# Considering Laminated Cores and Eddy Currents in 2D and 3D ```COMPUMAG-SYDNEY 2011, 3. ELECTRIC MACHINES AND DRIVES, 1. STATIC AND QUASI-STATIC FIELDS, 11. NUMERICAL TECHNIQUE
1
Considering Laminated Cores and Eddy Currents in 2D and 3D
Finite Element Simulation of Electrical Machines
J. Gyselinck1 , C. Geuzaine2 and R. V. Sabariego2
1
BEAMS Department, Université Libre de Bruxelles (ULB), Belgium, email: [email protected]
2
ACE, Dept. of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, University of Liège, Belgium
Abstract—This paper deals with a time-domain homogenization method for laminated cores and its application to the 2D
finite element simulation of rotating electrical machines. The
number of additional degrees of freedom of the model, for
considering the variation of the flux density along the lamination
thickness, can be tuned so as to reach a good compromise
between accuracy and computation time. The results obtained for
a switched reluctance motor agree very well with those produced
by a precise full 3D model in which eddy currents are explicitly
modeled.
I. I NTRODUCTION
The behavior of an electrical machine may be considerably
altered by the eddy currents in its laminated iron core, apart
from the obvious effect on the losses, heating and efficiency
. The usual design and analysis approach which consists
in an a-posteriori eddy current (and iron loss) calculation
by means a 2D or 3D finite element (FE) model may then
be insufficient. For real-life applications, the brute-force 3D
FE modeling of each separate lamination is still far beyond
practical computational capabilities . As a more pragmatic
alternative, homogenisation methods may be adopted in 2D
FE modeling so as to include the eddy current effects at
a reasonable computational cost. The time-domain method
proposed in  is applicable to saturable magnetic cores and
was validated on a real 3D test case (laminated ring core and
toroidal coil, exploiting axisymmetry).
In this paper the homogenisation method is applied to the
2D modeling of an electrical machine, and in particular of a
switched reluctance motor (SRM). See Fig. 1 for its geometry
and main dimensions. After a brief and general discussion of
the 2D and 3D modeling, 2D results will be compared directly
to those obtained with a 3D FE model.
Fig. 1. Cross-section of 6/4 SRM (airgap radius: 30 mm; airgap width:
0.29 mm; stack length: 60 mm; lamination thickness d: 0.5mm; stator and
rotor pole width: 16 mm; outer radius: 60 mm; 226 turns per coil) – flux lines
with phase 1 excited (θ = 20◦ )
II. 2D FE MODELING WITH EDDY CURRENTS
A. 1D time-domain lamination model
We consider a single lamination of thickness d (−d/2 ≤
z ≤ d/2), carrying a time varying flux density b(z, t) along
This work has been partly supported by the Belgian Science Policy (IAP
P6/21) and the Belgian French Community (ARC 09/14-02).
e.g. the x-axis. The governing 1D differential equation in
terms of b(z, t) = b(−z, t) and the magnetic field h(z, t) =
h(−z, t) = νb(z, t) reads:
∂b
∂2h
=σ
,
∂ z2
∂t
(1)
where the permeability &micro;, the reluctivity ν = &micro;−1 , and the
electrical conductivity σ are assumed constant.
R d/2
The average induction ba (t) = d1 −d/2 b(z, t) dz and the
magnetic field hs (t) = h(z = &plusmn;d/2, t) on the surface of the
lamination are of particular interest for homogenization.
An approximate time domain solution of (1) can be obtained
by considering a polynominal expansion of b(z, t) comprising
even basis functions α0 (z) =1, α2 (z) = − 21 + 6(z/d)2 , . . . of
R d/2
order 0, 2, . . . , which are orthogonal, d1 −d/2 αi (z)αj (z) dz =
0 if i 6= j, and have unit value on the lamination surface :
b(z, t) = α0 (z) b0 (t) + α2 (z) b2 (t) + . . . ,
(2)
R d/2
with b0 (t) = ba (t) since d1 −d/2 αi (z) dz = 0 if i ≥ 2.
Then, on account of (1), the magnetic field h(z, t) is
expanded as
h(z, t) = hs (t) − σd2 β2 (z)
d b2
d ba
− σd2 β4 (z)
− . . . , (3)
dt
dt
1
with β2 (z) = 81 − 12 (z/d)2 , β4 (z) = − 32
+ 14 (z/d)2 − 12 (z/d)4 .
When considering a finite number of basis functions, up to
order n for b(z, t) and order n + 2 for h(z, t), the constitutive
law h(b) = νb cannot be fulfilled exactly. For e.g. n = 2,
its weak formulation leads to a system of two differential
equations in terms of ba (t), b2 (t) and hs (t) :
d ba
hs
1 0
ba
1
−1/5
=ν
+K −1/5 1/17.5
, (4)
0
0 1/5 b2
dt b2
with K = σd2 /12, and where the elements of the diagonal
matrix will further be denoted by sij (sij = 0 if i 6= j) and
the ones of the other (symmetrical) matrix tij .
The accuracy of this 1D lamination model is easily assessed
through comparison with the analytical frequency-domain solution (at frequency f and pulsation ω = 2πf ). Allowing a
1% maximum error on the equivalent complex reluctivity, the
coarsest approximation,
p with n = 0, is valid up to roughly
d/δ = 1, where δ = 2/(ω&micro;σ) is the penetration depth. By
adding one or two interpolation functions (n = 2 and n = 4
resp.) the validity range to extended up to d/δ equal to 4 and
8 respectively.
