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Eddy current braking experiment using brake

disc from aluminium series of A16061 and
A17075

Article in IOP Conference Series Materials Science and Engineering · September 2012
DOI: 10.1088/1757-899X/36/1/012005

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 International Review of Mechanical Engineering (I.RE.M.E.), Vol. xx, n. x

Electromagnetic Braking System Using Eddy Current for Brake

Disc of Al6061 and Al7075

M.Z. Baharom1,2,a,b, M.Z. Nuawi1,c, G. Priyandoko2,d, S.M. Haris1,e

Abstract – The behaviour of electromagnetic braking using eddy current was studied. Started
with preliminary study investigating 3 different materials of aluminium, copper and zinc to choose
the best material as brake disc. It also looks on effects of increasing current induced into
electromagnet. Aluminium performs better copper and zinc, and then the study continues using two
different series of aluminium which are Al6061 and Al7075. A few parameters been varied such as
air-gap, brake disc thickness, number of electromagnet turns and voltage supplied to DC motor.
For the purpose of recording speed (rpm) and time (s), an optical tachometer connected to PULSE
analyzer been used. Graphs presented to show the behaviour and reaction of parameters involved,
including the calculation of braking torque that been generated using previous study equation.
From this study, it can be concluded that Al6061 have greater performance than Al7075 as the
brake disc material. It also founded that the thicker the disc, small air-gap, large number of
electromagnet turns and increasing the current induced will increase the performance of this
electromagnetic braking. All parameters that been studied show significant effects to be
considered in developing electromagnetic braking to replace the conventional braking system.
Copyright © 2009 Praise Worthy Prize S.r.l. - All rights reserved.

Keywords: Eddy Current, Al6061, Al7075, Braking Torque

system. The conventional type brake system which uses a

I. Introduction
The growth of automotive industry nowadays is very
fast. Technology been invented in higher level to be
competitive in this industry. Besides, the automotive
player currently aims for an environmental friendly in
producing any model of vehicles. Automotive
manufacturers currently compete to build car with great
engine performance, safety, reliable and modern design.
As vehicle speed increases, a more powerful brake
system is required to ensure vehicle safety and its
reliability [1].
Towards green technology, the needs to a new braking
system to replace the conventional braking using brake
pad are essential. Our environment has been polluted
everyday while we do braking. Brake pad is producing
wear debris during braking. Brake wear debris represent
obviously potential hazard to environment [2]. Wear
debris contains several hazardous elements that may
interact with DNA of living organisms and cause
carcinogenesis [3]. Besides that, copper from brake pad
wear also find its way into stormwater and tributaries
feeding into San Francisco Bay, killing invertebrates,
algae and harming fish [4]. A few researchers also
identified few problems with the conventional braking
hydraulic system has many problems such as time delay
response due to pressure build-up, brake pad wear due to
contact movement and bulky size [1].
Electromagnetic braking using eddy current is a
contactless brake which could be an option to overcome
this matter. It can reduce the wear of brake pad, vibration
and it is environmental friendly. Therefore, these
advantages give us hope for a new exploration and
invention of green technology braking system.
An eddy current is induced around the pole area when
magnetic flux goes through a rotating conductive disc
[1]. It will produce a retarding braking force which
comes from the interaction between the eddy current and
magnetic flux. The motion been slow down by the
magnetic drag force that has been produced while a
conducting material is moving through a stationery
magnet, otherwise. The changing magnetic field will
induce eddy current in the conductor. These currents will
dissipate energy in the conductor and generate drag foce
[5].
Realizing the environmental and safety issue towards
conventional braking system, this research was
conducted to study the behaviour of electromagnetic
braking using eddy current. Based on previous research
[6], a test rig has been developed to study a few

