Numerical techniques for calculating inductance and its variation under magnetic saturation

Antnio Flavio Licario-Nogueira

Universidade do Estado de Santa Catarina (UDESC), Brazil

antonioflavio@ieee.org I. DEFINITIONS OF INDUCTANCE The computation of inductance from numerical field solutions is based on different definitions for the phenomenon of inductance [1]. The inductance of a given device can be defined either in terms of its stored energy or in terms of the number of flux linkages of the winding. If the inductance L is defined in terms of flux linkages, flux. Equations based on magnetic Ohmss law are used to describe each part of the device where the flux density is more or less uniform. Analytical calculations are important because they give insight into the subject but are restricted to devices with very simple geometries. II. THE TEST PROBLEM The inductor used in the study consists of a coil wound around the central limb of a rectangular magnetic core. The main geometrical dimensions are those used in the simple inductor described by Lowther and Silvester [1] and are shown in Fig. 2. The size of each window is 20.0 cm by 20.0 cm and the coil is placed in a rectangular region of 16.0 cm height and 10.0 cm width. A nonmagnetic insulating layer of 2.0 cm surrounds the coil and separates it from the magnetic core. The depth of the device is 5.0 cm, or half of the width of the outer limbs.

L=

n i

(1 )

where n is the number of times the winding links the flux , and i is the terminal current of the inductor. If the inductance is defined in terms of the magnetically stored energy W,

L=

2W I2

(2)

where I=ni is the total number of ampere-turns. Inductance is associated with the kinetic energy of electric current just as capacitance is associated to potential energy stored by electric charge distributions. In his review of elementary electromagnetism, Hammond [2] explains that different forms of energy are associated to the three physical properties resistance, capacitance and inductance as illustrated in Fig 1. The rate of energy dissipation by resistance is RI2, the electrostatic energy is *Q2/C and the electrokinetic or magnetic energy is *LI2. Still according to Hammond [2], resistance, capacitance and inductance give an overall view of electromagnetic systems but do not describe the processes in detail as is done by the field vectors.

Fig.2: Sketch of the inductor, dimensions in centimeters

Fig. 1: Physical properties and related forms of energy

Analytical calculation of inductance may use magnetic circuits including the sources of magnetomotive forces and a number of interconnected reluctors crossed by a given

The symmetry of the core and winding allows analyzing only one-half of the device. An outline of this half-problem is shown in Fig. 3. The modeling of the right-side limb includes four artificial layers of magnetic material and this numerical artifact enables the inclusion of air gaps with different lengths. The air layer that surrounds the magnetic core of the model has the same width of the outer limbs. This layer is especially important to model the fringing flux of inductors containing air gaps. Numerical field solutions are obtained using a free, downloadable simulation software based on the finite element method [3]. The numerical model uses a unique finite element mesh and material re-identification technique is used to simulate the insertion of air-gap layers in the outer limbs.

The nonlinear magnetization characteristic of the M-36 steel represents the behavior of the material that forms the magnetic core. This characteristic is shown in Appendix A. The winding is considered to contain only one massive turn and therefore the total excitation I=ni ampere-turns is assigned to the coil region.

Fig. 4: Potentials at selected points and the Dirichlet boundary

Fig. 3: Cross section of the half-problem, dimensions in centimeter.

III. NUMERICAL RESULTS The comparison study includes two sets of field solutions corresponding to two configurations of the magnetic core: with and without air gap. For each configuration, potential solutions are obtained along a wide range of excitations that varies from 0.2 to 60.0 kA-turn.

The flux can be determined by the line integral of the normal component of the flux density B along a line segment connecting these two points. The flux can be determined more precisely by noting the values of the magnetic vector potential at these points. For the solution representing an excitation level of 0.5 kA-turn, for example, magnetic vector potentials at these points are Al=0 and Ar=93.64 mWb/m. Then,

= ( Ar Al ) z = 4.682mWb

(5)

where z=0.05 m is the depth of the inductor. For the half- model, the inductance rated with respect to the number of turns squared n2 is

A) Techniques for inductance computation In the following, I denotes the total excitation in ampereturns and i is the terminal current of the inductor. The first technique for inductance calculation based on the concept of flux linkages uses the following expression

L 4.682 x10 3 = = = 9.364 H . n2 I 0.5 x10 3 L = 18.728H . n2

(6)

For the complete model, this value ought to be doubled. This yields, (7)

where is the flux linked by the winding. Calculation of the inductance rated with respect to the number of turns squared n2 is then

n n L= = , I i n

(3) Once the coil region is treated as a single-turn massive conductor, the quotient /I should be multiplied by n2 to give the correct value of inductance. The same field solution for the single-turn bus-bar conductor carrying a total current of 500 amperes can be used e.g. to calculate the inductance of an equivalent 1000-turn winding carrying a terminal current of 0.5 amperes. The inductance calculation for the 1000-turn inductor using the above field solution is then,

L = . n2 I

(4)

The postprocessing tasks for determining the flux start with the selection of two points quoting the desired flux. In the illustration of Fig. 4, points P and Q quote half of the total flux linked by the coil.

L = (1000) 2 (18.728 x106 ) = 18.728H .

