Computer analysis of the 10 Tesla superconducting magnet system of the Clarendon Laboratory for the purposes of an open-gradient magnetic separation

Abstract

The results of a computer simulation of the trajectories of paramagnetic particles in a 240-mm-diameter warm bore of the 10 Tesla (T) superconducting magnet facility of the Clarendon Laboratory, University of Oxford, are reported. Calculations of the magnetic force field distribution of the magnet wound of four cylindrical coaxial sections with a various filling factor but having the same plane of a horizontal symmetry indicate that the magnetic force acting on the paramagnetic particles at the bottom part of the cryostat warm bore has a predominantly axial component which is aimed against the force of gravity. Depending on the value of the particles’ mass susceptibility and the magnet current, the axial magnetic force component can exceed several times the force of gravity and thus dramatically influence the shape of particles’ trajectories.