Title: Considerations on the application of finite element analysis to calculate losses in non-sinusoidal excited ferrite cores

Authors: Peter M. Uzunov; Hernán E. Tacca

Addresses: Standex Electronics, OH, USA ' Facultad de Ingeniería of the Universidad de Buenos Aires, Rep. Argentina

Abstract: This paper presents some considerations regarding the measurement and calculation of core losses in high-frequency power magnetic analytically and with the finite element method under non-sinusoidal excitation. The asymmetry in the internal thermal distribution will cause the specific generation of losses to be very different from one point of the core to another. For some materials, the losses can be strongly nonlinear functions. Consequently, if the simulation with a finite element algorithm is not done by coupling the program with another that simulates the internal temperature distribution, the simulation can be very rough, with results so inaccurate that the greater complexity of FEA compared to the more primitive procedure based on average density estimation might not be justified. Therefore, in this work special attention is paid to the simulation of the temperature dependence of the losses in the ferrite cores and their calculation by iteration in finite element analysis. The iterative 'two-way coupling' procedure for calculating losses in a toroidal ferrite core is described and used in detail.

Keywords: core loss; ferrites; finite-element analysis; high-frequency; power magnetics.

DOI: 10.1504/IJPELEC.2024.142630

International Journal of Power Electronics, 2024 Vol.20 No.4, pp.318 - 337

Received: 19 Sep 2023
Accepted: 22 Apr 2024
Published online: 12 Nov 2024 *

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