Numerical modeling of magnetic cores with combined electrical steel grades

Abstract

Purpose This paper aims to investigate the impact of combining grain-oriented electrical steel (GOES) grades on specific iron losses and the flux density distribution within a single-phase magnetic core. Design/methodology/approach This paper presents the results of finite-element method (FEM) simulations investigating the impact of mixing two different GOES grades on losses of a single-phase magnetic core. The authors used different models: a 3D model with a highly detailed geometry including both saturation and anisotropy, as well as a simplified 2D model to save computation time. The behavior of the flux distribution in the mixed magnetic core is analyzed. Finally, the results from the numerical simulations are compared with experimental results. Findings The specific iron losses of a mixed magnetic core exhibit a nonlinear decrease with respect to the GOES grade with the lowest losses. Analyzing the magnetic core behavior using 2D and 3D FEM shows that the rolling direction of the GOES grades plays a critical role on the nonlinearity variation of the specific losses. Originality/value The novelty of this research lies in achieving an optimum trade-off between the manufacturing cost and the core efficiency by combining conventional and high-performance GOES grade in a single-phase magnetic core.