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THE MAGNETIC FIELD ABOUT A THREE-DIMENSIONAL BLOCK NEODYMIUM MAGNET

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  22 June 2020

GRAHAM WEIR*
Affiliation:
Massey University Manawatu, Private Bag 11 222, Palmerston North4442, New Zealand
GEORGE CHISHOLM
Affiliation:
GNS Science, PO Box 30-368, Lower Hutt5040, New Zealand; e-mail G.Chisholm@gns.cri.nz, J.Leveneur@gns.cri.nz
JEROME LEVENEUR
Affiliation:
GNS Science, PO Box 30-368, Lower Hutt5040, New Zealand; e-mail G.Chisholm@gns.cri.nz, J.Leveneur@gns.cri.nz

Abstract

Neodymium magnets were independently discovered in 1984 by General Motors and Sumitomo. Today, they are the strongest type of permanent magnets commercially available. They are the most widely used industrial magnets with many applications, including in hard disk drives, cordless tools and magnetic fasteners. We use a vector potential approach, rather than the more usual magnetic potential approach, to derive the three-dimensional (3D) magnetic field for a neodymium magnet, assuming an idealized block geometry and uniform magnetization. For each field or observation point, the 3D solution involves 24 nondimensional quantities, arising from the eight vertex positions of the magnet and the three components of the magnetic field. The only unknown in the model is the value of magnetization, with all other model quantities defined in terms of field position and magnet location. The longitudinal magnetic field component in the direction of magnetization is bounded everywhere, but discontinuous across the magnet faces parallel to the magnetization direction. The transverse magnetic fields are logarithmically unbounded on approaching a vertex of the magnet.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
© Australian Mathematical Society 2020

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