3D numerical modeling and experimental validation of diamagnetic levitating suspension in the static field

Abstract

Diamagnetic levitation principle opens to promising solutions for innovative powerless and low stiffness suspension applicable to many technological fields. The peculiarities of diamagnetic suspension make this design solution very attractive for some applications such as microdevices and energy harvesters. Low stiffness and powerless functioning are the most appreciable characteristics of this kind of suspension, despite their force–displacement curve is generally hard to predict and strongly nonlinear. The modeling complexity resides in the preliminary prediction of magnetic field distribution and in the calculation of diamagnetic forces as function of the levitation height. This work introduces a modeling approach for calculating the levitation height of a parameterized diamagnetic suspension composed of a ground of permanent magnets and a levitating mass made of pyrolytic graphite. The numerical discretization approach is used and the predicted values are compared with experiments providing good agreement between results.