STUDYING THE EFFECT OF FERROMAGNETIC MATERIAL TYPE ON HYSTERESIS BRAKE PERFORMANCE

Mechanical brake systems usually suffer from major defects such as friction, noise, high wear rate, lack of accuracy, and lack of smoothness, so it has become necessary to replace them with alternative braking technologies that address these problems. One such technology is the hysteresis brake. This brake is one of the unique and effective braking technologies that uses the principle of magnetic hysteresis to generate braking force. It has features such as powerful torque, silent operation, no wear parts or mechanical friction, precise control, and no need for regular maintenance. The most influential aspect of the performance of the hysteresis braking system is the material that is used to make the brake disk. In this study, the COMSOL Multiphysics platform was applied to analyze the impact of four types of magnetic materials: cobalt, nickel, neodymium, and iron on the performance of the braking system. This was achieved by studying the equations of the governing braking system. This system proves to be great in determining the braking parameters to ensure that a good choice in terms of coil, core, and magnet specifications is made to enable good performance. These parameters were determined after numerous experiments and watching the outcome. Effects of material properties, including permeability, electrical conductivity, and thermal conductivity, on the braking force and system efficiency were studied by simulation through the use of the finite element analysis (FEM) method. It was demonstrated that neodymium is the best core material used in this brake, due to its high magnetic permeability and excellent electrical conductivity. Neodymium enhances the brake with maximum braking force superior to cobalt, nickel, and iron materials by 20, 100, 150%, respectively. The results also showed that using cobalt cores leads to improved design, as it generates the highest braking efficiency under load, with a value ranging between 90-98%.