Finite Element Analysis of Electric Machines

------The Solver and Its Application

Danhong Zhong
Department of Electrical Engineering
The Pennsylvania State University
Motivation
Steady-state finite element solver
Low rotor loss permanent magnet
machine design
Summary and future work

Outline
Electric Machines in New Technologies
Flywheel for frequency regulation for
renewable and distributed generation
(Credit: Beacon Power)
How do we design a machine that
suits our need?
Flywheel energy storage system
Motor/Generator test setup for flywheel system
Design Objectives
Flywheel motor/generator for
small satellite application
Power level of 100W
Ultrahigh speed operation
(150-300krpm)
High frequency
electromagnetics
Continuously charging and
discharging
Thermal Constraints important
Electrical losses
Rotor
losses
Design Methods
Rules-of-thumb, empirical tables, design equations, a designers
intuition are all valuable

Classic Way----prototyping

Large-scale numerical simulation



Magnetic excitation is supplied by high-energy permanent magnet

No power loss is associated
with machine field excitation

High power/weight ratio

----Popular choice for
high-speed motor/generator
applications



Synchronous Permanent Magnet (PM) Machines
Rotor losses
Rotor exposed to high electrical frequency harmonics

Heat generated

Rotor spins in vacuum, supported by magnetic bearings

Only method of heat transfer is through blackbody
radiation, which is a relatively poor heat transfer mechanism
Temperature dependence of Neodymium Iron Boron
The properties of many
materials in the flywheel rotor will
degrade with increasing
temperature

E.g., the intrinsic coercivity of
Neodymium-Iron-Boron decreases
significantly with temperature,
creating a risk of demagnetization

It is therefore important to
minimize rotor losses in this
application
Change of intrinsic coercivity of
Neodymium Iron Boron
with respect to temperature
(courtesy Dexter Magnetics)

Solver overview
Programmed in MATLAB environment
2-D finite element analysis
Software capable of:
model building
mesh generation
steady-state solution solving (time stepping)
rotor losses calculation
Uses GMRES method to speed up steady-state solution
Allows study of rotor losses when insulating barriers exist
in the 2-D plane of the rotor (e.g., segmenting permanent
magnets)

Road Map
1) Maxwells equation --The governing Partial
Differential Equation(PDE) of the problem
2) PDE - Finite Element Equations
3) Main techniques used in achieving the steady state
solution.

Mathematical model
Maxwells equations:

t
B
E
J H
B
c
c
= V
= V
= V 0
Constitutive Laws:

M H B
B v E J
0 0
) (

o
+ =
+ =
Governing Partial Differential Equation (PDE)
(1)

Finite Element Method
The object is divided into Finite
Element mesh

A simple relationship is used to
represent the variables anywhere in
the element by variables on the
nodes of the element.



Within the element, approximate
functions in terms of nodal values
are then derived from the PDE






Mesh (16761 points 33232 elements)
element
The method of weighted residuals
Define a residual function:
(1)

The solution of the PDE should satisfy that, for a given weight function w,
(2)

(3)

Finite Element Formulation
The finite element formulation is given as:
Where
D, K :global matrix decided by material properties and element shape
IM, AM : represents magnetization in ferromagnetic materials or
permanent magnets, can be a nonlinear function of x
I s : forced current flowing in stator windings
(4)
(
(
(

=
(
(
(

A + I
A + I
(
(
(

V
(
(
(

+
(
(
(

V
(
(
(
(
(

E
s y s x s
y r x r
s
r
ss rs
sr rr
s
r rr
I M M
M M
a
a
K K
K K
s
a
a S 0
0 0
0
3
~
0 0
0 0 0
0 0
0
~
3
1
0
|
o
|

(5)
Steady-State Analysis
Under steady-state assumptions, after one period T we wish to achieve
the same primary variables, i.e.


If we define the nonlinear state transition function as , this becomes:

) (- +
(6)

Steady-State Solution Techniques
The state transition function in (6) is determined by (5)
To achieve the steady-state solutions, we used the following numerical
techniques:

o Backward Euler Integration
o Shooting-Newton Algorithm
o Matrix-free GMRES
(5)
(6)
Shooting Newton Method
Modify
NO
Time integration of the differential equation
YES
Initial Value Final Value
Error < Tolerance?
Target Value (=Initial Value) End Iteration
Calculate
Modification
The steady-state solution in the time domain is obtained by
using a shooting Newton method:


Applying the Newton-Raphson method, we get:

Where J
+
is the Jacobian of the nonlinear state transition function

(8)

In our solver we define

(7)

Matrix-free GMRES Method
Generalized minimum residual method (GMRES) :
A Krylov-subspace method
When solving Ax=b, no direct access of matrix A is used, A only
need to be accessible via a subroutine that returns y=Az
The Jacobin
1
1
1
) 0 (
) (
) , 0 , ) 0 ( (

+
c
c
=
j
j
j
x
T x
T x J
can not be explicitly written
(8)

A
x b
Efficiency Improvement
By using GMRES, the computation time of the shooting-Newton
method is dramatically reduced.
Flux Density Distribution
Rotor Loss Distribution
Harmonic analysis
0 20 40 60 80 100
0
0.05
0.1
0.15
0.2
0.25
harmonics
r
o
t
o
r

l
o
s
s
e
s
(
w
)
After we achieve the steady-state solution, we perform a Discrete Fourier
Transform of x(t) and calculate the eddy current rotor losses for each
harmonic.
Rotor Loss Design Study
Design parameters are changed to study the effect
on rotor losses