2
COMPUMAG-SYDNEY 2011, 3. ELECTRIC MACHINES AND DRIVES, 1. STATIC AND QUASI-STATIC FIELDS, 11. NUMERICAL TECHNIQUE
B. Incorporation in 2D model
with
Z
J0,k =
jz γk dΩ ,
(6)
ν curl (γk ez ) &middot; curl (γl ez ) dΩ ,
(7)
Fig. 2. Detail of the surface and thickness discretisation in the 3D model
(layer thickness varying between 0.2 and 0.02 mm) and current density vectors
complex inductance obtained with the various models. With
n = 2 the 2D model produces very accurate results in the
complete frequency interval.
0.3
inductance (H)
Adopting the classical one-component magnetic vector potential (MVP) formulation and, e.g., a first-order triangular
discretisation of the 2D calculation
P domain Ω2D , the flux
density is approximated as curl
k ak (t) γk (x, y) ez , where
γk (x, y) and ak (t) are the nodal basis function and degree of
freedom associated to node k of the mesh, and ez the unit
vector along the z-axis. The current density jz (x, y) ez in the
subdomain Ω2D,ind is either imposed directly or is governed
by electrical circuit equations.
The additional n/2 flux density components bi , i = 2, 4, . . .,
for considering the eddy currents are introduced with MVP
components defined in the laminated core subdomain Ω2D,lam ,
discretised with the same basis functions γk (x, y) and producing new degrees of freedom aik (t). With n = 2, e.g.,
the complete set of FE equations can thus be written in the
following block matrix form:
J0
S00 S02 A0
T00 T02 d A0
, (5)
=
+
0
S20 S22 A2
T20 T22 dt A2
Re(L)
0.2
3D
2D, n = 0
2D, n = 2
0.1
-Im(L)
Ω2D,ind
0
1e1
Z
Sij,kl = sij
1e2
Z
curl (γk ez ) &middot; curl (γl ez ) dΩ .
Tij,kl = K tij
1e3
1e4
frequency (Hz)
Ω2D
(8)
Ω2D,lam
This approach is straightforwardly extended for nonlinear
material in Ω2D,lam .
Fig. 3. Inductance (real and imaginary parts) versus frequency obtained with
2D and 3D FE models
Time-domain results with pulsed 5 kHz, &plusmn;500 V voltage
supply are shown in Fig. 4. Again with n = 2, the 2D model
is very accurate.
III. 3D FE MODELING
0.2
3D
2D, σ = 0
2D, n = 0
2D, n = 2
2D, n = 4
0.15
current (A)
We consider the magnetic vector potential formulation in the
3D domain Ω3D obtained by extruding the domain Ω2D over
one lamination thickness d (−d/2 ≤ z ≤ d/2). The current
density j in subdomain Ω3D,ind is either imposed directly or is
governed by electrical circuit equations, whereas in subdomain
Ω3D,lam the eddy currents are explicitly modeled, with j = σe
and the electric field e given by −∂t a. The vector potential
is,
P e.g., discretised by means of edge basis functions γ k : a =
k ak γ k . The uniqueness of a can be ensured by considering
an edge co-tree in the nonconducting domain Ω3D \ Ω3D,lam .
0.1
0.05
0
0
20
40
60
time (&micro;s)
80
100
120
Fig. 4. 5 kHz PWM voltage: current versus time obtained with 2D and 3D
FE models
IV. C OMPARISON OF 2D AND 3D RESULTS
Dynamic 2D calculations, with the eddy currents ignored
(σ = 0) or considered via the homogenization approach
(n = 0, 2, 4), are carried out exciting the first phase only and
with aligned rotor poles. The corresponding 3D calculations,
the results of which are taken as reference, are done with
a mesh of prismatic elements obtained by extruding the
triangular elements of the 2D mesh. The space discretization
is illustrated by Fig. 2. A conductivity of 5 MS/m and a
relative permeability of 1000 are set for the laminated core,
corresponding to a penetration depth of 0.07 mm at 10 kHz.
Frequency-domain calculations are first carried out imposing a sinusoidal current of unit amplitude and with the
frequency ranging from 10 Hz to 10 kHz. Fig. 3 shows the
The rotation of the rotor can be handled by a moving band
technique in both 2D and 3D modeling. This aspect will be
developed in the full paper.
R EFERENCES
 K. Geldhof, A. Van den Bossche and J. Melkebeek, “Influence of eddy
currents on resonance-based position estimation of switched reluctance
drives,” IEEE Trans. Magn., vol. 26, pp. 1164–1170, May 2008.
 M. Krishnamurthy, D. Kaluvagunta and B. Fahimi, “Effects of high
frequency excitation on the behavior of a switched reluctance machine,”
ACES Journal, vol. 19, pp. 76–83, July 2005.
 J. Gyselinck, R. V. Sabariego, P. Dular, “A nonlinear time domain
homogenisation technique for laminated iron cores in three-dimensional
finite element models,” IEEE Trans. Magn., vol. 42, pp. 763–766,
April 2006.
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