Introduction to Magnetic

actuators

Prepared by
Dr. Osama S. Ebrahim
Faculty of Engineering, Ain shams university
Egypt

This lecture note covers

-PM DC Motors/Actuators
- DC Solenoid
 Magnetic actuators are energy conversion devices that use magnetic fields to
produce motion over limited range [1].

Block diagram of magnetic actuator.

Applications:
-Electro-hydraulic valves in airplanes, tractors, robots, automobiles, and other mobile or stationary
equipment
-Fuel injectors in engines of automobiles, trucks, and locomotives
-Biomedical prosthesis devices for artificial hearts, limbs, ears, and other organs
-Head positioners for computer hard disk drives (HDD)
-Loudspeakers
-Contactors, circuit breakers, and relays to control electric motors and other
Equipments.
-Switchgear and relays for electric power transmission and distribution systems.
 Linear PM DC Motors/Actuators
Types:

Swing VCA Linear VCA

Motion in an arc Motion in a straight line
Advantages of Linear PM DC actuators
-Very Simple Construction
-No commutator
-Directly coupled to the loads allowing fast acceleration/decelration rate

Application Example
Hard disk drive (HDD)
An example of a motion control system that uses both a magnetic actuator and a magnetic
sensor is the computer hard disk drive (HDD) head assembly shown below.

The head assembly is a magnetic sensor that senses (“reads”) not only the computer data
recorded on the hard disk but also the position (track) on the disk. To position the head at
various radii on the disk, a magnetic actuator called a voice coil actuator is used.
Elements of Hard disk drive
Four-head hard disk drive from IBM
 Construction of VCA for HDD
The VCA for HDD consist of two separate
parts: Magnetic assembly and flat coil.

-The Coil is made of insulated copper or

aluminum wire and has n turns (n=Z/2).

The magnetic assembly (or housing)

consists of:
- PM (red) - made out of strong
permanent magnet material such as
neodymium. The PM creates normal
magnetic flux in the air gap.
-Steel plates (blue)- made out of un-
laminated iron coated nickel and used to
complete the magnetic circuit as well as
to minimize flux leakage from the
structure.
 Basic Principles
F  L(i  B)
E  L (v  B )
For Z conductors

F  ZBLi  Ki

E  ZBLv  Kv
- By reversing the direction of the current (i), the direction of the force (F) will be
changed.
-If the current is constant, the force will be constant over the stroke length which is
good.
Where
• v= coil velocity (m/s)
• H=magnetic field intensity (A.turns/m).
• B= magnetic field density (Tesla)
• =magnetic flux (Wb)
• Z= total number of conductors.
• E= motor back emf (V)
• F= force (N.m)
 Analysis of Magnetic circuit containing PM
Applying ampere’s law

 H .d  0
We get

H m m   H g  g (1)(a)
N

Assuming

m   g S

then

Bm Am  Bg Ag (b)
Magnetic circuit with PM

Also, we have
Bg  o H g (c)
From (a)-(c), we obtain

Bm  CH m (d)

Where, the constant C is

C  ( o Ag  m ) / Am  g

Solving (d) with the PM

demagnetization curve,
Bm = Fn(Hm)

The steady state operating point

can be determined as in Fig. 5

Fig. 5 Operating point of a magnetic

circuit containing PM (1) Iron core is
neglected. (2) Iron core is included
 Equivalent mmf Method

The PM can be replaced with an equivalent current sheet on two sufaces. Inside
The current sheet, the PM has permeability equal to the slop of the demagnetization
Curve which nearly equal o
The equivalent mmf has ampere. turns in the direction of magnetization

NI  Hc m
The magnetic flux can be computed from

   mmf /  
 Inductance

The inductance of a coil is defined as

L  N / I
The relation between inductance and reluctance is

N ( NI ) N 2
L 
I 
The magnetic energy stored is

Wmag  0.5 BH ( A)

 NI
 0.5 ( A)
A 
 0.5 LI 2
 Current buildup in a coil
When voltage VB is suddenly applied to the coil of VCA which has a resistance R and
inductance L, certain amount of magnetic energy will be stored in the coil
(W=0.5 L i2). Since the stored energy can not change instantaneously, a delay will be
experienced in building up the current i.

