Dynamometer A dynamometer is a brake but in addition it has a device to measure the frictional

resistance. Knowing the frictional resistance, we may obtain the torque transmitted and hence the
power of the engine.

ta·chom·e·ter
noun
1. an instrument that measures the working speed of an engine (especially in a road
vehicle), typically in revolutions per minute.

Origin of term[edit]
The term eddy current comes from analogous currents seen in water in fluid dynamics, causing
localised areas of turbulence known as eddies giving rise to persistent vortices. Somewhat
analogously, eddy currents can take time to build up and can persist for very short times in
conductors due to their inductance.
Eddy current brakes come in two geometries:

 In a linear eddy current brake, the conductive piece is a straight rail or track that the magnet
moves along.
 In a circular, disk or rotary eddy current brake, the conductor is a flat disk rotor that turns
between the poles of the magnet.
The physical working principle is the same for both.
An eddy current brake, like a conventional friction brake, is a device used to slow or stop a moving
object by dissipating its kinetic energy as heat. However, unlike electro-mechanical brakes, in which
the drag force used to stop the moving object is provided by friction between two surfaces pressed
together, the drag force in an eddy current brake is an electromagnetic force between a magnet and
a nearby conductive object in relative motion, due to eddy currents induced in the conductor
through electromagnetic induction.
A conductive surface moving past a stationary magnet will have circular electric currents called eddy
currents induced in it by the magnetic field, as described by Faraday's law of induction. By Lenz's
law, the circulating currents will create their own magnetic field which opposes the field of the
magnet. Thus the moving conductor will experience a drag force from the magnet that opposes its
motion, proportional to its velocity. The electrical energy of the eddy currents is dissipated
as heat due to the electrical resistance of the conductor.
In an eddy current brake the magnetic field may be created by a permanent magnet, or
an electromagnet so the braking force can be turned on and off or varied by varying the electric
current in the electromagnet's windings. Another advantage is that since the brake does not work
by friction, there are no brake shoe surfaces to wear out, necessitating replacement, as with friction
brakes. A disadvantage is that since the braking force is proportional to velocity the brake has
no holding force when the moving object is stationary, as is provided by static friction in a friction
brake, so in vehicles it must be supplemented by a friction brake.
Eddy current brakes are used to slow high-speed trains and roller coasters, to stop powered tools
quickly when power is turned off, and in electric meters used by electric utilities.

Water-brake dynamometer is similar to a Prony brake but employs fluid friction (rather than dry friction)
to dissipate energy.

• When testing engines using a water-brake dynamometer, the braking action (or load) is developed by
the principle of direct momentum exchange between the rotor(s) and stator(s) of the dynamometer.

• The dynamometer rotor(s) directs the water against the waterbrake housing or stator. The stator in
turn, redirects the water back against the rotor so that it opposes the movement of the rotor(s).

• It is this turbulence and back pressure which causes the braking action or load. The greater the flow of
water through the dynamometer, the greater the braking action or load.

• The stator is held in position by a strain gauge (torque link) which will measure the force acting on the
stator. With proper calibration, this force is a measure for the torque produced by the engine when it
moves the rotor in the water.

Electricity and magnetism go hand in hand

Wherever you get electricity, you get magnetism as well, and vice-versa. This
is the basic idea behind electricity generators and electric motors. Generators
use some kind of movement (maybe a wind turbine rotor spinning around) to
make an electric current, while motors do the opposite, converting an electric
current into movement that can drive a machine (or propel something like
an electric car or electric bike).
Both kinds of machine (they are virtually identical) work on the idea that you
can use electricity to make magnetism or magnetism to make electricity. To
make electricity, all you have to do is move an electrical conductor (like
a copper wire) through a magnetic field. That's it! It's called Faraday's law of
induction after English scientist Michael Faraday, who discovered the effect
in the early 19th century. If you connect the wire up to a meter, you'll see the
needle flick every time you move the wire (but only when you move it). If you
were clever, you could figure out some way of removing the electricity and
storing it: you'd have made yourself a miniature electric power plant.
Photo: A basic electric motor has an axle (the silver rod in the middle) that rotates when you feed electricity into
the motor's copper coil through two wires. A generator is similar, but you turn the axle manually and get
electricity out of the wires instead.

How eddy currents are made

What if the conductor you're moving through the magnetic field isn't a wire that
allows the electricity to flow neatly away? You still get electric currents, but
instead of flowing off somewhere, they swirl about inside the material. These
are what we call eddy currents. They're electric currents generated inside a
conductor by a magnetic field that can't flow away so they swirl around
instead, dissipating their energy as heat.

One of the interesting things about eddy currents is that they're not completely
random: they flow in a particular way to try to stop whatever it is that causes
them. This is an example of another bit of electromagnetism called Lenz's
law (it follows on from another law called the conservation of energy, and it's
built into the four equations summarizing electromagnetism that were set out
by James Clerk Maxwell).

