Search results

Introduces the fourth and final chapter of the ISEF 1999 Proceedings by stating electric and magnetic fields are influenced, in a reciprocal way, by thermal and mechanical fields. Looks at the coupling of fields in a device or a system as a prescribed effect. Points out that there are 12 contributions included ‐ covering magnetic levitation or induction heating, superconducting devices and possible effects to the human body due to electric impressed fields.

In the electromagnetic field simulation of modern servo drives, the computation of higher time and space harmonics is essential to consider appearing torque pulsations, radial forces and ripple torques. The purpose of this paper is to propose a method to cover the effect of saturation on the armature flux density within conformal mapping (CM) by an finite element (FE) re‐parameterization.

Field computation by CM techniques is a time‐effective method to compute the radial and tangential field components, but it generally neglects the effect of saturation.

This paper presents a method to re‐parameterize the CM approach by single FE computations so as to consider saturation in the model over a wide operation range of the electrical drive.

The proposed method is applied to a surface permanent magnet synchronous machine, and compared to numerical results obtained by finite element analysis (FEA).

The paper shows that an accuracy similar to that of FE simulations can be obtained with still the low‐computation time that is the characteristic of analytical models.

An algorithm for the visualization of the electric force lines is discussed. Based on the nodal potentials calculated by the conventional finite element method, the boundary conditions of the electric flux are determined by the integral of the electric displacement along all conductors. The finite element equations of the electric flux for two‐dimensional fields are derived. Especially for the axial symmetrical field, a new interpolation function is defined in order to avoid the infinity of the vector electric potential at the symmetrical axis. The nodal electric fluxes are calculated and the smooth electric force lines are visualized. Some examples show that this algorithm is very effective.

The purpose of this paper is to study the variation of the specific iron loss components of electrical steel sheets when applying a tensile mechanical load below the yield strength of the material. The results provide an insight into the iron loss behaviour of the laminated core of electrical machines which are exposed to mechanical stresses of diverse origins.

The specific iron losses of electrical steel sheets are measured using a standardised single-sheet tester equipped with a hydraulic pressure cylinder which enables application of a force to the specimen under test. Based on the measured data and a semi-physical description of specific iron losses, the stress-dependency of the iron loss components can be studied.

The results show a dependency of iron loss components on the applied mechanical stress. Especially for the non-linear loss component and high frequencies, a large variation is observed, while the excess loss component is not as sensitive to high mechanical stresses. Besides, it is shown that the stress-dependent iron loss prediction approximates the measured specific iron losses in an adequate way.

New applications such as high-speed traction drives in electric vehicles require a suitable design of the electrical machine. These applications require particular attention to the interaction between mechanical influences and magnetic behaviour of the machine. In this regard, knowledge about the relation between mechanical stress and magnetic properties of soft magnetic material is essential for an exact estimation of the machine’s behaviour.

The electromagnetic fields have a great influence on the behaviour of all the living systems. The as low as reasonably achievable (ALARA) principle imposes, in case of long exposures to low (i.e. power systems) or high frequency (i.e. microwave systems or cell phones) fields, some limitations to the radiated fields by the industrial equipment. On the other hand, some benefits can be taken from the effects of the electromagnetic fields on the living being: the hyperthermal technique is well known for the treatment of the cancer. Either we want to be protected from the fields, or we want to take benefit of the positive effects of these fields, all the effects thermal as well as genetic have to be well known. Like in any industrial application, the electromagnetic field computation allows a better knowledge of the phenomena, and an optimised design. Hence, there is a very important challenge for the techniques of computation of electromagnetic fields. The major difficulties that appear are: (1) related to the material properties – the “material” (the human body) has very unusual properties (magnetic permeability, electric permittivity, electric conductivity), these properties are not well known and depend on the activity of the person, and this material is an active material at the cell scale; (2) related to the coupling phenomena – the problem is actually a coupled problem: the thermal effect is one of the major effects and it is affected by the blood circulation; (3) related to the geometry – the geometry is complex and one has to take into account the environment. The problems that we have to face with are – the identification of the properties of the “material”, the coupled problem solution and the representation of the simulated phenomena.

In electrochemotherapy, flexible electrodes, composed by an array of needles, are applied to human tissues to treat large surface tumors. The positioning of the needles in the tissue depends on the surface curvature. The parallel needle case is preferred, as their relative inclinations strongly affect the actual distribution of electric field. Nevertheless, in some case, small inclinations are unavoidable. The purpose of this paper is to study the electric field distribution for non-parallel needles.

The effect of electrode position is evaluated systematically by means of numerical models and experiments on phantoms for two different angles (5° and 30°) and compared with the case of parallel needles. Potato model was used as phantom, as this tissue becomes dark after few hours from electroporation. The electroporation degree was gauged from the color changings on the potatoes.

