Preisach images of a simple mechanical system

TL;DR

This study uses a simple mechanical system to explore whether Preisach maps truly reflect physical properties of magnetic materials or are just effective models, by analyzing hysteresis behavior and Preisach maps.

Contribution

It demonstrates that a basic mechanical model can replicate key features of magnetic hysteresis and influences of parameters on Preisach maps, questioning their physical interpretability.

Findings

Model reproduces hysteresis, coercivity, and saturation.

Preisach maps are influenced by friction torque and spring constant.

Mechanical analogy captures features of real magnetic materials.

Abstract

This work is an an early stage of a larger project aiming at answering the question whether or not the Preisach map is really fingerprinting magnetic materials. More precisely, we are interested whether Preisach model of magnetic hysteresis indeed contains any physics or is just a convenient modeling tool. To this extent we study a very simple mechanical system, thus fully tractable, subjected to the external force. Despite of its simplicity, our model captures all the fundamental features of real magnetic materials, namely their hysteretic behavior, coercivity, remanent magnetization and saturation at high fields. Both the overall shape of major hysteresis loop as well as First Order Reversal Curves (FORC's) are reproduced quite correctly; they are very similar to those observed in magnetic materials. The model essentially consists of a single, spring loaded, rigid and rotative bar with non-zero friction torque. The length of a projection of this bar onto the direction of an external force is identified with magnetization. The friction torque and the spring constant are the only freely adjustable parameters of our model. Here we investigate, and present, their influence on the inferred Preisach maps.