Dynamics of a magnetic pendulum in the presence of an oscillating conducting plate

A pendulum with an attached permanent magnet moving near a conductor is a typical experiment for the demonstration of electromagnetic braking. When the conductor itself moves, it can transfer energy to the pendulum. We study a simple but exact analytical model where the conductor is a horizontally unbounded flat plate. For this geometry, eddy currents and induced Lorentz force due to the motion of a magnetic dipole are known analytically in the quasistatic limit. A vertical oscillation of such a horizontal plate located beneath the magnet is considered. In this setup, the vertical position of the pendulum is an equilibrium point when the magnetic moment of the magnet is perpendicular to its plane of motion. Depending on the strength of the magnetic dipole moment, the frequency and amplitude of the plate as well as the distance between plate and magnet, the plate oscillation can destabilize the equilibrium. The stability limits for weak electromagnetic coupling are computed analytically using the harmonic balancing method. For stronger coupling, the stability limits are obtained numerically using Floquet analysis. Chaotic motions with finite amplitudes are also found.