I work in the marine industry with boating, and we deal with stainless steel 316 and 308 stainless a lot. Why isn't stainless steel magnetic?
With its higher nickel composition range, 316 is considered the 'most nonmagnetic' stainless steel. However, an item of 316 stainless steel which has significant welding or machining may be sufficiently magnetic to produce a noticeable attraction when brought near a magnet. 302 Stainless Steel: Austenitic, non-magnetic, extremely tough and ductile, 302 Stainless Steel is one of the more common chrome-nickel stainless and heat-resisting steels. Cold working will dramatically increase its hardness, and applications range from the stamping, spinning and wire forming industry to food and beverage, sanitary, cryogenic and pressure-containing.
Don't try this with your kitchen sink: some stainless steels are magnetic but not all (Source: iStockphoto)
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This is something that I've been trying to find out for a long time. I work in the marine industry with boating, and we deal with stainless steel 316 and 308 stainless a lot. Why isn't stainless steel magnetic?
—Simon
Magnetic knife racks might be good for hanging up your knives, just don't try throwing your kitchen sink at one.
Although knives and kitchen sinks are both made of stainless steel, they're made of different combinations of alloys so they have different magnetic properties.
Stainless steels are alloyed steels, says materials engineer Professor Veena Sahajwalla from the University of New South Wales.
As well as containing iron and carbon, like plain carbon steel, they also contain other components which give the stainless steels superior properties for different applications.
For example, knives are most likely from the 400 series says Sahajwalla, a family of stainless steels that also contains the metal chromium, which makes the knives more resistant to rust than if they were made out of plain steel.
Whereas the kitchen sink is more likely to be from the 300 series. These stainless steels have had both chromium and nickel added, and are easier to form and weld. Some of the 300 series steels also contain molybdenum, which further increases their corrosion resistance, and is why they're often used in marine environments.
But unlike other grades of stainless steel, the 300 series is not magnetic.
The reasons for this come down to their structure.
At the atomic level in a material like iron, which has strong magnetic properties, all the iron atoms are acting as mini magnets aligned in the same direction.
So cumulatively they are all adding to the overall magnetisation of the material, this is known as ferromagnetism.
But once you start adding other components to the iron, things get a little trickier.
'If you've added chromium and nickel,' says Sahajwalla, 'you've got a situation where these arrangements of atoms are clearly going to be different.'
'It's going to not have that nice proper arrangement of atoms, which is what you need to have for good magnetic properties.
'If you've got anything other than that then eventually all these sorts of magnetic fields cancel each other out so the net sort of outcome is that [this type of] stainless steel is not magnetic.'
So why then are 400 series stainless steels, which also contain chromium but not nickel, still magnetic?
'That's because the atoms still have the ability to be aligned in the appropriate manner,' says Sahajwalla.
However it's not just what alloys are added to the stainless steel that determines its magnetic properties. Magnetism is also dependent on temperature, says Sahajwalla.
Even permanently magnetised materials like iron can lose their magnetic properties at high temperatures, in the case of iron at about 770°C.
This is because as you add more thermal energy to the material, the atoms are able to move about more randomly, says Sahajwalla, destroying the kind of order they had previously.
The reverse is also true: it's possible to induce magnetism in some non-magnetic materials by working them at relatively low temperatures.
'Anything that's sort of squishing [the material] down or obviously stretching it out' can force alignment of the atoms, says Sahajwalla.
Professor Veena Sahajwalla was interviewed by Suzannah Lyons.
Published 19 November 2009
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Simplified comparison of permeabilities for: ferromagnets (µf), paramagnets (µp), free space (µ0) and diamagnets (µd)
In electromagnetism, permeability is the measure of the ability of a material to support the formation of a magnetic field within itself, otherwise known as distributed inductance in Transmission Line Theory. Hence, it is the degree of magnetization that a material obtains in response to an applied magnetic field. Magnetic permeability is typically represented by the (italicized) Greek letter µ. The term was coined in September 1885 by Oliver Heaviside. The reciprocal of magnetic permeability is magnetic reluctivity.
In SI units, permeability is measured in henries per meter (H/m), or equivalently in newtons per ampere squared (N·A−2). The permeability constant µ0, also known as the magnetic constant or the permeability of free space, is a measure of the amount of resistance encountered when forming a magnetic field in a classical vacuum. Until May 20, 2019, the magnetic constant had the exact (defined)[1] value µ0 = 4π × 10−7 H/m ≈ 12.57×10−7 H/m.
