Stable Levitation of Pyrolytic Graphite Above Circular Magnet Arrays

The rotation of circular and annular pyrolytic graphite (PG) disks levitating above circular magnet arrays can be used for a novel method of magnetic manipulation, whereas the condition of stable levitation has not been figured out yet. In this article, a method to analyze the diamagnetic forces sustained by levitated PG is proposed to investigate the mechanism of stable levitation. When using this method, the whole PG disk is divided into multiple regions according to the distribution of magnetic field in order to determine the resultant diamagnetic force. With the help of the method, the exclusive levitation height of PG disk was determined, and the relationship between the relative size of circular and annular disks to magnet and its ability of stable levitation was clarified. The proposed method is the first one able to investigate the position stability of levitated PG and provides insights into local forces without heavy workload of finete element method (FEM) calculation. The analysis results are verified by the simulation of distribution of potential energy and can be a new way of magnetic manipulation.