1032 IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON MAGNETICS,VOL. MAC-16, NO.

5 , SEPTEMBER 1980
THE EFFECT OF THE MAGNETIZATION DISTRIBUTION

WITHIN ANISOTROPIC ALNICO MAGNETS UPON FIELD CALCULATION

Peter Campbell and Saad A. Al-Murshid

Abstract - Magnetization characteristics of an ani- even entirely operate on the major curve. This indi-
sotropic alnico permanent magnet have been measured cates that additional information will be required on
at 10" increments from the preferred to the trans- material properties in the transverse directions.
verse axes. These are shown to correspond to results
obtained in a magnetometer. Although the magnetiza-
tion varies in magnitude and direction throughout the
volume of alnico magnets, the rotation of magnetiza-
tion may therefore be modelled using J vs. H char-
acteristics. In fact, it is found that only curves
for mutually perpendicular directions should be used,
andtheseareincorporatedinarapidmethodfor
modelling these magnets. This new technique allows a
non-uniform magnetization distribution to be deter-
mined from self-demagnetizing fields that have been
calculated using a uniform magnetization distribu-
tion, thus eliminating a lengthy iterative procedure. I
MAGNETK FIELD

INTRODUCTION Fig. 1. Typical magnet operating range on the major

There are three basic methods of calculating the
fielddistributioninelectromagneticdevices:the
use of integral equations, finite difference methods,
and the finite element technique. All of these are
easily adapted to include permanent magnet materials,
provided that uniform magnetization is assumed. The
finite element technique [l] has the additional advan-
tage that easy superposition of magnet and current
sources is achieved and it is also possible to add
eddy-current effects.
Two-dimensional field
solu-
tions using finite elements are well-known, but to
write the energy functional for a three-dimensional
problempresentsmoredifficulty. In any event,
inclusion of a permanent magnet has to assume that the
magnetization vecter J is oriented in a unique direc-
tion throughout the material, although the intrinsic
magnetization curve may be modelled using a variable
permeability function 121, as is the case with soft
magnetic materials.
While it is true to assume that a uniform mag-
netization exists in permanent magnets that have
linear demagnetization characteristic, such as SmCo5
magnetization curves.
The rotation of J due to an applied field I ! is
usuallystudiedinamagnetometer,byrotatinga
thin, circular disc sample in asaturatingfield.
Alnico 5-7 was selected for this study, having a high
remanence and a low coercivity and thus being likely
to display the greatest rotation of J. Provided that
-
H is a saturating field,;,E, and J will be aligned
inthesample,andtherewillbenohysteretic
effect. 2 will then vary with angle of rotation e as
given by [3]
The experimental results in a field of 211 kA/m
(Fig. 2) give close agreement with (1) if Jx=1.344T
and Jt=1.216T, theintrinsicmagnetizationinthe
preferredandtransversedirectionsrespectively.
211 kA/m is the least field to saturate the sample,
allowing a maximum shift between 2 and M during
a rotation of only1.1".
1.160'3 I

and ceramic ferrities, 2 will actually be non-uniform

in magnitude and direction in any material with a
nonlinear curve, such as alnicos and MnAlC, in which * 1.1400
..
.*
there is considerable current interest. The extent of
the nonuniformity will depend upon the topology of the
.* .
. f
**
.*
+ 1.1200
completemagneticcircuit.Thispaperpresentsa
rapid
methodof
determiningthe
distribution
J
throughout the magnet volume, from wEich flux dis- * + 1.1OC?
tributionscan
subsequentlybe
calculatedusing t -

integral equations. * -

ROTATION OF MAGNETIZATION .+ * -
An anisotropic permanent magnet is specified by + f 1.26CS

its properties in the preferred direction only and J

is resolved into J,. Due to the boundary conditions
imposed by a device, J, is not constant throughout
..+. . 1.2U"J

the volume, and so the whole magnet does not operate

at a unique point on the Jx-Hx demagnetization curve, +
f . + 1.2297
asshowninPig. 1. In fact, because J isalso * +
rotated by 11 within alnico materials, and
with similar characteristics, the magnet does not
in others
. 1.2w>