On May 20, 2019 a revision to the SI system has gone into effect, making the vacuum permeability no longer a constant but rather a value that needs to be determined experimentally;[2]4π × 1.000 000 000 82 (20) 10−7 H·m−1 is a recently measured value in the new system. It will be proportional to the dimensionless fine-structure constant with no other dependencies.[3][4]
A closely related property of materials is magnetic susceptibility, which is a dimensionless proportionality factor that indicates the degree of magnetization of a material in response to an applied magnetic field.
Explanation[edit]
In electromagnetism, the auxiliary magnetic fieldH represents how a magnetic field B influences the organization of magnetic dipoles in a given medium, including dipole migration and magnetic dipole reorientation. Its relation to permeability is
where the permeability, µ, is a scalar if the medium is isotropic or a second rank tensor for an anisotropic medium.
In general, permeability is not a constant, as it can vary with the position in the medium, the frequency of the field applied, humidity, temperature, and other parameters. In a nonlinear medium, the permeability can depend on the strength of the magnetic field. Permeability as a function of frequency can take on real or complex values. In ferromagnetic materials, the relationship between B and H exhibits both non-linearity and hysteresis: B is not a single-valued function of H,[5] but depends also on the history of the material. For these materials it is sometimes useful to consider the incremental permeability defined as
This definition is useful in local linearizations of non-linear material behavior, for example in a Newton–Raphson iterative solution scheme that computes the changing saturation of a magnetic circuit.
Permeability is the inductance per unit length. In SI units, permeability is measured in henries per metre (H·m−1 = J/(A2·m) = N·A−2). The auxiliary magnetic field H has dimensions current per unit length and is measured in units of amperes per metre (A·m−1). The product µH thus has dimensions inductance times current per unit area (H·A/m2). But inductance is magnetic flux per unit current, so the product has dimensions magnetic flux per unit area, that is, magnetic flux density. This is the magnetic field B, which is measured in webers (volt-seconds) per square-metre (V·s/m2), or teslas (T).
B is related to the Lorentz force on a moving charge q:
The charge q is given in coulombs (C), the velocity v in meters per second (m/s), so that the force F is in newtons (N):
H is related to the magnetic dipole density. A magnetic dipole is a closed circulation of electric current. The dipole moment has dimensions current times area, units ampere square-metre (A·m2), and magnitude equal to the current around the loop times the area of the loop.[6] The H field at a distance from a dipole has magnitude proportional to the dipole moment divided by distance cubed,[7] which has dimensions current per unit length.
Relative permeability and magnetic susceptibility [edit]
Relative permeability, denoted by the symbol , is the ratio of the permeability of a specific medium to the permeability of free space µ0:
where 4π × 10−7 N·A−2 is the magnetic permeability of free space. In terms of relative permeability, the magnetic susceptibility is
The number χm is a dimensionless quantity, sometimes called volumetric or bulk susceptibility, to distinguish it from χp (magnetic mass or specific susceptibility) and χM (molar or molar mass susceptibility).
Diamagnetism[edit]
Diamagnetism is the property of an object which causes it to create a magnetic field in opposition of an externally applied magnetic field, thus causing a repulsive effect. Specifically, an external magnetic field alters the orbital velocity of electrons around their nuclei, thus changing the magnetic dipole moment in the direction opposing the external field. Diamagnets are materials with a magnetic permeability less than µ0 (a relative permeability less than 1).
Consequently, diamagnetism is a form of magnetism that a substance exhibits only in the presence of an externally applied magnetic field. It is generally a quite weak effect in most materials, although superconductors exhibit a strong effect.
Paramagnetism[edit]
Paramagnetism is a form of magnetism which occurs only in the presence of an externally applied magnetic field. Paramagnetic materials are attracted to magnetic fields, hence have a relative magnetic permeability greater than one (or, equivalently, a positive magnetic susceptibility).
The magnetic moment induced by the applied field is linear in the field strength and rather weak. It typically requires a sensitive analytical balance to detect the effect. Unlike ferromagnets, paramagnets do not retain any magnetization in the absence of an externally applied magnetic field, because thermal motion causes the spins to become randomly oriented without it. Thus the total magnetization will drop to zero when the applied field is removed. Even in the presence of the field there is only a small induced magnetization because only a small fraction of the spins will be oriented by the field. This fraction is proportional to the field strength and this explains the linear dependency. The attraction experienced by ferromagnets is non-linear and much stronger, so that it is easily observed, for instance, in magnets on one's refrigerator.
