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)
“The Father and His angelic hierarchy
That made the magnitude and glory there
Stood in the circuit of a needle’s eye.”
—William Butler Yeats (1865–1939)