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Non-oriented electrical steel presents anisotropic behaviour. Modelling such anisotropic behaviour has become a necessity for accurate design of electrical machines. The main aim of this study is to model the magnetic anisotropy in the non-oriented electrical steel sheet of grade M400-50A using a phenomenological hysteresis model.

The well-known phenomenological vector Jiles–Atherton hysteresis model is modified to correctly model the typical anisotropic behaviour of the non-oriented electrical steel sheet, which is not described correctly by the original vector Jiles–Atherton model. The modification to the vector model is implemented through the anhysteretic magnetization. Instead of the commonly used classical Langevin function, the authors introduced 2D bi-cubic spline to represent the anhysteretic magnetization for modelling the magnetic anisotropy.

The proposed model is found to yield good agreement with the measurement data. Comparisons are done between the original vector model and the proposed model. Another comparison is also made between the results obtained considering two different modifications to the anhysteretic magnetization.

The paper presents an original method to model the anhysteretic magnetization based on projections of the anhysteretic magnetization in the principal axis, and apply such modification to the vector Jiles–Atherton model to account for the magnetic anisotropy. The replacement of the classical Langevin function with the spline resulted in better fitting. The proposed model could be used in the numerical analysis of magnetic field in an electrical application.

Improperly fitted parameters for the Jiles–Atherton (JA) hysteresis model can lead to non-physical hysteresis loops when ferromagnetic materials are simulated. This can be remedied by including a proper physical constraint in the parameter-fitting optimization algorithm. This paper aims to implement the constraint in the meta-heuristic simulated annealing (SA) optimization and Nelder–Mead simplex (NMS) algorithms to find JA model parameters that yield a physical hysteresis loop. The quasi-static B(H)-characteristics of a non-oriented (NO) silicon steel sheet are simulated, using existing measurements from a single sheet tester. Hysteresis loops received from the JA model under modified logistic function and piecewise cubic spline fitted to the average M(H) curve are compared against the measured minor and major hysteresis loops.

A physical constraint takes into account the anhysteretic susceptibility at the origin. This helps in the optimization decision-making, whether to accept or reject randomly generated parameters at a given iteration step. A combination of global and local heuristic optimization methods is used to determine the parameters of the JA hysteresis model. First, the SA method is applied and after that the NMS method is used in the process.

The implementation of a physical constraint improves the robustness of the parameter fitting and leads to more physical hysteresis loops. Modeling the anhysteretic magnetization by a spline fitted to the average of a measured major hysteresis loop provides a significantly better fit with the data than using analytical functions for the purpose. The results show that a modified logistic function can be considered a suitable anhysteretic (analytical) function for the NO silicon steel used in this paper. At high magnitude excitations, the average M(H) curve yields the proper fitting with the measured hysteresis loop. However, the parameters valid for the major hysteresis loop do not produce proper fitting for minor hysteresis loops.

The physical constraint is added in the SA and NMS optimization algorithms. The optimization algorithms are taken from the GNU Scientific Library, which is available from the GNU project. The methods described in this paper can be applied to estimate the physical parameters of the JA hysteresis model, particularly for the unidirectional alternating B(H) characteristics of NO silicon steel.

The purpose of this paper is to study the effects of inverter supply on the iron loss characteristics of slip-ring induction machines. Pulse width modulated (PWM) voltage supply on the stator side, as well as a doubly fed operation mode with rotor-sided inverter, are investigated.

An inverter fed machine model is coupled to previously developed eddy current and hysteresis loss models. The eddy current model is based on a finite element method and considers the three-dimensional (3D) eddy current distribution in the steel sheets. The hysteresis losses are computed by a static Preisach vector model.

It is found that under stator-sided inverter supply the eddy current losses do significantly increase when compared to sinusoidal feeding, contributing to a total loss increase of 10-15 percent. In doubly fed operation, the additional losses are generally lower owing to the winding topology of the studied machine.

The analyses presented are restricted to single PWM pattern only. The influences of different PWM parameters remain to be investigated in future.

Regarding practical applications, the reduced additional losses in doubly fed configurations can be considered as a further advantage when competing against other topologies available.

The 3D eddy current model is applied for the first time to quantify the effects of inverter supply. Furthermore, the presented studies on the iron losses in doubly fed operation are original and of practical value for designers and researches.