Investigation of measurement method of saturation magnetization of iron core material using electromagnet

This paper discusses a measurement method for saturation magnetizations of iron core materials using an electromagnet, which can apply an extremely large magnetic field strength to a specimen. It is said that electrical steel sheets are completely saturated at such a large magnetic field strength over about 100 kA/m. The saturation magnetization can be obtained by assuming that the completely saturated specimen shows a linear change of the flux density with the magnetic field strength because the saturation magnetization is constant. In order to accurately evaluate the flux density in the specimen, an air flux between the specimen and a winding of B-coil for detecting the flux density is compensated by utilizing an ideal condition that the incremental permeability of saturated specimen is equal to the permeability of vacuum. An error of magnetic field strength caused by setting a sensor does not affect the measurement accuracy of saturation magnetization. The error is conveniently cancelled because the saturation magnetization is a function of a ratio of the magnetic field strength to its increment. It may be concluded that the saturation magnetization can be easily measured with high accuracy by using the proposed method.