Gyromagnetism[edit]
For gyromagnetic media (see Faraday rotation) the magnetic permeability response to an alternating electromagnetic field in the microwave frequency domain is treated as a non-diagonal tensor expressed by:[8]
Values for some common materials[edit]
The following table should be used with caution as the permeability of ferromagnetic materials varies greatly with field strength. For example, 4% Si steel has an initial relative permeability (at or near 0 T) of 2,000 and a maximum of 35,000[9] and, indeed, the relative permeability of any material at a sufficiently high field strength trends toward 1 (at magnetic saturation).
Medium | Susceptibility, volumetric, SI, χm | Permeability, µ (H/m) | Relative permeability, max., μ/μ0 | Magnetic field | Frequency, max. |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Metglas 2714A (annealed) | 1.26×100 | 1000000[10] | At 0.5 T | 100 kHz | |
Iron (99.95% pure Fe annealed in H) | 2.5×10−1 | 200000[11] | |||
NANOPERM® | 1.0×10−1 | 80000[12] | At 0.5 T | 10 kHz | |
Mu-metal | 2.5×10−2 | 20000[13] | At 0.002 T | ||
Mu-metal | 6.3×10−2 | 50000[14] | |||
Cobalt-iron (high permeability strip material) | 2.3×10−2 | 18000[15] | |||
Permalloy | 8000 | 1.0×10−2 | 8000[13] | At 0.002 T | |
Iron (99.8% pure) | 6.3×10−3 | 5000[11] | |||
Electrical steel | 5.0×10−3 | 4000[13][not in citation given] | At 0.002 T | ||
Ferritic stainless steel (annealed) | 1.26×10−3 – 2.26×10−3 | 1000 – 1800[16] | |||
Martensitic stainless steel (annealed) | 9.42×10−4 – 1.19×10−3 | 750 – 950[16] | |||
Ferrite (manganese zinc) | >8.0×10−4 | 640 (or more) | Approx. 100 kHz – 1 MHz | ||
Ferrite (nickel zinc) | 2.0×10−5 – 8.0×10−4 | 16 – 640 | Approx. 100 kHz – 1 MHz[citation needed] | ||
Carbon steel | 1.26×10−4 | 100[13] | At 0.002 T | ||
Nickel | 1.26×10−4 – 7.54×10−4 | 100[13] – 600 | At 0.002 T | ||
Martensitic stainless steel (hardened) | 5.0×10−5 – 1.2×10−4 | 40 – 95[16] | |||
Austenitic stainless steel | 1.260×10−6 – 8.8×10−6 | 1.003 – 7[16][17][note 1] | |||
Neodymium magnet | 1.32×10−6 | 1.05[18] | |||
Platinum | 1.256970×10−6 | 1.000265 | |||
Aluminum | 2.22×10−5[19] | 1.256665×10−6 | 1.000022 | ||
Wood | 1.25663760×10−6 | 1.00000043[19] | |||
Air | 1.25663753×10−6 | 1.00000037[20] | |||
Concrete (dry) | 1[21] | ||||
Vacuum | 0 | 4π × 10−7 (µ0) | 1, exactly[22] | ||
Hydrogen | −2.2×10−9[19] | 1.2566371×10−6 | 1.0000000 | ||
Teflon | 1.2567×10−6[13] | 1.0000 | |||
Sapphire | −2.1×10−7 | 1.2566368×10−6 | 0.99999976 | ||
Copper | −6.4×10−6 or −9.2×10−6[19] | 1.256629×10−6 | 0.999994 | ||
Water | −8.0×10−6 | 1.256627×10−6 | 0.999992 | ||
Bismuth | −1.66×10−4 | 1.25643×10−6 | 0.999834 | ||
Pyrolytic carbon | 1.256×10−6 | 0.9996 | |||
Superconductors | −1 | 0 | 0 |
Magnetisation curve for ferromagnets (and ferrimagnets) and corresponding permeability
A good magnetic core material must have high permeability.[23]
For passivemagnetic levitation a relative permeability below 1 is needed (corresponding to a negative susceptibility).
Permeability varies with magnetic field. Values shown above are approximate and valid only at the magnetic fields shown. They are given for a zero frequency; in practice, the permeability is generally a function of the frequency. When frequency is considered, the permeability can be complex, corresponding to the in phase and out of phase response.
Complex permeability[edit]
A useful tool for dealing with high frequency magnetic effects is the complex permeability. While at low frequencies in a linear material the magnetic field and the auxiliary magnetic field are simply proportional to each other through some scalar permeability, at high frequencies these quantities will react to each other with some lag time.[24] These fields can be written as phasors, such that
where is the phase delay of from .
