This is a physics simulation that calculates and visualizes the magnetic field strength generated in the middle of a solenoid with specific values for current, core material, length, and amount of turns.
Usage:
– fill in the input fields with current, core material, turns, and length and read the magnetic field strength at the bottom
– the vertical grid lines are 1 meter apart
– do not put in large amounts of turns per meter as it can crash the simulation because it is generating such a tightly wound coil over several meters is computationally expensive, if it does crash just reload the page
Definitions:
– Solenoid: coil of wire tightly wound into a spring-like shape and when a current is passed through it, a magnetic field is generated.
– Core: material placed inside the solenoid to strengthen the magnetic field generated by the coil due to their ferromagnetic properties
– Current (A): flow of electric charge through the wire in the solenoid, measured in amperes
– Length (L): length of the solenoid along the x or horizontal axis, measured in meters
– Turns (T): number of times the wire is wound around the core per unit length, which is meters
– Magnetic Field Strength (B): measure of force exerted by a magnetic field on a moving charge or magnetic object, measured in the SI unit of tesla (T), millitesla (mT) which is 1/1,000th of a tesla, and microtesla (μT) which is 1/1,000,000th of a tesla
– Relative magnetic permeability (μr) – quantity that defines how easily a magnetic material gets magnetized when exposed to an external magnetic field, it is the ratio of material’s permeability (μ) to the permeability of free space (μ₀)
Relative Permeability μr:
Vacuum: 1
Air: 1
Cobalt: 250
Nickel: 100
Soft_Iron: 200,000
Supermalloy: 100,000
Silicon_Steel: 3,000
Permalloy: 8,000
Ferrite: 300
Mumetal: 100,000
Permendur: 25,000
Mystery (Magnetite): 5
Formula:
B = μ₀ * μr * T/L * A
Where μ₀ is the magnetic constant which is 4π x 10^-7,  μr is the relative magnetic permeability of the core, T is the number of turns per L meters length, and A is the current in amperes.