Review of Magnetic Materials Along With a Study of the Magnetic Stability and Solidity of Y40

Abstract: Wave energy converters (WECs) are relatively new power sources under rapiddevelopment. WECs utilize permanent magnets to generate power and theperformance of these magnets have a great impact on the produced effects in theWECs. This paper is primarily constructed to investigate the magnetic and mechanicalproperties of a specific kind of permanent magnets, referred to as Y40. The paperalso gives a comprehensive review of magnetic materials in general, slightly focusingon magnetic stability. Literature studies has been made to get an understanding ofhow the Y40 magnets will perform under external influences such as reversed field,temperature change and mechanical stress. Further, a compression test has beenmade to examine the Y40s solidity. From the results of the tests and from theinformation provided in literature it is considered to be little to no risk for the Y40sto lose magnetization due to external influences. However, because of theirassembled structure, the Y40 magnets are very likely to break in their joints duringpressure lower than what is expected in the WECs.