Understanding permeability as the ratio of the magnetic flux density to the magnetic field, the ratio of the phasors can be written and simplified as
so that the permeability becomes a complex number.
By Euler's formula, the complex permeability can be translated from polar to rectangular form,
The ratio of the imaginary to the real part of the complex permeability is called the loss tangent,
which provides a measure of how much power is lost in a material versus how much is stored.
See also[edit]
Notes[edit]
- ^The permeability of austenitic stainless steel strongly depends on the history of mechanical strain applied to it, e.g. by cold working
References[edit]
- ^'The NIST reference on fundamental physical constants'. Physics.nist.gov. Retrieved 2011-11-08.
- ^'Convocation de la Conférence générale des poids et mesures (26e réunion)'(PDF).
- ^Parker, Richard H.; Yu, Chenghui; Zhong, Weicheng; Estey, Brian; Müller, Holger (2018-04-13). 'Measurement of the fine-structure constant as a test of the Standard Model'. Science. 360 (6385): 191–195. doi:10.1126/science.aap7706. ISSN0036-8075. PMID29650669.
- ^Davis, Richard S. (2017). 'Determining the value of the fine-structure constant from a current balance: Getting acquainted with some upcoming changes to the SI'. American Journal of Physics. 85 (5): 364–368. arXiv:1610.02910. doi:10.1119/1.4976701. ISSN0002-9505.
- ^Jackson (1975), p. 190
- ^Jackson, John David (1975). Classical Electrodynamics (2nd ed.). New York: Wiley. ISBN978-0-471-43132-9. p. 182 eqn. (5.57)
- ^Jackson (1975) p. 182 eqn. (5.56)
- ^Kales, M. L. (1953). 'Modes in Wave Guides Containing Ferrites'. Journal of Applied Physics. 24 (5): 604–608. Bibcode:1953JAP....24..604K. doi:10.1063/1.1721335.
- ^G.W.C. Kaye & T.H. Laby, Table of Physical and Chemical Constants, 14th ed, Longman
- ^''Metglas Magnetic Alloy 2714A', Metglas'. Metglas.com. Archived from the original on 2012-02-06. Retrieved 2011-11-08.
- ^ ab''Magnetic Properties of Ferromagnetic Materials', Iron'. C.R Nave Georgia State University. Retrieved 2013-12-01.
- ^''Typical material properties of NANOPERM', Magnetec'(PDF). Retrieved 2011-11-08.
- ^ abcdef''Relative Permeability', Hyperphysics'. Hyperphysics.phy-astr.gsu.edu. Retrieved 2011-11-08.
- ^'Nickel Alloys-Stainless Steels, Nickel Copper Alloys, Nickel Chromium Alloys, Low Expansion Alloys'. Nickel-alloys.net. Retrieved 2011-11-08.
- ^''Soft Magnetic Cobalt-Iron Alloys', Vacuumschmeltze'(PDF). www.vacuumschmeltze.com. Archived from the original(PDF) on 2016-05-23. Retrieved 2013-08-03.
- ^ abcdCarpenter Technology Corporation (2013). 'Magnetic Properties of Stainless Steels'. Carpenter Technology Corporation.
- ^British Stainless Steel Association (2000). 'Magnetic Properties of Stainless Steel'(PDF). Stainless Steel Advisory Service.
- ^Juha Pyrhönen; Tapani Jokinen; Valéria Hrabovcová (2009). Design of Rotating Electrical Machines. John Wiley and Sons. p. 232. ISBN978-0-470-69516-6.
- ^ abcdRichard A. Clarke. 'Clarke, R. Magnetic properties of materials, surrey.ac.uk'. Ee.surrey.ac.uk. Retrieved 2011-11-08.
- ^B. D. Cullity and C. D. Graham (2008), Introduction to Magnetic Materials, 2nd edition, 568 pp., p.16
- ^NDT.net. 'Determination of dielectric properties of insitu concrete at radar frequencies'. Ndt.net. Retrieved 2011-11-08.
- ^by definition
- ^Dixon, L H (2001). 'Magnetics Design 2 – Magnetic Core Characteristics'(PDF). Texas Instruments.
- ^M. Getzlaff, Fundamentals of magnetism, Berlin: Springer-Verlag, 2008.
External links[edit]
- Electromagnetism - a chapter from an online textbook
- RF Cafe's Conductor Bulk Resistivity & Skin Depths
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