Manuscript received January 2007, revised January 2007 Copyright © 2007 Praise Worthy Prize S.r.l. - All rights reserved
 M.Z. Baharom, M.Z. Nuawi, G. Priyandoko, S.M. Haris

parameters in this type of braking. There are two stages

in this study which started with material comparison
using brake disc made from aluminium, copper and zinc.
The second stage of this study has been expanded
using two series of aluminium which are Al6061 and
Al7075. Parameters involved are amount of current
induce to the electromagnet, number of electromagnet
turns, air-gap, disc thickness and voltage supplied to the
DC motor. All these parameters have been evaluated for
all materials involved in this study.
The paper is organized as follows: Section 1 describes
Fig. 2. Electromagnetic braking using eddy current braking test rig
the introduction on this project while section 2 presents
the experimental setup. The braking torque analysis TABLE I
described in section 3 while section 4 presents the result EQUIPMENT LIST FOR THE TEST RIG
and discussion. Finally, the paper is concluded in section
Equipment Specification
5.
DC power supply 0-30V
for motor
II. Experimental setup DC power supply 0-10A
for electromagnet
Based on a laboratory experiments conducted by Optical Model MM0024
Gonzalez, a test rig has been developed to study the Tachometer
Pulse Analyzer Model 3560D
behaviour of this electromagnetic braking using eddy Multimeter 400 mV – 1000 V, 4 A – 10 A
current. A few modifications have been made in the test Electromagnet 50, 250 (turns)
rig. This study use an optical tachometer connected to DC motor 0-24V, 0-230rpm
PULSE analyzer to record the angular speed (rpm) and
time (s) instead of using digital tachometer and
stopwatch previously. PULSE analyzer captured the Zinc Aluminium Copper
speed (rpm) versus time (s) precisely.

Fig. 3. Three different disc materials of zinc, aluminium and copper

Al7075 Al6061

Fig. 1. 3D view of electromagnetic braking using eddy current test rig

Fig.1 shows the 3D view of the test rig design for this
study which drawn using SOLIDWORKS, while Fig.2
shows the real view of the test rig in the lab during the
test. Table I presented the equipment list that been used
for this experiment.
Fig. 4. Two different series of Al6061 and Al7075
Fig.3 shows three different disc materials of zinc,
aluminium and copper that been in the first stage of this
study. The disc is 1 mm of thickness and 190 mm in
diameter. Fig.4 illustrated the two different disc materials
of Al6061 and Al7075. Both discs were tested in 4 mm
and 5 mm of thickness with 190 mm in diameter. The
design parameters for this experiment been described in
Table II. Here, air-gap, number of electromagnet turns,

Copyright © 2007 Praise Worthy Prize S.r.l. - All rights reserved International Review of Mechanical Engineering, Vol. xx, n.
x
 M.Z. Baharom, M.Z. Nuawi, G. Priyandoko, S.M. Haris

disc thickness, current induced and voltage supplied for
the motor are the variable parameters for this study. The
maximum permissible current for electromagnet with 250
and 50 turns are 5.0 A and 15.0 A, respectively. For the
safety precaution, we use maximum current of 4.5 A and
8.5 A only for electromagnet with 250 and 50 turns,
respectively.
TABLE II
DESIGN PARAMETERS FOR THE EXPERIMENT
where , R and ̇ are the electrical conductivity, distance
between center of disc and center of pole and angular
velocity of the brake disc, respectively. If all the power
dissipated by the eddy current, Pd which is the power
dissipation assumed to be converted to generate braking
torque [9], which can be expressed as Eq. 3
Pd
Tb = (3)
θ̇

