Measuring magnetic properties of ferromagnetic materials

João Francisco Borin, and Oswaldo Baffa

Citation: American Journal of Physics 66, 449 (1998); doi: 10.1119/1.19074

View online: https://doi.org/10.1119/1.19074
View Table of Contents: http://aapt.scitation.org/toc/ajp/66/5
Published by the American Association of Physics Teachers

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Measuring magnetic properties of ferromagnetic materials
João Francisco Borin and Oswaldo Baffa
Department of Physics and Mathematics, Faculdade de Filosofia, Ciências e Letras de Ribeirão Preto,
University of São Paulo, 14040-901 Ribeirão Preto, SP, Brazil
~Received 23 January 1997; accepted 26 August 1997!

I. INTRODUCTION as a function of H and using Eq. ~1!, the B field can be

Experiments at the undergraduate level dealing with the
magnetic properties of materials are usually scarce in elec-
tricity and magnetism experimental course programs. The
classic method of using a ballistic galvanometer1,2 to mea-
sure the magnetization is seldom performed presently. One
of the few experiments still done is a demonstration of the
hysteresis loop on the oscilloscope by means of the Rowland
ring.3–7 It is possible to derive relations between the induc-
tance (L), magnetic permeability ~m!, and magnetization
(M ) as a function of the magnetic field. Normally alternating
current bridge methods are used to determine the self-
inductance L, and then the permeability m is derived. In this
study we implemented this method to study different types of
magnetic materials with a simpler instrumentation and nu-
merical calculations performed with a spreadsheet.
determined by integration. This is the method used in the
present work.
III. MATERIALS AND METHODS
Inductances were measured as a function of the magnetic
field H by a digital multimeter ~Wavetek DM27XT!.11 Fig-
ure 2 shows the scheme of the experiment: A sample is
wrapped with two windings each having around 180 turns of
# 30 AWG copper wire. One is connected to a variable dc
power supply capable of providing at least 0.5 A through a
30-V protective resistor, R, to create the H field within the
sample. The switch allows for current reversal to sweep H
from one maximum positive value to a maximum negative
value. The other winding is connected to a digital inductance
meter. In the range used the inductance meter operates at 1

II. THE DIFFERENT MAGNETIC PERMEABILITIES

The magnetic behavior of a material can be studied by

measuring the magnetization curve, as shown in Fig. 1~a!.
The saturating, coercive, and remanent fields are indicated
by B m , H c , and B r , respectively, and are important param-
eters of a magnetic material for characterizing its potential
usefulness. Magnetic permeability also has several defini-
tions. The initial ( m i ), normal ~m!, and incremental ( m D )
permeability are some of the common definitions encoun-
tered in the literature.1–3
The B(H) curve can be expanded in a Taylor’s series
around a value H b @Fig. 1~b!#. When a H field variation is
applied to the sample, DB is written as3
DB5 m D DH. ~1!
When the variation applied is sufficiently small, the incre-
mental permeability can be approximated by the normal per-
meability ( m D > m ). Since m 5 m 0 m 1r , where m 0 is the mag-
netic permeability in the vacuum and m r the relative
permeability; the inductance L of a coil wrapped on a toroi-
dal core of magnetic permeability m can be written as8
m 0 m r AN 2
L5 , ~2!
l
where A is the cross-sectional area of the toroidal sample, N
is the number of turns, and l is the length of the coil, 2 p r,
where r is the radius of the toroid.
Thus the measurement of the inductance L as a function of
the magnetic field H allows the determination of the relative Fig. 1. ~a! Hysteresis loop with the remanent field B r and coercive field H c
magnetic permeability ( m r ) as a function of the magnetic and saturation values H m and B m . ~b! Part of the magnetization curve and
field H. 9,10 Knowing how the magnetic permeability varies the definitions of the different magnetic permeabilities.