The stator current peak is adjusted to maintain
constant steady-state mechanical power

Segmenting the PM poles
Other Rotor Design Aspect
Laminated backiron





Different permanent magnet materials
Stator Design: 36 Stator Slots
Stator Design: Open Slot vs. Closed Slot



open slot
closed slot
0 20 40 60 80 100
0
0.05
0.1
0.15
0.2
0.25
harmonics
l
o
s
s
(
w
)
Techniques for Reducing Rotor Losses
Laminating rotor backiron

Segmenting the Permanent magnet poles

Increasing slot number

Closing the stator slots





Summary
Purpose of Finite element analysis for electric machines

The flywheel energy storage system

The steady-state nonlinear finite element solver

Its application

Further research into numerical modeling of electric
machines
Special machine design and analysis




Future Work
2011 Chevrolet Volt Propulsion System
(Credit: GM)



Thank you!
This work has been supported by NASA Grant NAG3-2598
Currents flowing in permanent magnet are eddy currents. In machine
design, magnets can be electrically insulated from each other and the
rotor backiron.
Eddy currents meet large impedance at the
end of the machine, surface charge will
accumulate and electric potential is built
across the magnet

Permanent Magnets
) (
1
2
0
A M A
t
A

V + V = V
c
c
| o

o
Electric Scalar Potential Dynamics
| o o V
c
c
=
t
A
J
eddy
(2)

s
ds J
s
eddy
c
}

= o
c
o
|
c
= V

ds
t
A S
s
V +
c
c
= V
}
) ( | |
o
c

The charge relaxation time constant c/o is extremely small in
permanent magnets, and so our system consists of a set of fast
dynamics (electric scalar potential) and slow dynamics (magnetic
vector potential). Therefore, singular perturbation techniques can
be used to analyze the system.
Singular Perturbation Analysis Techniques
Under singular perturbation theory, when analyzing the fast
dynamics, the slow variables can be assumed to be essentially
constant
If the fast dynamics are stable under this condition, the fast
variables will converge to a quasi-steady-state value, which is a
function of the slow variables
When analyzing the slow dynamics, it can be assumed that the
fast variables have converged to their quasi-steady-state value
discussed above.

0 = V
c
c

}
| S ds
t
A
S

m
n
R z z t z t z x g z
R x x t x t z x f x
e = =
e = =
, ) ( ), , , , (
, ) ( ), , , , (
0
0
0
0
c c
c

c
small
) , 0 ,
~
,
~
( 0 t z x g =
(3)
ds
t
A S
s
V +
c
c
= V
}
) ( | |
o
c

Applying Finite Element Method
To solve the Partial Differential Equations
use 2D finite element method
Primary variable : A and V|
Element type : triangular
Shape functions : linear
Procedure used : weighted residuals
Error distribution principle :
Galerkins method
Boundary conditions:

0 =
I z
A
Newton-Raphson Method
Applying the Newton-Raphson method, we get:

Where J
+
is the Jacobian of the nonlinear state transition function

) ( ) (
1 1
1

=
c
c

j j j
x
x f x x
x
f
j
Define : and its called the Jacobian of

j
x
f
x
f
J
c
c
=
) (x f
(5)

In our solver we define

For a nonlinear equation, the Newton-Raphson Method provides the
following iterative procedure to solver for x:

0 ) ( = x f
Equation solving
Now we look closely at the steady state iterative equation :
1
1
1
) 0 (
) (
) , 0 , ) 0 ( (

+
c
c
=
j
j
j
x
T x
T x J
In (5), is not known explicitly but is determined
through Backward Euler Integration. Thus:
1 1
) ( ) , 0 , ) 0 ( (

= +
j j
T x T x
(5)

can not be explicitly written either and would have to be calculated using a
form of numerical integration
Equation solving (2)
One way of solving for the Jacobian is to differentiate both sides of (4)
with respect to
+
J
Where and are matrices derived from (4). can then be computed by
repeatedly solving (6) starting from the initial condition
f
C
p
C
+
J
Computation load analysis of this method:
Matrix-Matrix multiplication on the right side and LU-factorization on the left
side. If the vector has components, the computation work per time step is
of at least order
N
2
N
The Backward Euler Integration Method calculate y at step
n+1 implicitly by :
Backward Euler Integration
Consider the problem:


) ( ) (
2
1 1
h O y hf y y
n n n
+ =
+ +
In the solver we separate the period T into a number of time
steps h. Provided a solution at time t1, x(t1), we then can
compute the solution x(t1+h) at time t1+h, by applying the
backward Euler integration to (5) over the time interval h:
(5)
(7)
Application of the GMRES
Computation load analysis of this method:
Now we consider solving the problem using GMRES method. By using
GMRES method, we dont need to provide explicitly. Instead, we only need
to provide . We apply the procedure (6) to a vector
+
J
Matrix-vector multiplication on the right side and LU-factorization on the left
side. Typically the number of iterations required by GMRES to achieve a
sufficiently low relative error is substantially smaller than problem size. So by
using GMRES, the numerical efficiency is improved.
The eddy currents in rotor are :
Post-processing:
rotor loss calculation
After we achieve the steady-state solution at time 0, the entire response
x(t) can be calculated by integrating (5) for one period. We perform a
Discrete Fourier Transform of x(t) and calculate the eddy current rotor
losses for each harmonic in each element.
}
}
V =
=
Se
i i i s
Se
i e
s
ei
dS A j l
dS J
l
P
2
2
) ( ) (
) (
e | e e o
e
o
u V
c
c
= o o
t
A
J