Predicting iron losses in soft magnetic materials with arbitrary voltage supply: an engineering approach

• Published in: IEEE transactions on magnetics Vol. 39; no. 2; pp. 981 - 989
• Main Authors: Boglietti, A., Cavagnino, A., Lazzari, M., Pastorelli, M.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: New York, NY IEEE 01.03.2003; Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers; The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, Inc. (IEEE)
• Subjects: Condensed matter: electronic structure, electrical, magnetic, and optical properties; Construction equipment; Design engineering; Eddy currents; Electric potential; Exact sciences and technology; Hysteresis; Iron; Iron losses; Magnetic hysteresis; Magnetic losses; Magnetic materials; Magnetic modulators; Magnetic properties and materials; Magnetism; Mathematical models; Modulation; Other ferromagnetic metals and alloys; Physics; Pulse modulation; Soft magnetic materials; Space vector pulse width modulation; Studies of specific magnetic materials; Voltage; Electrical engineering; Theoretical study; Ferromagnetic materials; Magnetic hysteresis; Experimental study; Hysteresis loss; Iron loss; soft magnetic materials; Electrical machine design; Energy models; Eddy currents; iron losses; Magnetic properties
• ISSN: 0018-9464; 1941-0069
• DOI: 10.1109/TMAG.2003.808599

We propose a new approach for predicting iron losses in soft magnetic materials with any voltage supply, starting from the knowledge of the iron losses with a sinusoidal or pulsewidth modulation supply. The model is based on the separation of the loss contributions due to hysteresis, eddy currents, and excess losses with the two supplies. Since any contribution depends on the voltage supply characteristics, it is possible to find a direct mathematical relationship between the iron loss contribution and the voltage supply characteristics. As a consequence, an iron loss prediction can be obtained with any voltage supply if it does not produce a hysteresis minor loop. The energetic model is based on coefficients that depend on the magnetic material characteristic. We performed an accurate analysis of the model on eight magnetic materials used for electrical machine construction, of different thicknesses and alloy compositions. In this way, we found the main coefficients for a large spread of magnetic materials. As a consequence, our approach can be a useful support for electrical machine designers when the energetic performance of a magnetic material has to be predicted for a voltage supply different from the sinusoidal one.