Application of Eddy Current Damping Effect to Design a Novel Magnetic Damper

With advantages of no mechanical contact, vacuum compatibility, oil-free, and high reliability, an eddy current damper (ECD) is designed for use in space. To obtain perfect damping characteristics, a conductor as an outer copper tube and two stationary plates, and an array of axially magnetized ring-shaped permanent magnets separated by iron pole pieces as a mover are used in the proposed ECD. Among the outer conductor tube, a steel tube is used to prevent the electromagnetic leakage. Since the generated eddy currents create are pulsive force that is proportional to the velocity of the conductor, the moving magnet and conductor behave like a viscous damper. An accurate analytical model based on the electromagnetic theory for this type of eddy current damper is proposed, and a finite-element method (FEM) is carried out to predict the magnetic field and current density.