Analysis and experimental testing of a permanent magnet eddy-current brake

Conventional friction braking suffers severe limitations. The concept of integrated contactless magnetic brake was invented to remedy to these problems. The integrated brake combines a conventional friction brake with an eddy-current brake. The present work includes an analysis of the physics of the eddy-current brake by the means of a two-dimensional analytical model and a three-dimensional finite element analysis. An experimental validation is described and the results are compared to those provided by the finite element analysis.