Repulsion of Steel in the Presence of Magnetic Fields: Simulation and Experimentation

Internal benchmarking of magnetic force distributions in magnetic field simulation led to the observation of configurations where there was static repulsion of steel in the presence of a permanent magnet. The presentation will demonstrate the process of exploring this phenomenon with magnetic field simulation software, the fabrication of some simple devices to confirm the simulated results, further simulation guided by observation of the devices in action, and finally the design of much stronger repulsion devices than initially predicted.

This is a case study in ways that simulation enhances design besides simply replacing physical prototyping. Some fun desktop toys that resulted from the study will be demonstrated.