%.VI 150.0' 2CO.CO

Manuscript received March 7 , 1980. e"
TheauthorsarewiththeUniversityofSouthern Fig. 2. Variation of J vs. 8" in a saturating
California, Los Angeles, CA 90007. field of ZllkA/m measuredon a thin discof
This work is supported on grant no. NSG 3243 from Alnico 5-7.
the NASA-Lewis Research Center.
0018-9464/80/0900-1032$00.75 0 1980 IEEE

In practice the vector relationship betweenB,H &
-Jnormal
must be considered and saturation will not b e The
operating condition of the magnet. In seeking
a more practical engin'eering technique for modelling
the material, and equivalence between these results
and characteristicsobtained in apermeameteris
shown.
Using samples of Alnico 5-7 drawn from the same
casting, small lOmm cubes were cut at 10" increments
from the preferred to the transverse directions as
shown in Fig. 3. Complete magnetization character-
istics were obtained for these samples, from which
values of 2 equivalent to 2=2llkA/m were read. These
are shown, together with a solid curve representing
Fig. 2 & (1) in Fig. 4a, the variation at each
belng due to casting flaws in some of the samples.
The results of Fig. 4a show that there is equivalence
betweentestsperformedinamagnetometeranda
permeameter, and that the latter may be used for a
method to model the rotation 2ofwithin a magnet.
1033
PERMANENT MAGNET MODEL
Figures 4a h b were derived from complete curves
at 10' increments, three examples of which are shown
in Fig. 5. Remembering that a generally applicable
engineering technique is desired for modelling the
materials, it is more convenient to plot magnetiza-
tion curves than to plot 2 vs. 8 , particularly if only
the mutually perpendicular anisotropic (x) and trans-
verse (t) directions need be used (there are in fact
two mutually perpendicular transverse directionsin a
three-dimensional model). Curves
may
then
be
obtained from a single sample of the magnet at 0' and
90".
0 In the x-direction, the 0 " demagnetization curve
in the second quadrant will describe the condition of
themagnet.Thisistheconventionallymeasured
characteristic which may be represented by
JX=JXO+I.'OHXXX(HX), (3)

where JXo istheconventionalremanence. In most

permanent magnet devices there will be an axis of
symmetry through each magnetacross which there is no
transverseflux.Forthis reason, in thet-direc-
tions the 90" magnetization curve in the first quad-
rant describes the magnet, since a second quadrant
-
demagnetization curve would vield a finite Jo. This
is represented by (4) and Fig. 6 shows typical values
_3

Jot
of Hx and Ht that would be used to give J, and Jt.
[TRANSVERSE
DIRECTION] (4)

-
t !
LS

[ANIWTR~PIC
DIRECTION]

Fig. 3 . Cube samples cut at 10" increments from an

Alnico 5-7 magnet.

4 Fig. 5. J-H characteristics for cube samples of

Alnico 5-7 oriented Oo, 40" and 90" to the
preferred direction.

30 60
I I
90-
I I
30 60
I . I
90*
ANGULAR
POSlTlON 8. ANGULAR
POSITION 8.
(0). (b) 4
-H

Fig. 4. (a) 2 in a saturating ~=2llkA/m,and (b) Fig. 6 . Utilization of curves measuredin a single
remanent Jo, measured on cube samples of Alnico5-7 sample of alnico to determineJx, Jt from
oriented 8" to the preferred direction, compared Hx, Ht.
with cos28 variation.
Transversemagnetization, Jt,. onlyoccurs in
For a given angle 8, the intrinsic demagnetiza- materials with nonlinear demagnetlzation character-
tion curve is given by istics, and these need to be magnetized after assembly
in any device to prevent recoil operation. During the
magnetization process, the material is saturated in
the x-direction with no Jt component, and then as the
where JO istheremanence,andthesusceptibility applied field is removed, it settles to second quad-
X(H)varieswith fi in a non-linear characteristic. rant operation in the x-direction, and the non-uniform
Comparison of (1) and (2) shows that 250 should also demagnetizing 5 in the magnet only then creates Jt --
varywith 8 inthemannerof (11, since Hz0 at first quadrant operation asshown in Fig. 6 .
remanence.Experimentaldatafromthepermeameter In an actual device, there will be boundary con-
tests is given in Fig. 4b, to which a cos20 curve is ditions dependent upon an array of permanent magnets
accurately matched. thatwilldeterminetheactualdistribution of J
within each. As explained, the rotation of 2 from
1034

the x-direction is due to the self-demagnetization Jto'O, and it is also assumed that tangential fields
field g , which itself may be computed [4] from the J are small enough for operation to be on the initial
distribution and the boundary conditions using linear part of the characteristic, with X, independ-
ent of Ht. As before,

