Publications Details

Publications / SAND Report

Magnetic Shielding with Soft Magnetic Alloys

Cummings, Jeremy C.

Abnormal electrical environments receive a lot of attention from nuclear safety engineers, but less attention has been paid to the magnetic effects that accompany such environments. Engineers with backgrounds outside of physics or electrical engineering may not be as familiar with this topic; this report serves as a brief summary of the phenomena and proposes experiments to support practical engineering solutions. Lightning strikes, in particular, create an environment hazardous to electronics, especially to components that rely on magnetic coupling for normal function. The most direct method of mitigating unwanted magnetic effects caused by lightning is to shield the component of interest; several materials and configuration options are explained here. An experimental approach is recommended to validate numerical modeling.