449 Am. J. Phys. 66 ~5!, May 1998 © 1998 American Association of Physics Teachers 449

Fig. 2. The experimental setup employed for the experiment. The induc-
tance meter is a hand held multimeter capable of measuring inductances in
the range from 0.1 mH to 20 H.
kHz and provides a digital reading with 5% precision. The
current provided by the inductance meter is very small, sat-
isfying the condition that m D > m .
Commercial silicon iron transformer sheets12 of oriented
~OG; 1.2-mm thickness! and nonoriented grain ~NOG; 0.7
mm-thickness! were cut in strips and formed into rings by
spot welding the ends. For the oriented grain samples the
strips were cut in the longitudinal ~parallel!, transverse ~or
perpendicular!, and 45° direction ~OGL, OGT, and OG-45°!.
Before each measurement the samples were demagnetized by
Fig. 3. The relative permeability m r as a function of the H field for the iron silicon transformer sheets of nonoriented grain and oriented grain in different
directions in relation to the applied field.
450 Am. J. Phys., Vol. 66, No. 5, May 1998
connecting one of the windings to a VARIAC and increasing
the ac voltage from 0 to 10 V and then slowly decreasing it
to zero.
IV. RESULTS AND DISCUSSIONS
Figure 3~a!–~d! shows the m r vs H curves for the silicon
iron sheets in the four orientations measured. The values of
the permeability are different for the materials with nonori-
ented and oriented grain and also for the measurements made
at different orientations of the sample with oriented grains.
The intensity of the H field was strong enough to saturate
only the samples with oriented grain in the parallel and 45°
direction, as can be seen by the almost constant values of the
permeability m r above 200 A/m for some branches of the m r
vs H curve. The maximum values of the permeability are the
ones expected for the orientation and type of material in-
creasing in the following order NOG,OGT,OG-45°
,OGL, showing that the oriented material performs better
even when the field is in the perpendicular direction to the
grain orientation. Because saturation was obtained only for
Apparatus and Demonstration Notes 450
 Fig. 4. The hysteresis curve B vs H obtained after numerical integration of the magnetic permeability shown in Fig. 3.
the material with grain oriented in the parallel and 45° direc-
tions a comparison of magnetic parameters is possible only
in these two orientations.
The B vs H curves, obtained after integration of the data
shown in Fig. 3, are shown in Fig. 4~a!–~d!. It can be seen
that the easiest material to saturate is the silicon iron with
oriented grains in the parallel direction followed by the ori-
ented grain at 45°. The other plots don’t show saturation of
the B vs H curve, as was noticed before in the m r vs H
curves.
The saturation B field for the oriented grain samples is in
the range between 0.19 and 0.29 T for the oriented grain
samples and is 0.08 T for the nonoriented grain sample, the
respective H field range is shown in each figure. The area of
the hysteresis loop can also be calculated giving a variation
of energy density h in a cycle and the value obtained for the
parallel direction is 22 J/m3 compared to 24 J/m3 in the 45°
direction.
We could not find values of the magnetic permeability at 1
kHz in the literature to compare with the present values.
Some caution must be taken when comparing data obtained
with the present method with the ones found in the literature
because the frequency can be different. Moreover, the
samples were made by spot welding the ends of strips, which
can lead to small flux leakage that can make the permeability
451 Am. J. Phys., Vol. 66, No. 5, May 1998
lower than that of the material itself. A thermal annealing
after welding would be necessary to recover the full perme-
ability of the material. In summary, it was shown that a
simple and inexpensive arrangement can be employed to
study the magnetic properties of ferromagnetic materials.
The method also allows the opportunity to discuss the effects
of eddy currents and flux leakage in the values obtained for
the magnetic permeability.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
We are grateful to ACESITA for providing us with the
silicon-iron sheets and to M. Oliva, E. Navas, and J. Aziani
for technical support. Financial support from CNPq, CAPES,
and FAPESP is also appreciated.
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452 Am. J. Phys., Vol. 66, No. 5, May 1998 Apparatus and Demonstration Notes 452