VB
i (t )  (1  e t / )
R
The time constant is

  L/ R

Since the VCA force is function of coil current, this delay will deteriorates the
transient performance.
 Improving the linearity
It is possible to alleviate the current buildup delay problem by:
a) Increasing the system damping
-By use of shorted turn(s) concentric to the coil but fixed to the magnet/pole
structure in case of linear DC actuator
-By use of un-laminated steel plates in case of VCA.
b) Use of high voltage and fast current control .

Also
C) Careful magnetic design is needed to minimize secondary effects such as saturation of
pole steel and leakage flux across the air gap.
 Motion control
VCAs are usually used to control motion of an object using closed loop feedback
control system. As shown below, the feedback system contains both an actuator and
a sensor. The sensor output is compared with the desired command and the
difference (error) is fed into the controller. The controller adjusts the actuator input
in such a way to minimize error. It is found that accurate control requires an accurate
sensor.

Basic feedback control system that may use both a magnetic actuator and a magnetic sensor.
 Average Motion times of actuators for
random access devices
An actuator designer would like to have, as a starting point for his design, information such as
the required current, maximum forces, accelerations, etc. Instead, he is often given an
average access time, carriage mass, distances allowed for deceleration in a soft crash and
other system performance information, from which the parameters of actuator performance
must be derived.

Define:
Vc=cutoff speed (max. speed for soft-end stop) < terminal velocity.
a = acceleration/ deceleration rate
dm= maximum travel (seek) distance.
ds = distance for soft-end stop.
m= carriage mass.
ta = average access time = it is the time needed to make a large number of
travels (or seeks) of every length divided by the number of travels. It is assumed
that for each seek, any starting point or ending point on the length of possible
travel has equal probability.
tm = maximum access time.
Provided that the intended control scheme meets certain conditions, an approximate method
exists (ref. 2) for first estimates of performance and as a check for CAD calculations (ref. 3).

This procedure uses trapezoidal speed-time curves and the effects of damping, friction and even
of back EMF are ignored. For the last simplification to be reasonable, the cutoff speed should be
limited to less than about 65% or so of the terminal velocity. Acceleration and deceleration are
assumed to be constant and equal (except for direction).

The cutoff speed is set so that when the VCA coil starts at one extreme end of its travel,
accelerating toward the other end, cutoff speed is reached when 1/6 of the total travel is
reached, i.e., ds = dm/6.

If, at that point, current is reversed and deceleration is begun, the coil will stop after traveling a
total of 1/3 of the total stroke (in acceleration plus deceleration). It can be shown that the time
for this seek (motion) is equal to the average access time. The time required to make the longest
seek, from one extreme end to the other, is just twice this time. For this longest seek, it
accelerates over the first 1/6th of the distance, coasts for 2/3 of the distance at the cutoff speed
and then decelerates for the final 1/6 distance(as shown below). Any seek which is less than 1/3
of the total distance is made by accelerating, then decelerating, with no coasting period,
because the coil never reaches the cutoff speed. A seek longer than 1/3 of the total distance
coasts for a period dependent on distance.
vc = (2/3) (dm/ta)
a= (4/3) dm/ta2
tm= 2ta
Given m, the force can
be determined from
F=m a
The required current is

I= F/k
DC Solenoid (or Relay)
Assuming uniformity of field and a constant gap length,

The magnetomotive force (mmf) set up by the coil is:

Ignore the reluctance of iron core, then we get

 The energy stored in a volume containing magnetic field is

Thus, the energy stored in the air gap is

The mechanical energy produced against the magnetic force is

Furthermore, the mechanical work must be equal to the electrical energy

given up:
The flux exerts force (or torque) to reduce its length in
the air gap, i.e., minimizing the magnetic reluctance.

Note:
The inverse-squared dependence of the
solenoid force with distance is not
adequate for actuators. At the beginning
of the stroke, when the load is to be
accelerated, very little force is available.
On the other hand, at the end of the
stroke, when the load should be
decelerating to a stop, the force increases
dramatically.

Typical
Solenoid force-
distance curve
 Application Example

Start/stop circuit of DC motor with

field loss relay
Text Book pages (578-581)
 References

• [1] J. R. Brauer, Maagnetic actuators and sensors,

IEEE press, 2006
• [2] F. R. Hertrich, "Average Motion Times of
Positioners in Random Access Devices", IBM Journal,
March 1965.
• [3] G. P. Gogue and J. J. Stupak, Theory and Practice
of Electromagnetic Design of DC Motors and
Actuators, available online