Particulars Measurement
The total power dissipation, Pd can be described [1] as
Eq. 4
Aluminium disc radius, r 190 (mm)
Air gap, lg 1, 3, 5 (mm) 2
Number of electromagnet 50, 250 Pd = ρJ2 ×Volume= σR2 Sdθ̇ B2 (4)
turns, n
Disc thickness, d 1, 4, 5 (mm) Here, indicates the disc resistivity. For the braking
Pole diameter 60 (mm)
Distance between center of 70 (mm) torque calculation as in Eq. 5, S, R and ̇ represent the
disc and center of pole, R pole area, distance between centre of the disc and pole
Pole area, S 2.828 x 10-3 (m2) centre, and angular speed, respectively. The braking
Current Induced 0-4.5A , 0-8.5A
Voltage supply for DC motor 11, 13, 15 (V)
torque [1] can be expressed in the form of
2
Before starts the experiment, the air-gap will be µo n
Tb =σR2 Sdθ̇ i2 (5)
adjusted first. Then, the voltage will be supplied to DC lg
motor which has been attached to the disc. While the disc
was rotated, current will be induced to the electromagnet
and produce electromagnetic field. It will generate the IV. Result and Discussions
drag force to slow the motion. Current induced will be
The first stage of this study is to compare three
increased and the reading captured by the PULSE different materials of disc which are from aluminium,
analyzer is recorded for every increment.
copper and zinc. For this test, it use electromagnet with
To capture the speed deceleration towards time, a bit
250 turns, air-gap of 1 mm and disc thickness of 1 mm.
different procedure been used. PULSE analyzer will Fig.5, Fig.6 and Fig.7 shows the graph of speed versus
record the process in time frame while the current current induced for aluminium, copper and zinc with
induced will be increased constantly until it achieves the different voltage supplied for DC motor of 11 V, 13 V
maximum permissible current. Results then be analyzed and 15V, respectively. From all the figures, it can be seen
using MATLAB to illustrate the relationship between that the speed decelerates for all the materials tested.
parameters tested. Aluminium has the highest deceleration followed by
copper and zinc. Therefore, for this first stage from this
III. Braking Torque Analysis study, it can be concluded that aluminium is the best
material to be used as the brake disc compared to copper
For the braking torque analysis, we’ve followed the and zinc.
analysis that been done by Lee. The iron core shape use
in this study was a round shape in diameter of 60 mm.
100
For this analysis, n, i, lg, and represent the number of
electromagnet turns, applied current, air-gap and 90

Aluminium
permeability of air, respectively. Here, the been taken 80
Copper
Zinc
as 12.568 x 10 -7 N.A-2 . For the electrical conductivity, it
was 2.73 x 10 7 Ω.m-1 and 1.92 x 10 7 Ω.m-1 for Al6061
70
speed (rpm)

and Al7075, respectively [7,8]. In Eq. 1, the magnetic 60

flux density [1] can be expressed in the form of 50

µ ni 40

B = ol (1)
g 30

20
0.5 1 1.5 2 2.5 3 3.5 4 4.5
While the current density, J that been induced at center current (A)

of the pole [9] as Eq. 2 as Fig. 5. Speed vs current for aluminium, copper and zinc with N(250),
lg(1mm), d (1mm) and V(11V)
J= σ(R θ̇ ×B) (2)

Copyright © 2007 Praise Worthy Prize S.r.l. - All rights reserved International Review of Mechanical Engineering, Vol. xx, n.
x
 M.Z. Baharom, M.Z. Nuawi, G. Priyandoko, S.M. Haris

120
aluminium and copper with the use of 250 turns
electromagnet, 1 mm of air-gap, disc thickness of 1 mm
110
and voltage supplied of 11 V to the DC motor. The graph
100
Aluminium clearly shown again that aluminium decelerates more
Copper
90 Zinc than copper disc. Braking performance using aluminium
materials is better here compared to copper. In 30
speed (rpm)

80

seconds, aluminium disc speed dropped from about 100

70
rpm to 32 rpm, compared to copper which dropped from
60
about 98 rpm to only 55 rpm in 30 seconds.
50

40
100
Aluminium
Copper
30
0.5 1 1.5 2 2.5 3 3.5 4 4.5
90
current (A)

Fig. 6. Speed vs current for aluminium, copper and zinc with N(250), 80

lg(1mm), d (1mm) and V(13V)

70

speed (RPM)
140

130 60

120
Aluminium
50
Copper
110 Zinc

40
100
speed (rpm)

