A passive eddy current damper for vibration suppression of a force sensor

High performance force sensors often encounter the problem of vibrations during the process of calibration and measurement. To address this problem, this paper presents a novel passive eddy current damper (ECD) for vibration suppression. The conceived ECD utilizes eight tubular permanent magnets, arranged in Halbach array, and a conductive copper rod to generate damping. The ECD does not require an external power supply or any other electronic devices. In this paper, an accurate, analytical model for calculating the magnetic field distribution and damping coefficient is developed. The dynamics of the system is obtained by applying an energy method and an equivalent pseudo-rigid-body model. Moreover, finite element simulations are conducted to optimize the design. Experiments are carried out to validate the effectiveness of the design. The results indicate that the proposed ECD has a damping coefficient of 4.3 N s m−1, which can provide a sufficient damping force to quickly suppress the sensor’s vibration within 0.1 s. (Some figures may appear in colour only in the online journal)