A SEMINAR REPORT ON EDDY CURRENT BRAKES EEE DEPARTMENT. DEPARTMENT O}ABSTRACT INTRODUCTION PRINCIPLE OF OPERATIONS, THEORETICAL FOUNDATION TYPES OF EDDY CURRENT BRAKES SET UP oe o PARAMETERS AFFECTING EDDY CURRENT BRAKES 3D APPLICATIONS, eo CONCLUSION bo)EDDY CURRENT BRAKES ABSTRACT: Many of the ordinary brakes, which are being used now days stop the vehicle by means. of mechanical blocking. This causes skidding and wear and tear of the vehicle, And if the speed of the vehicle is very high, the brake cannot provide that much high braking force and it will cause problems, These drawbacks of ordinary brakes can be overcome by a simple and effective mechanism of braking system "The eddy current brake’, It is an abrasion-free method for braking of vehicles including trains. It makes use of the opposing tendency of eddy current Eddy current is the swirling current produced in a conductor, which j®gubjected to a change in magnetic field. Because of the tendency of eddy currents to opp, currents cause energy to be lost, More accurately, eddy currents transform more usefiforms of energy such as kinetic energy into heat, which is much less useful. In many neve the loss of useful energy is not particularly desirable, But there are some msi BP ions. Such an application is the eddy current brake. EDDY CURR BRAKING x Eddy current brakes are-immple magnetic devices that consist of a non-ferromagnetic conductor that moves ‘rage magnetic field. An example is shown in Figure 1 where a magnetic field is created in the gap of a toroidal electromagnet, with diameter D. When the conductive dise rotates, eddy currents are induced at an average distance R from the axis of rotation where the pole’s magnetic field moves as a function of the angular velocity of the disk.1 Power is dissipated in the conductive disk by the Joule Effect, which creates a viscous-like torque applied to the disk.INTRODUCTI roblems and in a Eddy currents are one of the most outstanding of electromagnetic induction phenomena. They appear in many teem variety of everyday life situations, Sometimes theysale undesirable because of their dissipative nature (e.g. transforiper 8 generators and motors etc). In many oth cs, however, eddy currents are valuable (metal detectors, a cognition systems in vending vi ‘ores, metallic parts of machines, electricity meters, induction dvens, etc). However, little attention is paid to eddy currents in maq) of the textbooks commonly used in introductory physics courseg\t fey are often dealt with only from a phenomenological point w, and they are considered in some cases only as a topic for optiong\\reading Furthermore, most of the commercially available experimental setups concerning eddy currents treat only their qualitative aspects. This paper presents a set of laboratory experiments intended to help students better understand the phenomenon from a quantitative point of view.o> Above figure is the sketch of eddy currents in a rotating disc. mp erosses represent a steady magnetic fleld perpendicular to the plane of the disc. Accordifgo Faraday’s law, eddy currents appear in those points of the dise where the magnetic fice or decreases, PRINCIPLE OF OPERATIONS: i Eddy current brake works seconded According to this law, whenever a edfltefor euts magnetic lines of forces, an emf is induced in the conductor, the magnitude ich is proportional to the strength of magnetic field and the speed of the conductor. IfgfNconductor is a disc, there will be circulatory currents ie. eddy currents in the disc. According to Lenz’s law, the direction of the current is in such a way as to oppose the cause, i.e, movement of the dise. Essentially the eddy current brake consists of two parts, a stationary magnetic field system and a solid rotating part, which include a metal disc. During braking, 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 dise. Thus the wheels of the vehicle also slow down since the wheels are ditectly coupled to the dise of the eddy current brake, thus producing smooth stopping motionInduced currents appear when electrical conductors undergo conditions of variable magnetic flux. In particular, we talk about eddy currents when bulk conductor pieces instead of wires are involved, There are two basic procedures to achieve such conditions’ + exerting a time-varying magnetic field on a static piece; + exerting a steady magnetic field on a moving one, An example of the latter class will be investigated, It consists of a rotating metallic dise, which is subjected to the magnetic field present at the gap of an electromagnet, Eddy currents appear inside the dise and brake its rotation. This is the foundation of the electromagnetic braking systems used by heavy vehicles such as trains, buses or lorries, Even in such a geometrically simple case, the pattern of eddy currents is complex. Figure 1 and {&{3how simplified sketches of this pattem, It is