90
30
0 5 10 15 20 25 30 35
Time (s)
80

70 Fig. 9. Speed vs time for aluminiumad copper with N(250), lg(1mm), d

(1mm) and V(11V)
60

50
40
0.5 1 1.5 2 2.5
current (A)
Fig. 7. Speed vs current for aluminium, copper and zinc with N(250),
lg(1mm), d (1mm) and V(15V)
Fig.8 shows the speed versus current for aluminium
with electromagnet of 25o turns, air-gap of 1 mm and
disc thickness of 1mm. Different amount of voltage
supplied to the DC motor from 11 V to 15 V. The trend
of the graph is the same but the amount of speed
decelerated increase proportionally with the increment of
voltage supplied to the DC motor. It means that this
electromagnetic braking using eddy current give greater
performance in high speed region.
140
120
100
The second stage of this study continues to evaluate
3 3.5 4 4.5 two different series of aluminium which are Al6061 and
Al7075. This stage also contained the analysis of braking
torque for both series. Fig.10 show the speed (rpm)
versus time (s) for disc in 4 mm and 5 mm thickness of
Al6061 while Figure 11 show the speed (rpm) versus
time (s) for disc of 4mm and 5 mm thickness for Al7075.
Both test use air-gap of 1 mm, voltage supplied of 11V
for the DC motor with 250 turns of electromagnet.
Torque produced on the disc is proportional with the disc
thickness. From Fig.10 and Fig.11, we can see that disc
with 5 mm of thickness has higher negative slope
compared to 4 mm disc. It means that the thicker the disc
is, the better the braking performance because torque
produced on thicker disc will generate high torque which
will approach near the motor torque in order to stop the
disc rotation.
V = 11V
V = 13V 100
V = 15V d = 4mm
d = 5mm
90

80
speed (rpm)

80
70
speed (rpm)

60 60

50
40

40

20
0.5 1 1.5 2 2.5 3 3.5 4 4.5
current (A) 30
0 5 10 15 20 25 30
Time (s)
Fig. 8. Speed vs current for aluminium with N(250), lg(1mm), d (1mm) Fig. 10. Speed vs time for Al6061 with N(250), lg(1mm) and V(11V)

The test continues to capture the speed versus time.

Fig.9 shows the graph of speed versus time for
Copyright © 2007 Praise Worthy Prize S.r.l. - All rights reserved International Review of Mechanical Engineering, Vol. xx, n.
x
 M.Z. Baharom, M.Z. Nuawi, G. Priyandoko, S.M. Haris

100 2.5
d = 4mm
d = 5mm
90
2

80

1.5

torque (Nm)
70
speed (rpm)

V = 11V
V = 13V
V = 15V
60 1

50
0.5

40

0
30 0 0.5 1 1.5 2 2.5 3 3.5 4 4.5
0 5 10 15 20 25 30 current (A)
Time (s)

Fig. 11. Speed vs time for 7075 with N(250), lg(1mm) and V(11V) Fig. 14. Braking torque vs current for Al6061 with N(250), lg (3mm)
and d(5mm)
Fig.12 presents the braking torque versus current for
Al6061 with air-gap of 1 mm, Fig.13 for air-gap of 2mm Fig.15 shows the braking torque versus current with
and Fig.14 with 3 mm of air-gap. Disc thickness fixed at air-gap of 1 mm, 4 mm disc thickness and 250 turns of
5 mm with 250 turns of electromagnet. Voltage supplied electromagnet for Al6061 and Fig.16 for Al7075 with the
for DC motor varied at 11V, 13V and 15V. Braking same parameters. Fig.17 represent for Al6061 with the
torque value increased when we decreased the air-gap. same air-gap and electromagnet turns as Fig.15, but
It’s because the magnetic flux induced in large air-gap is using 5 mm disc thickness while Fig.18 represent for
lower than the small air-gap. Therefore, higher braking Al7075 also using 5 mm disc thickness. As shown in
torque been produced in small air-gap. As we can see Fig.15 and Fig.17, Al6061 has produced around 10 N.m
from the three graphs, 1A of induced current could to 15 N.m, compared to Al7075 in Fig.16 and Fig.18
produced about 2 N.m amount of torque for 1mm air- which just produced around 10 N.m to 12 N.m only. This
gap, compared to less than 0.5 N.m produced by air-gap condition shows that Al6061 has produced higher
of 2 mm and 3 mm, respectively. Hence, it can be braking torque compared to Al7075. Al6061 give better
concluded here that smaller air-gap will produced higher performance for the electromagnetic braking using eddy
braking torque for the electromagnetic braking. current. Al6061 has higher electrical conductivity of 2.73
x 10 7 Ωm-1 compared to 1.92 x 107Ωm-1 for Al7075.
14
This will influenced of greater generation of braking
torque. Besides that, one of the main component of
12
Al7075 is zinc, which has low electrical conductivity.
10 Materials with higher electrical conductivity will
generate high torque to agains the motor torque itself in
8
torque (Nm)

