENSITY Unlike a copper wire, the current density of a current carrying disc is not uniform across its cross-sectional IV. ELECTROMAGNETISM area, but is instead a function of the ratio of the inner diameter of the disc to an arbitrary radius within the Electromagnetism is produced when an electrical disc. The implications of this relationship is that the current flows through a simple conductor such as a current density decreases with an increase in radius. length of wire or cable, and as current passes along As such, the bulk of the current is flowing closer to the whole of the conductor then a magnetic field is the inner radius of the disc. Large discs (i.e. disc with created along the whole of the conductor. The small a large difference between their inner and outer magnetic field created around the conductor has a radius) will have a larger discrepancy in the current definite direction with both the “North” and “South” density between the inner and outer portions of the poles produced being determined by the direction of disc. This will reduce the efficiency and cause the electrical current flowing through the conductor. additional complications in the system because there Therefore, it is necessary to establish a relationship will be a more substantial temperature and stress between current flowing through the conductor and gradient along the disc. As such, a series of nested the resultant magnetic field produced around it by this coils is often used as it will more evenly distribute the flow of current allowing us to define the relationship current across a large combined area as opposed to a that exists between Electricity and Magnetism in the single coil with large discs. The non-uniform current form of Electromagnetism. density must also be considered when calculating the Electromagnets and their Applications 61
3. International Journal of Industrial Electronics and Electrical Engineering, ISSN(p): 2347-6982, ISSN(e): 2349-204X Volume-5, Issue-8, Aug.-2017, http://iraj.in magnetic flux density. Ampere's Law for a basic magnetic field through a coil of wire can be found current carrying loop of wire gives that the on-axis from a form of the right-hand rule. If the fingers of magnetic flux is proportional to the current running the right hand are curled around the coil in the through the wire and is related to the basic geometry direction of current flow (conventional current, flow of the loop, but is not concerned with the geometry of of positive charge) through the windings, the thumb the cross section of the wire. The current density is points in the direction of the field inside the coil. The uniform across the cross-sectional area of a wire. This side of the magnet that the field lines emerge from is is not the case for a Bitter disc. As such, the current defined to be the north pole. Much stronger magnetic term must be replaced with terms discussing the fields can be produced if a "magnetic core" of a soft cross-sectional area of the disc and the current ferromagnetic (or ferrimagnetic) material, such as density. The equation for the on-axis magnetic flux iron, is placed inside the coil. A core can increase the density of a Bitter disc becomes much more complex magnetic field to thousands of times the strength of as a result. The differential flux density is related to the field of the coil alone, due to the high magnetic the current density and the differential area. The permeability μ of the material. This is called a introduction of a “space factor” must be included to ferromagnetic-core or iron-core electromagnet. compensate for variations in the disc related to However, not all electromagnets use cores, and the cooling and mounting holes. very strongest electromagnets, such as superconducting and the very high current Round and Rectangular Flat-Faced Electromagnets electromagnets, cannot use them due to saturation. Round and Rectangular Flat-Faced Electromagnets The factor limiting the strength of electromagnets is are available in a variety of sizes. Flat-Faced magnets the inability to dissipate the enormous waste heat, so should only be used on flat, smooth material where more powerful fields, up to 100 T, have been the entire magnet face is in contact. They can be used obtained from resistive magnets by sending brief in manually operated or automated applications. pulses of high current through them; the inactive Magnets listed utilize 12 volt D.C. current (24VDC period after each pulse allows the heat produced and 110VDC are available by request). during the pulse to be removed, before the next pulse. Standard Leads are 24" The most powerful manmade magnetic fields have Dimensions are in inches been created by using explosives to compress the Pounds pull ratings are maximum on low carbon magnetic field inside an electromagnet as it is pulsed, steel at magnetic saturation. using explosively pumped flux compression Contact us at 800-747-7543 if you don't see what generators. you're looking for in this brief listing REFERENCES [1] Dibner, Bern (2012). Oersted and the discovery of electromagnetism. Literary Licensing, LLC. ISBN 978-1- 258-33555-7. [2] Durney, Carl H.; Johnson, Curtis C. (1969). Introduction to modern electromagnetics. McGraw-Hill. ISBN 0-07-018388- 0. [3] Feynman, Richard P. (1970). The Feynman Lectures on Physics Vol II. Addison Wesley Longman. ISBN 978-0-201- 02115-8. [4] Fleisch, Daniel (2008). A Student's Guide to Maxwell's Equations. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-0-521-70147-1. [5] Martins, Roberto de Andrade. "Romagnosi and Volta's Pile: Early Difficulties in the Interpretation of Voltaic Electricity". In Fabio Bevilacqua and Lucio Fregonese (eds). Nuova Voltiana: Studies on Volta and his Times (PDF). vol. 3. Università degli Studi di Pavia. pp. 81–102. Retrieved 2010- 12-02. [6] Stern, Dr. David P.; Peredo, Mauricio (2001-11-25). CONCLUSION "Magnetic Fields -- History". NASA Goddard Space Flight Center. Retrieved 2009-11-27. [7] Underhill, Charles R. (1906). The Electromagnet. D. Van An electric current flowing in a wire creates a Nostrand. p. 113. magnetic field around the wire, due to Ampere's law [8] Millikin, Robert; Bishop, Edwin (1917). Elements of (see drawing below). To concentrate the magnetic Electricity. Chicago: American Technical Society. p. 125. field, in an electromagnet the wire is wound into a [9] Fleming, John Ambrose (1892). Short Lectures to Electrical Artisans, 4th Ed. London: E.& F. N. Spon. pp. 38–40. coil with many turns of wire lying side by side. The [10] Gates, Earl (2013). Introduction to Basic Electricity and magnetic field of all the turns of wire passes through Electronics Technology. Cengage Learning. p. 184. ISBN the center of the coil, creating a strong magnetic field 1133948510. there. A coil forming the shape of a straight tube (a helix) is called a solenoid. The direction of the Electromagnets and their Applications 62
4. International Journal of Industrial Electronics and Electrical Engineering, ISSN(p): 2347-6982, ISSN(e): 2349-204X Volume-5, Issue-8, Aug.-2017, http://iraj.in [11] Shipman, James; Jerry, Wilson; Todd, Aaron (2009). transformer/inductor core material". Power Conversion and Introduction to Physical Science (12 ed.). Cengage Learning. Intelligent Motion. Adams Business Media. Retrieved pp. 205–206. ISBN 1111810281. September 19, 2014. [12] "Saturation flux levels of various magnetic materials range up [13] Wangsness, Roald K.; Cloud, Michael J. (1986). to 24.5 kilogauss" (2.5 T) p.1 "Silicon steel saturates at about Electromagnetic Fields (2nd Edition). Wiley. ISBN 0-471- 17 kilogauss" (1.7 T) p.3 Pauley, Donald E. (March 1996). 81186-6. "Power Supply Magnetics Part 1: Selecting Electromagnets and their Applications 63
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