(8)

The other technique for the calculation of inductance based on the concept of flux linkages uses the following expression:

L AJd = , n2 I2

B) The gapped-core inductor (9) In order to minimize the changes in inductance values under varying operation conditions, many inductor configurations include an air gap in its magnetic core. The original, gapless configuration of the inductor has been modified to include an air gap of 10 centimeters in the two outer limbs. The length of the gap represents 8.3% of the flux path length of the gapless configuration. The flux plot for the gapped-core configuration for an excitation of 60.0 kA-turn is shown in Fig. 5.

where denotes the coil region. A and J represent the distributions of magnetic vector potential and current density, respectively. For the solution representing the excitation level of 0.5 kA-turn, calculation of inductance for the complete model is

L (2.3412) =2 = 18.730 H . 2 n (500) 2

(10)

The third technique is based on the magnetically stored energy and uses the following expression,

L = n2

[ H (b)db]d .

I2

(11)

Calculation of inductance for the complete model of the test-problem using the field solution for the excitation of 0.5 kA-turn and the energy formulation is,

L 2(1.9574) = = 15.660 H . n2 (500) 2

(12)

Rated inductance values for the gapless core inductor calculated for the two extreme levels of excitation, using the three different techniques just described are resumed in Table I.

TABLE I COMPUTED INDUCTANCE: GAPLESS CORE L via flux linkages L via stored energy Excitation (H) (H) (kA-turn) Eq. 5 Eq. 10 Eq. 12 0.2 24.170 24.167 26.107 60 0.315 0.321 0.079

Fig.5: Flux plot for gapped-core inductor, maximum excitation

Results presented in Table I are the rated inductances L/n2 expressed in microhenries because the field solutions assume a winding containing only one turn. If the number of turns is known, these values should be multiplied by n2 to give the correct inductance value. Examination of the results shows that all inductance values are in good agreement with each other for the unsaturated condition. There is a substantial change in inductance values for the two extreme levels of excitation. For the flux linkage techniques, computed inductance values for the unsaturated condition are about 76 times larger than those for the saturated case. For the energy-based calculations, the changes in inductance values are considerably larger and of the order of 330 times.

Computed values for stored energy, co-energy and linear energy for excitations in the range of 30.0 to 60.0 kA-turn are summarized in Table II. Fig. 6 shows the variation of the three sets of computed forms of energy along the same range of excitations. TABLE II COMPUTED ENERGIES, CORE WITH AIR GAP
Excitation (kA-turn) 30.0 40.0 45.0 50.0 60.0 Stored Energy (J) 62.2 108.6 134.1 160.0 206.0 Co-energy (J) 62.2 110.4 139.3 171.0 242.0 Linear Energy (HA2) 62.2 109.5 136.7 165.5 224.0

increase in energy storage in the leakage field overcomes the effects of magnetic saturation in the core, ensuring small variations of the terminal inductance under extreme conditions of operation.
CONCLUSIONS

Fig. 6: Forms of energy: gapped-core inductor

Important and conclusive results of the comparison study are shown in Table III that resumes inductance values of the gapped-core inductor for the two extreme levels of excitation.
TABLE III COMPUTED INDUCTANCE: CORE WITH AIR GAP L via flux linkages L via stored Excitation (H) energy (H) (kA-turn) Eq. 5 Eq. 10 Eq. 12 0.2 0.287 0.276 0.276 60 0.257 0.249 0.229

The work focuses on the calculation of inductance from numerical field solutions. Following different definitions of inductance, three techniques for the calculation of inductance have been presented. A flexible and economical numerical model has been produced to simulate several operating conditions of two single-turn cored inductors under changes in excitation. Numerical results illustrate how the insertion of an air gap in the magnetic core minimizes the variation in inductance values for extreme levels of excitation and magnetic saturation. APPENDIX A MAGNETIZATION CURVE M-36 STEEL

For the gapped-core inductor, the variation in inductance for the two extreme levels of excitation is now, considerably less. For the two calculations based on flux linkages, for example, the ratio between inductance values for the two operating conditions is now 1.1 rather than 76.0 for the configuration without air gap. As can be seen with the aid of Table II and Fig. 6, the threshold of magnetic saturation appears when the excitation is about 40.0 kA-turns. This value is 114 times larger than that required to saturate the gapless-core inductor. Despite the large values of excitation and the saturated condition of its core, the inductor with air gap continues to operate as a linear device. A close observation of the stored energy characteristic presented above shows that, the variations in stored energies resulting from changes in excitation represent only a small perturbation at all operating points, ensuring incremental linearity. The level of saturation is, in fact, moderate as indicated by the relative proportions of stored energy and linear energy. For the excitation of 60.0 kA-turn, for example, the stored energy represents 92% of the corresponding linear energy, as compared to 25.0% for the gapless-core inductor. When large gaps are included, the reduction in material permeability of saturated cores have a minor effect on the value of the terminal inductance. This happens because the leakage flux, especially the fringing flux around the air gap, stores a considerable amount of energy. Clearly, the

REFERENCES [1] D.A. Lowther and P.P Silvester, Computer-aided design in magnetics, Springer-Verlag, 1985. [2] P. Hammond, Applied electromagnetism, Pergamon Press Ltd., Oxford, 1985. [3] Finite Element Method Magnetics, Version 3.2, Users Manual, 2006, Available: http://femm.berlios.de

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS Thanks are due to the authors of the programs FEMM, Triangle and Lua for sharing this excellent suite of programs with students and researchers all over the world. This report is part of the Project UDESC N. DAPE 028/2006.