A permanent magnet passive levitation structure is assessed for a possible use as tiltmeter. Two aligned lifting permanent magnets produce the magnetic field necessary to a small cylindrical permanent magnet to achieve suspension in gravitational field. Not to contradict Earnshaw’s theorem, which prohibits the existence of all magnet levitation structures, two stabilizing diamagnetic pieces are used in the proximity of the levitated magnet. The magnetic charge equivalence used for modeling the lifting magnets allows a closed-form of the flux density formula, for further use in equilibrium point coordinates determination, as well as for stability functions and tiltmeter sensitivities. The magnetostatic problem is numerically solved for tilt angles ranging from horizontal to vertical positions. Metrological characteristics for the possible tiltmeter are derived, namely conversion characteristics and sensitivities. Finally, the obtained results are presented and critically discussed.

Keywords: Magnetostatic levitation, Equilibrium, Permanent magnet, Nd-Fe-B, Stability, Diamagnetic stabilization, Pyrolytic graphite, Stability function (discriminant), Tiltmeter, Sensor, Conversion characteristic, Sensitivity