Investigations on the effect of wall thickness on magnetic adhesion for wall climbing robots

The focus of this work is to investigate the adhesion characteristics of a permanent magnet arrangement over ferromagnetic surfaces for wall climbing robot applications. The changes in wall thickness affect the adhesion characteristics of the robot, this in turn influences the payload and alters the operating conditions. The effect of varying the wall thickness on the adhesion strength of a wall-climbing robot is an area barely investigated and this is being explored in this work. A two-dimensional model of the adhesion mechanism and the ferromagnetic surface is developed and simulated in this study. The adhesion characteristics are studied for different thicknesses of the ferromagnetic surface with different grades of the magnet. Two different standoff distances which comprise the gap between the magnet and the surface to be inspected are investigated therein. Experimental studies are also carried out to measure the performance, and the results show a strong correlation with the simulation results. Simulation with experimental validation of magnetic adhesion presented will provide better insights into magnetic wall climbing systems.