Eddy Current Levitation in Ferromagnetic Structures

The efficiency of electromagnetic levitation devices can be improved by shortening the path of the magnetic flux which can be done by employing a magnetic circuit. The eddy currents are computed using an integral equation, and the ferromagnetic materials nonlinearity is treated by applying the polarization fixed point iterative method, with a dynamic overrelaxation technique. To substantially reduce the computation time, the eddy current integral equation is solved in the frequency domain, with supplementary terms added to account for the motion, and in the equation of motion an average magnetic force over a period is considered.