In this bachelor thesis several software, capable of calculating and simulating complex problems concerning the power losses in inductors and transformers with the finite element method, have been evaluated and used to solve test cases provided by the commissioner. The software have been evaluated with respect to several requirements stated by the commissioner.
The aim is to be able to simulate power losses and inductance levels in complex designs of inductors and transformers. By reading the manuals to the software, aview of the methods and equations the different software use for their calculationshave been established. The enclosed tutorials have provided the knowledge forthe operations of the different software. By designing the test models provided by the commissioner, a deeper understanding of the work area has been reached.
The test results provides an answer for the test models, the behaviour of the magnetic field has been analysed for the models and the calculated power losses seem to correspond to the behaviour of the prototypes.
The evaluation of the software has been done with regard to the commissioners requirements. The recommendation will be to use either FEMM 4.2 or QuickField5.7, both software have a short training curve and an interface easy to maintain.
For problems requiring a transient analysis the recommendation is QuickField, but the material library maintainability is better in FEMM 4.2. Regarding COMSOL Multiphysics 3.5 and Ansys RAnsoft Maxwell Student Version 9, both software are highly qualified for the complex calculations needed for these kind of problems.The training curve for these software is however much longer than for the othertwo software and for the commissioner to be able to fully use all the possibilities in the software this will not be efficient.
Source: Linköping University
Authors: Larsson, Jenny | Håkansson, David