V = 11V
V = 13V order to stop the disc.
V = 15V
6
15

2
10
torque (Nm)

0 V = 11V
0 0.5 1 1.5 2 2.5 3 3.5 4 4.5
current (A) V = 13V
V = 15V

Fig. 12. Braking torque vs current for Al6061 with N(250), lg(1mm) and 5

d(5mm)
4.5

4
0
0 0.5 1 1.5 2 2.5 3 3.5 4 4.5
3.5 current (A)

3 Fig. 15. Braking torque vs current for Al6061 with N(250), lg(1mm) and
d(4mm)
torque (Nm)

2.5
V = 11V
V = 13V
2
V = 15V

1.5

0.5

0
0 0.5 1 1.5 2 2.5 3 3.5 4 4.5
current (A)

Fig. 13. Braking torque vs current for Al6061 with N(250), lg(2mm) and
d(5mm)

Copyright © 2007 Praise Worthy Prize S.r.l. - All rights reserved International Review of Mechanical Engineering, Vol. xx, n.
x
 M.Z. Baharom, M.Z. Nuawi, G. Priyandoko, S.M. Haris

12
Al6061 which has higher electrical conductivity than
10
Al7075 shows great performance of braking torque
produced in this study. Therefore, findings of mentioned
8 parameters from this study are parallel with the theory
and will be the guidance to extend this project for any
torque (Nm)

6
V = 11V
V = 13V
potential application.
V = 15V
4

2
Acknowledgements
0
The authors would like to thank the Universiti
0 0.5 1 1.5 2 2.5 3 3.5 4 4.5
current (A) Kebangsaan Malaysia (UKM) for their support in the
Fig. 16. Braking torque vs current for Al7075 with N(250), lg (1mm) research work.
and d(4mm)
14
References
12
[1] K.Lee and K.Park, Environmental Optimal Robust Control of a
10 Contactless Brake System Using an Eddy Current, Journal of
Mechatronics, 1998.
8 [2] K. Kukutschovaa, V. Roubiˇceka, K. Malachovab, Z.
torque (Nm)

V = 11V
V = 13V
V = 15V Pavliˇckovab, R. Holuˇsab, J. Kubaˇckovac, V. Miˇckac, D.
6
MacCrimmond and P. Filip d., Wear Mechanism in Automotive
Brake Materials, Wear Debris and its Potential Environmental
4
Impact, International Journal of Wear, 2009.
2
[3] O. Uexkull, S. Skerfving, R. Doyle and M. Braungart, Carbide
Antimony in Brake Pads—a carcinogenic component?, J. Cleaner
0 Prod. 13(2005) 19-31.
0 0.5 1 1.5 2 2.5 3 3.5 4 4.5
current (A) [4] R.A. Peters, Environmental Effects of Copper in Brake Pad Wear
Fig. 17. Braking torque vs current for Al6061 with N(250), lg(1mm) and Debris, Brake Pad Partnership, Brake Colloquium & Exhibition,
2008.
d(5mm)
[5] M. Jou, J.K. Shiau and C.C. Sun, Design of a Magnetic Braking
15
System, Journal of Magnetism and Magnetic Materials,
304(2006) c234-c236.
[6] M.I. Gonzalez, Experiments With Eddy Currents: The Eddy
Current Brake, European Journal of Physics, 25(2004) 463-468.
10
[7] Information on
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/6061_aluminium_alloy
torque (Nm)