-His the sum of an integration over surface elements

which in the limit yields
ds and volume elements of dV of permanent magnets, r
being the distance from an element to the location of
-
H. Without a non-uniform magnetization, V.J=O, and
the volume integral disappears, considerably simpli-
fying (5).
Becauseis
calculated
from J, and Jwill Since Jtl= POHtlXt, and Ht2 and Htn are not zero,
influence !, we may be led to an iterative solution Ht2=Htl, andall successive transverse fields have
for J before any air-gap flux distribution may be their initial calculated values. Hence
calculated.Thiswouldbeaverylongandcostly
computation process. However, it may be avoided if it Ht = Htl (11)
is assumed that H, is dominated by local valuesof J, (12)
Jt = POHtlXt
only, and Ht by local Jt only. This will be reason-
able
since (5) represents an inverse
square-law Clearly Jt=O if xt=o, as is the case with ceramic
field. ferrite and rare earth magnets,so V.J=O in ( 5 ) .
Consider using a uniform magnetization Jxo for
the initial calculation of field. The field computa- CONCLUSIONS
tion of Hxl locally at Jxois given by (5) as
The technique described here does not entirely
eliminate the need for an iterative solution, because
an initial self-demagnetizing field within the magnet
is determined from a uniform magnetization Jxoin the
Hxl will reduce the magnetization to Jxl, a value anisotropic direction. This may be achieved via (7),
less than the remanence Jxo used to find it. Succes- or from finite difference equations for scalar mag-
sive calculations follow and in general, netic potential. The magnetization curves Xx(H,) and
xt are used in ( 1 0 ) and (12) to give a final J dlstri-
bution throughout the magnet. Only by computing flux
distributions from this using (5) can the technique be
demonstrated.
The fixed geometry in ( 6 ) and (7) may be eliminated A detailed evaluation of this method must be
considering the dominance of local Jx on H,, giving postponedforasubsequentpaper,althoughsome
typical results are given in Fig. 7 for the field
Hx(n+l )/Hxl=Jxn/JxO (8) calculated in the 'air-gap of an axial-field motor
having six circular Alnico 5-7 poles [4]. Using the
,J is just the n-th calculation of J,, which is center-line of one magnet as the axis, the radial and
related to Hxn by (3). Substituting this into (5) circumferentialdirectionsweretaken asthetwo
yields mutually
perpendicular
transverse
directions,
governed by ( 4 ) .

therefore

In the limit,Hx(n+l) - Hxn to, hence

In this expression, the final field in the x-direction Fig. 7. Air-gap field distribution over one pole
isfound approximatelybycalculatingtheinitial pitch of an axial-field motor with circular
valueHxlduetouniformmagnetization Jxo, and Alnico 5-7 magnets between active radii r1,r2.
solvingwith
thesusceptibility functionXx(Hx)
describing the characteristics. The resulting field REFERENCES
Hx=Hxn from (9) is substituted in ( 3 ) to give the
actual magnetization. [l] Silvester, P., and Chari, M.V.K., "Finite
ElementSolutionofSaturableMagneticField
Problems", IEEE Trans. PAS-89,1642 (1970).
[ 2 ] Binns,K.J., Jabbar, M.A.and Barnard, W., "A
rapidmethodofcomputationofthemagnetic
It is clear from this that a linear demagnetization fikld of permanent magnets", IEEE Trans. MAG-11,
characteristicwith Xx(Hx)=O
gives Jx=Jxo
as 1538., (1975).
. ~.
expected. [31 Nesbitt, E.A., Williams, H.J. and Bozorth, R.M.,
In the tangential directions, (4) is used in the "Factors
determining
the
permanent
magnet
same way to yield properties of single crystals of Fe2NiAl", J.
Appl. Phys., 2,1014, (1954).
[41 Campbell, P., "The
magnetic
circuit
of
an
axial-fieldd.c.
electrical
machine",
IEEE
Here we are using a hypothetical initial Jtl, since Trans., MAG-11, 1541, (1975).