A simplified approach to permanent magnet and reluctance motor characteristics determination by finite‐element methods

Purpose – To provide a new method for the determination of motor characteristics by means of FE‐methods suitable for multi‐variable design processes.Design/methodology/approach – The process is based on two‐dimensional, steady state and frequency domain FE‐analysis including a stepwise movement of the rotor. The process consists of the following steps: generation of an appropriate FE‐model with specific mesh generation; input of the machines parameters and the parameters of the simulation process; no load simulation: cogging torque T, no load fluxes ψmo and voltages uo and the phase angles of the windings currents; load simulation with given currents: average and the pulsating torque T, fluxes ψl(α), voltages U, two‐axis model parameters ψm, Ld and Lq; determination of operating characteristics: torque T, voltage U, current I, power P, angles β and δ cos ϕ, as functions of speed n. Based on machine parameters from step 3 and 4 determination of losses in the magnets by means of a frequency domain model and...