Estimating Magnetic Properties of Synchronous Generator's Materials

The paper presents a method for determination of nonlinear B-H characteristics of materials used for construction of stator and rotor core of a synchronous generator. The B-H characteristics are determined by evolutionary optimization coupled with 2D finite-element (FE) computation. The objective function is to minimize the difference between the measured and calculated no-load voltage vs. field current characteristic. The application of the method is presented in the case of a 35 MVA salient-pole synchronous generator installed in one of the power plants in Croatian Power System.