V = 11V [8] Information on

5 [9]
0
0 0.5 1 1.5 2 2.5
current (A)
Fig. 18. Braking torque vs current for Al7075 with N(250), lg(1mm) and
d(5mm)
V. Conclusion
From two stages of the experiment that has been
conducted, it can be concluded that aluminium is the best
material compared to copper and zink to be use as the
disc brake for eddy current braking using
electromagnetic. Besides that, we may conclude that
Al6061 is better than Al7075 to be used as the brake disc
material for our electromagnetic braking system using
eddy current project. Thicker disc will generate high
torque which will approach the motor torque in order to
stop the disc rotation which in this study disc of 5 mm is
better than 4 mm of thickness. Smaller air-gap will
produce high braking torque and give better performance
to the electromagnetic braking which air-gap of 1 mm
shows the best result compared to 3 mm and 5 mm gap.
V = 13V http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/7075_aluminium_alloy
V = 15V
Simeu E and Georges D., Modelling and Control of an Eddy
Current Brake, Control Eng Practice, 1996;4(1):19-26.
[10] B.Ebrahimia, M.B Khameseea and M.F Golnaraghib, Design and
Modelling of a Magnetic Shock Absorber on Eddy Current
Damping Effect, Journal of Sound and Vibration, 315 (2008)
3 3.5 4 4.5
875-889.
[11] V.V Kickinyov, An Automatic Torque Control System for a
Bicycle Ergometer Equipped With an Eddy Current Brake.119-
12, 2007
[12] B. Funieru and A. Binder, Losses and Forces Due to Eddy
Currents in a Magnetically Non-linear Conductive Half Space.
90:43-54, 2007.
[13] W.H Li and H. Du, Design and Experimental Evaluation of a
Magnetorheological Brake, Journal of Advanced
ManufacturingTechnology, 21:508-515, 2003.
[14] M.Z. Baharom, M.Z. Nuawi, G. Priyandoko, S.M. Harris and
L.M. Siow, Eddy Current Braking Study for Brake Disc of
Aluminium, Copper and Zinc, Regional Engineering Postgraduate
Conference, 2011.
[15] M.Z. Baharom, M.Z. Nuawi, G. Priyandoko and S.M. Harris,
Eddy Current Braking Experiment Using Brake Disc from
Aluminium Series of Al6061 and Al7075, International Conference
on Mechanical Engineering Research, 2011.
[16] M.Z. Baharom, M.Z. Nuawi, S.M. Harris and G. Priyandoko,
Braking Torque Analysis on Electromagnetic Braking Study
Using Eddy Current for Brake Disc of Al6061 and Al7075,
Regional Engineering Conference on Automotive Research, 2011.

Copyright © 2007 Praise Worthy Prize S.r.l. - All rights reserved International Review of Mechanical Engineering, Vol. xx, n.
x
 M.Z. Baharom, M.Z. Nuawi, G. Priyandoko, S.M. Haris

Authors’ information
1
Department of Mechanic and Material Engineering,
Faculty of Engineering and Build Environment,
Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia, 43100 UKM Bangi, Selangor,
Malaysia.
2
Faculty of Mechanical Engineering,
Universiti Malaysia Pahang, 26600 Pekan, Pahang, Malaysia.
a
zairi@eng.ukm.my, bmohamadzairi@ump.edu.my,
c
zaki@eng.ukm.my, dgigih@ump.edu.my, esalleh@eng.ukm.my

M.Z. Baharom Born on 14 February 1984 at

Tapah, Perak, Malaysia.
Degree:
1. Bachelor, Industrial Engineering, Universiti
Teknologi Malaysia (UTM), Malaysia, 2007.
Field of study: Dyamic system,
Electromagnetic braking and industrial
engineering.

Copyright © 2007 Praise Worthy Prize S.r.l. - All rights reserved International Review of Mechanical Engineering, Vol. xx, n.
x

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