Saturation (magnetic)

Seen in some magnetic materials, saturation is the state reached when an increase in applied external magnetic field H cannot increase the magnetization of the material further, so the total magnetic flux density B more or less levels off. (It continues to increase very slowly due to the vacuum permeability.) Saturation is a characteristic of ferromagnetic and ferrimagnetic materials, such as iron, nickel, cobalt and their alloys.

Saturation is most clearly seen in the magnetization curve (also called BH curve or hysteresis curve) of a substance, as a bending to the right of the curve (see graph at right). As the H field increases, the B field approaches a maximum value asymptotically, the saturation level for the substance. Technically, above saturation, the B field continues increasing, but at the paramagnetic rate, which is several orders of magnitude smaller than the ferromagnetic rate seen below saturation.

The relation between the magnetizing field H and the magnetic field B can also be expressed as the magnetic permeability: ${\displaystyle \mu =B/H}$ or the relative permeability ${\displaystyle \mu _{r}=\mu /\mu _{0}}$, where ${\displaystyle \mu _{0}}$ is the vacuum permeability. The permeability of ferromagnetic materials is not constant, but depends on H. In saturable materials the relative permeability increases with H to a maximum, then as it approaches saturation inverts and decreases toward one.

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