TY - JOUR AB - Purpose– To analyze the Jiles and Atherton hysteresis model used for hysteresis losses estimation in soft magnetic composite (SMC) material.Design/methodology/approach– The Jiles and Atherton hysteresis model parameters are optimized with genetic algorithms (GAs) according to measured symmetric hysteresis loop of soft magnetic composite material. To overcome the uncertainty, finding the best‐optimized parameters in a wide predefined searching area is done with the proposed new approach. These parameters are then used to calculate the hysteresis losses for the modeled hysteresis. The asymmetric hysteresis loops are also investigated.Findings– The classical GAs are good optimization methods when a pre‐defined possible set of solutions is known. If no assumption on solutions is present and a wide searching area range for parameter estimation is selected then the use of the new approach with nested GAs gives good results for symmetric hysteresis loops and further for the estimation of hysteresis losses.Research limitations/implications– The use of the Jiles and Atherton hysteresis model for asymmetric hysteresis must be explored further. Only one set of optimized Jiles and Atherton hysteresis model parameters used for estimation of hysteresis losses gives good results for only symmetric hysteresis loops. These parameters have limitations for asymmetric hysteresis loops.Practical implications– Nested GAs are a useful method for optimization when a wide searching area is used.Originality/value– The originality of the paper is in the establishment of nested GAs and their application in Jiles and Atherton hysteresis model parameters optimization. Also, original is the use of the Jiles and Atherton hysteresis model for hysteresis loop description of soft‐magnetic composite material. VL - 25 IS - 1 SN - 0332-1649 DO - 10.1108/03321640610634416 UR - https://doi.org/10.1108/03321640610634416 AU - Zidarič Bogomir AU - Zagirnyak Mykhaylo AU - Lenasi Konrad AU - Miljavec Damijan ED - Andrzej Demenko ED - Kay Hameyer ED - Lech Nowak ED - Krzysztof Zawirski PY - 2006 Y1 - 2006/01/01 TI - Hysteresis losses in soft magnetic composite materials T2 - COMPEL - The international journal for computation and mathematics in electrical and electronic engineering PB - Emerald Group Publishing Limited SP - 157 EP - 168 Y2 - 2024/04/19 ER -