Multiscale Analysis of Heterostructured Electropermanent Magnet in Magnetic Actuators

Abstract

In this work, a multiscale analysis of an electropermanent magnet in an actuator is carried out. The electropermanent magnet is heterostructured magnet composed of hard and soft ferromagnetic materials. Due to the soft ferromagnetic material (i.e., iron), the magnetic feld of the magnet can be controlled by external current in a winding around the magnet. It is expected that the electropermanent magnet can enhance the mechanical force performance of magnetic actuators. For the fast and efcient analysis of the heterostructured electropermanent magnet, its multiscale analysis is proposed in this work. Through the microscale analysis, the homogenized efective magnetic permeability and residual magnetic fux density of the magnet are calculated by applying asymptotic homogenization method. The computed efective properties are utilized in the macroscale actuator model, and consequently the magnetic feld distribution and magnetic force in actuators are calculated. The accuracy and computational beneft of the proposed multiscale analysis are validated by comparing the analysis result obtained by direct fnite element analysis of heterostructured electropermanent magnet.