The distribution of electric field in different needle configuration is found by means of finite element analysis (FEA) and experiments on potatoes. The electric field level of inclined needles was compared with parallel needle case. In particular, the electric field distribution in the case of inclined needles could be very different with respect to the one in the case of parallel needles. The degree of enhancement for different inclinations is visualized by potato color intensity. The FEA suggested that the needle parallelism has to be maintained as possible as if the tips are closer to each other, the electric field intensity could be different with respect to the one in the case of parallel needles.

This paper analyzes the effect of inclined electrodes considering also the non-linearity of tissues.

The purpose of this paper is to estimate the electrical field induced in the spinal cord and nearby area during lumbar magnetic stimulation.

The spinal cord is modelled as a continuous cylinder, while the vertebral column is also represented by a concentric interrupted cylinder. The coil used for magnetic stimulation is a figure of eight, whose centre is placed above T12‐L1 vertebras. The electrical field is induced and its derivative is computed using the finite difference method.

Preliminary results suggest that magnetic stimulation may be able to induce a sufficiently intense electric field inside the spinal cord, leading to the direct activation of spinal nerve roots.

If the spinal cord can be stimulated directly by magnetic stimulation, this technique can facilitate functional motor activities, including standing and stepping in paralyzed people, in a non‐invasive way.

The authors revealed the fact that functional magnetic stimulation can be applied to the spinal cord, and should be further investigated as an alternative to invasive techniques such as electrical stimulation.

In this paper, different shapes of the boundary surfaces within the power transformers are reviewed. The surface charge distribution function on the two surface elements, which have the majority of usage, are recognized and the resultant potential and electric field intensity equations are derived. A numerical interpolation idea is presented and extended to evaluate the values of the existing integrals within the equations. Fulfilment of this idea removes the problems due to the singularity of the integrands and it leads to a shorter computation time for the boundary element method. This idea is applied to a typical problem and results are compared with the corresponding values obtained using the numerical integration. Finally, the electric field within the interior space of a power transformer is estimated using the developed computer program based on the boundary element method.

The purpose of this paper is to focus on the frequency-dependent non-linear magnetization behaviour of the soft magnetic material, which influences both the energy loss and the performance of the electrical machine. The applied approach is based on measured material characteristics for various frequencies and magnetic flux densities. These are varied during the simulation according to the operational conditions of the rotating electrical machine. Therewith, the fault being committed neglecting the frequency-dependent magnetization behaviour of the magnetic material is examined in detail.

The influence of non-linear frequency-dependent material properties is studied by variation of the frequency-dependent magnetization characteristics. Two different non-oriented electrical steel grades having the same nominal losses at 1.5 T and 50 Hz, but different thickness, classified as M330-35A and M330-50A are studied in detail. Both have slightly different magnetization and loss behaviour.

This analysis corroborates that it is important to consider the frequency-dependency and saturation behaviour of the ferromagnetic material as well as its magnetic utilization when simulating electrical machines, i.e., its performance. The necessity to change the magnetization curve according to the applied frequency for the calculation of operating points depends on the applied material and the frequency range. Using materials, whose magnetization behaviour is marginally affected by frequency, causes a deviation in the flux-linkage and the electromagnetic torque in a small frequency range. However, analysing larger frequency ranges, the frequency behaviour of the material cannot be neglected. For instance, a poorer magnetizability requires a higher quadrature current to keep the same torque leading to increased copper losses. In addition, the applied iron-loss model plays a central role, since changes in magnetization behaviour with frequency lead to changes in the iron losses. In order to study the impact, the iron-loss model has to be capable to incorporate the harmonic content, because particularly the field harmonics are influenced by the shape of the magnetization curve.

This paper gives a close insight on the way the frequency-dependent non-linear magnetization behaviour affects the energy loss and the performance of electrical machines. Therewith measures to tackle this could be derived.

In the optimisation of electrical drives, the required degree of detail in the simulation increases constantly. Especially, the industrial demand on multi‐objective optimisation craves for highly efficient models. The purpose of this paper is to propose a hybrid model for the computation of the air‐gap field of a permanent magnet synchronous motor (PMSM) combining analytic and numeric methods.

The classic conformal mapping (CM) approach is improved by the numeric approximation of the required ansatz‐functions. This approach allows to consider the non‐linear permeability of the applied materials and complex geometries. The non‐linear permeance‐function is described by a one‐dimensional wave varying in time and space.

The permeance‐function has to be derived for different load cases at the actual stage.

A physical motivated modelling allowing for an appropriate interpolation between different load cases is planned in further research.

The proposed approach is applied to a surface mounted PMSM. It is validated by means of a non‐linear finite element analysis.

The hybrid model offers to consider rotors with buried magnets using the CM approach. It is possible to either use analytic or numeric modelling of rotor ansatz‐function, stator current ansatz‐function and permeance‐function with the proposed approach. Non‐linear permeability of iron is modelled by means of a wave representation of the permeance‐function. This can significantly reduce the computational cost in the design and optimisation stage of electrical machines.