A magnetic circuit is made up of one or more closed loop paths containing a magnetic flux. The flux is usually generated by permanent magnets or electromagnets and confined to the path by magnetic cores consisting of ferromagnetic materials like iron, although there may be air gaps or other materials in the path. Magnetic circuits are employed to efficiently channel magnetic fields in many devices such as electric motors, generators, transformers, relays, lifting electromagnets, SQUIDs, galvanometers, and magnetic recording heads.
The concept of a "magnetic circuit" exploits a one-to-one correspondence between the equations of the magnetic field in an unsaturated ferromagnetic material to that of an electrical circuit. Using this concept the magnetic fields of complex devices such as transformers can be quickly solved using the methods and techniques developed for electrical circuits.
Some examples of magnetic circuits are:
- horseshoe magnet with iron keeper (low-reluctance circuit)
- horseshoe magnet with no keeper (high-reluctance circuit)
- electric motor (variable-reluctance circuit)
Read more about Magnetic Circuit: Magnetomotive Force (MMF), Magnetic Flux, Hopkinson's Law: The Magnetic Analogy To Ohm's Law, Reluctance, Microscopic Origins of Reluctance, Summary of Analogy Between Magnetic Circuits and Electrical Circuits, Limitations of The Analogy, Circuit Laws, History, Applications
Famous quotes containing the words magnetic and/or circuit:
“We are in great haste to construct a magnetic telegraph from Maine to Texas; but Maine and Texas, it may be, have nothing important to communicate.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“We are all hostages, and we are all terrorists. This circuit has replaced that other one of masters and slaves, the dominating and the dominated, the exploiters and the exploited.... It is worse than the one it replaces, but at least it liberates us from liberal nostalgia and the ruses of history.”
—Jean Baudrillard (b. 1929)