Here's an example. Suppose you drop a coin-shaped magnet down the inside
of a plastic pipe. It might take a half second to get to the bottom. Now repeat
the same experiment with a copper pipe and you'll find your magnet takes
much longer (maybe three or four seconds) to make exactly the same journey.
Eddy currents are the reason. When the magnet falls through the pipe, you
have a magnetic field moving through a stationary conductor (which is exactly
the same as a conductor moving through a stationary magnetic field). That
creates electric currents in the conductor—eddy currents, in fact. Now we
know from the laws of electromagnetism that when a current flows in a
conductor, it produces a magnetic field. So the eddy currents generate their
own magnetic field. Lenz's law tells us that this magnetic field will try to
oppose its cause, which is the falling magnet. So the eddy currents and the
second magnetic field produce an upward force on the magnet that tries to
stop it from falling. That's why it falls more slowly. In other words, the eddy
currents produce a braking effect on the falling magnet.

It's because eddy currents always oppose whatever causes them that we can
use them as brakes in vehicles, engines, and other machines.

How does an eddy current brake stop something

moving?
Suppose we have a railroad train that's actually a huge solid block of copper
mounted on wheels. Let's say it's hurtling along at high speed and we want to
stop it. We could apply friction brakes to the wheels—or we could stop it with
eddy currents. How? What if we put a giant magnet next to the track so the
train had to pass nearby. As the copper approached the magnet, eddy
currents would be generated (or "induced") inside the copper, which would
produce their own magnetic field. Eddy currents in different parts of the
copper would try to work in different ways. As the front part of the train
approached the magnet, eddy currents in that bit of the copper would try to
generate a repulsive magnetic field (to slow down the copper's approach to
the magnet). As the front part passed by, slowing down, the currents would
start generating an attractive magnetic field that tried to pull the train back
again (again, slowing it down). The copper would heat up as the eddy currents
swirled inside it, gaining the kinetic energy lost by the train as it slowed down.
It might sound like a strange way to stop a train, but it really does work. You'll
find the proof of it in many rollercoaster cars, which use magnetic brakes like
this, mounted on the side of the track, to slow them down.

Where are eddy current brakes used?

Despite being invented over a century ago, eddy current brakes are still
relatively little used. Apart from rollercoasters, one area where they're now
finding applications is in high-speed electric trains. Some versions of the
German Inter City Express (ICE) train and Japanese Shinkansen ("bullet
train") have experimented with eddy-current brakes and future versions of the
French TGV are expected to use them as well. You'll also find eddy current
brakes in all kinds of machines, such as circular saws and other power
equipment. And they're used in things like rowing machines and gym
machines to apply extra resistance to the moving parts so your muscles have
to work harder.

Artwork: Old-fashioned exercise bikes use springs or pulleys to drag on the back wheel, providing an
adjustable amount of resistance to make your muscles work harder; newer machines are as likely to do the
same job with eddy-current brakes. Instead of being packed with spokes and sprockets, the back wheel has a
copper disc attached that spins between the poles of a magnet, generating eddy currents that slow you down.
On some machines, you can slide the magnet back and forth to adjust the amount of braking. You can find a
much more detailed description in US Patent 6,964,633: Exercise device with an adjustable magnetic
resistance arrangement by Clint D. Kolda et al, November 15, 2005.

Advantages and disadvantages of eddy current

brakes
On the plus side, eddy-current brakes are quiet, frictionless, and wear-free,
and require little or no maintenance. They produce no smell
or pollution (unlike friction brakes, which can release toxic chemicals into the
environment). All this makes them much more attractive than noisy friction
brakes that need regular inspection and routinely wear out. It's been estimated
that switching an electric train from friction brakes to eddy-current brakes
could halve the cost of brake operation and maintenance over its lifetime.

The drawbacks of eddy current brakes are more to do with how little
experience we have of using them in real-world settings. As Jennifer
Schykowski noted in an excellent review of the technology for Railway
Gazette in 2008, the electromagnetic parts of eddy current brakes have
sometimes caused problems by interfering with train signaling equipment.
Although heat dissipation in rails should not, theoretically, be an issue, if
there's a busy section of track where many trains brake in quick succession
(something like the approach to a station), the heating and expansion of rails
could prove to be an issue, either reducing the effectiveness of the brakes or
leading to structural problems in the rails themselves. Another important
question is whether eddy-current brakes will ever become widespread, given
the growing interest in regenerative brakes that capture and store the energy
of moving vehicles for reuse (a much more energy-efficient approach than
turning energy into useless heat with eddy currents). Some of the latest
Shinkansen trains (series E5) use regenerative brakes where earlier models
used eddy-current technology.