easy, however, to obtain an cerns are for the power dissipated by eddy currents. Since the magnetic field B is steady, the, id electric field in each point of the dise is given by £ = v x B, where v is the veloc point [4]. Instead of measuring B directly, we will relate it to the excitation curr gai the coil of the electromagnet, which is easily measurable. For the moment we will as ‘that B is proportional to ex (the validity of this hypothesis, which is not true for tic media, will be discussed later). Then the following proportionality law hold: “At E« lex PN where @ is the angular wage the disc. This means that for any loop of eddy current the induced electromotive forc }eing the line integral of the induced field, is also proportional to colex . Finally, the basic laws of electric current state that the power dissipated in that particular loop is proportional to the square of the electromotive force and to the inverse of the electrical resistivity of the disc. The same holds for the power dissipated in the whole dise: Pe=K ol exp) The Dynamatie® Air-Cooled, Adjustable Torque Eddy-Current Brakes consist of a rotating member (rotor), keyed to a straight-through double extension shaft, and a stationary brake coil. The brake imposes controlled deceleration at variable speeds. There is no physical contactbetween rotating and stationary members. This results in smooth response, thereby eliminating shock loading and extending equipment life. These brakes may be equipped with an optional tachometer generator mounted externally to provide a feedback signal to the brakes controller. ‘The controller provides the DC excitation for the brake coil. The feedback signal from the tachometer generator is compared against a reference signal within the controller to provide accurate, smooth, controlled braking or constant speed throughout the period of excitation. Constant torque can be obtained with highly accurate torque adjustments. The controllers for the brakes are described in the Product Catalog. iquid Cooled Eddy-Current Brake: Liquid cooled eddy-current brakes consist of a rotating member (rotor), keyed to a straight- through double extension shaft, a stationary brake coil and an automatic water piping flow- through cooling system. The Eddy-Current brake imposes controlled deceleration at variable speeds. With the Eddy-Current principle of torque transmission, there is not physical contact between input and stationary members. This results in smooth response, thereby eliminating shock loading and extending equipment life, Eddy-Current brakes may be equipped with an optional tachometer generator mounted internally to provide a feedback signal to the brake’s controller, The controller provides the DC excitation for the brake coil. The feedback signalfrom the tachometer generator is compared against a reference signal within the controller to provide accurate, smooth, controlled braking or constant speed throughout the period of excitation. Constant torque can be obtained with highly accurate torque adjustments, EXPERIMENTAL SET UP: The whole experimental setup 1: de motor with one of the discs attached to it. 2: Electromagnet. 3: de power source for the motor with built-in voltmeter. 4: de power source for the coil with built-in ammeter. 5: Ammeter for the motor.6: Dises of other materi 7: Optical tachometer. 8 Stopwatch A list of all necessary elements follows: +a24V,3 W de motor. Its angular speed is 230 rpm at 24 V when unloaded; + electromagnet with iron core and a coil with 500 turns. The width ofits gap ean be adjusteds +a variable 0-24 V de power source for the motor: +a variable 0-3 A de power source for the coil: + ammeters and voltmeters; + four geometrically identical (200 mm diameter and 2 mm thick) sag nie of copper, steel, brass and aluminium to be attached to the motor axis; + optical tachometer to accurately measure the angular “ fate motor, + electronic stopwatch *\) Many changes in this list are possible. For ro oe de variable power sources can be replaced by a fixed source combined w by stroboscopic techniques, ete. + heostat, the angular speed can be measured This section describes several hn that can be carried out with the proposed yi experimental setup. In all c ical results are included, PARAMETERS AFFECT! DY CURR. 4.1, Braking time of the disc: First of all, the time necessary for the disc to completely stop from a fixed initial angular speed when the motor is turned off can be measured as a function of the excitation intensity. We must keep in mind that the larger the excitation intensity is selected, the larger the vol applied to the motor must be to achieve that initial speed. Figure 3 shows how larger excitation intensities make the braking time shorter as a result of more powerful eddy currents. Error bars have been set to 0.3 s, a typical uncertainty when using stepwatches. Equation (1) implies thatthe eddy current braking torque is proportional to the instantaneous angular speed. However, the results plotted in figure 3 are not suitable for verifying this fact, due to the lack of a known model for the internal braking torque acting on the motor. Therefore, the result of this first experiment cannot be numerically tested Figure 3. Braking time for rg versus excitation intensity. The initial speed of the disc was set a to 200 rpm, Eddy current losses versus angular To test the proportionality between Pe and w2 shown by equation (1) a fixed excitation intensity /ex must be chosen. Then the voltage supplied by the power source of the motor must be varied in order to select various angular speeds. For any chosen speed « of the dise the power consumption of the motor Pin(lex, w) can be calculated as the product of its voltage and intensity. The power consumption Pm(0, o) when the electromagnet is tured off must be computed in the same way. Then the power dissipated only by eddy currents is simply: Pe(w) = Pmi(lex, ») ~ Pm(0, e) (lex fixed). (2)sults are plotted in figure 4, Standard error analysis techniques have been used to calculate error bars, assuming uncertainties of 0.2 V for voltages, and | mA for intensities. As we can see, the constancy of Pe()/2 within our experimental uncertainties is consistent with equation (1). Eddy current losses versus excitation inten: Equation (1) states that Pe is proportional to the square of the excitation intensity in the coil. To verify this result a fixed angular speed « must be chosen. Then the power consumption of the motor for various excitation intensities as well as for lev = 0 must be measured. The eddy current losses are calculated in the same way as given by (2) > Pe(lex) = Pm(lex, «) ~ Pm(0, @) (e tixed), ons ) opm An example to test the proportionality between Pe in the copper disc and 2. The excitation intensity was fixed to 3.0 A.An example to test the proportionality between Pe in the copper disc and [2 ex. The angular speed was fixed to 200 rpm. > Above figure shows a set of typical results. It appears QD Yropoiontiy between Pe and J 2 ex does not hold, especially at low intensities, Nevers, we must recall that the core of the electromagnet is made of iron, ie. a nonlinear ing while equation (1) was obtained under the assumption of proportionality pes oe - In fact, it would be interesting to use a coil alone as a truly linear source of, ictic field, Unfortunately, the absence of a ferromagnetic core results in low me lds and therefore Pe becomes 100 low to be measured with conventional ammeter meters. The influence of disc sain Finally the inverse proportionality between Pe and p expressed by equation (1) can be tested. To carry out such a test, both rotation speed and excitation intensity must be fixed, and the power consumed by the motor with each of the discs attached to it must be calculated. Pe is estimated by subtracting from this power the power consumption of the motor alone turning at the same angular speed (better, a non-conducting dise equal in size to the conducting ones should have been used, but the difference is negligible). Table | shows the results.Dise puicem) PimW) PimW) pP. (nodisc) = 170 = = Aluminium = 34 530 360 1200 Copper 7 770 600 1000 Brass 64 390 220 1400 Steel 2 280 110 7900 A test of the inverse proportionality between Pe and disc resistivity p. The angular ‘and the excitation intensity were fixed t 3, espectiv The constancy of the products pPe must be cautiously ang by Tabulated resistivities were extracted from a general reference [5], and exact coingidente with those of the sample dises cannot be guaranteed, especially in the cass ae ‘As we can see, results for aluminium, copper and brass show a reasonable grgomi8t with equation (1). The ease of steel, however, is clearly anomalous because of its fefagMenetic behaviour. The time variation of the magnetic field applied on every point of the db results in hysteresis loops creating an additional braking effect superimposed to eddy curreQorgue (see, for example, 6]). This is probably the main reason for the high total losses no contact, therefore no wear > no noise or smell adjustable brake force ¥ high brake forces at high speeds > used also as service brake CONCLUSION: As we have seen, our experimental setup allows students 10 investigate one of the most outstanding aspects of eddy currents, namely their dissipated power. Simple tests to measure Pe and to study its functional dependence on the velocity, the sources magnetic field and the sample resistivities have been carried out. The results show a capable but not indisputable agreement with theoretical predictions. Nevertheless the aufag) believes that the experiments deal with concepts, instruments and measurement tee! ighes with high didactic value for the students, regardless of whether the agreement betw a ‘ory and experiments is good or poor.