IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON MAGNETICS, VOL. 52, NO.

3, MARCH 2016 7000304

Vector Hysteresis Model Associated With FEM in a

Self-Excited Induction Generator Modeling
Juliano B. Padilha, Patrick Kuo-Peng, Nelson Sadowski, and Nelson J. Batistela
Electromagnetic Devices Design and Analysis Research Group/Electrical Engineering Department/Technological
Center/Federal University of Santa Catarina, Florianpolis 88040-900, Brazil
This paper discusses the implementation of the inverse JilesAtherton vector hysteresis model with the 2-D Finite Element
Method (FEM) for the analysis of an induction machine operating as self-excited generator. A differential reluctivity tensor couples
the hysteresis model with the magnetic vector potential-based finite-element model. Experimental and simulated results (transient
and steady state) are presented.
Index Terms Finite-element (FE) analysis, generators, hysteresis, induction motors.

I. I NTRODUCTION

A LTHOUGH the phenomenon of magnetic hysteresis can

be neglected for the study of many electromagnetic
devices, mainly when they present magnetic air gap, in some
cases its influence may be required in magnetic field modeling
as, for instance, in the analysis of hysteresis motors, in trans-
formers, or in situations where the remnant flux has influence
on the behavior of the system as for self-excited induction Fig. 1. Studied system.
generators.
Some studies [1][3] analyze the self-excited induction
generator with the FEM; however, in these works, the phe-
nomenon of magnetic hysteresis is not considered and the
self-excitation is not naturally established by the residual mag-
netization of the ferromagnetic material. Other studies [4][7]
consider an analysis through lumped parameters, which does
not include possible harmonic content on the waveforms of
the generator output voltage.
In this context, this paper discusses the implementation of
the inverse JilesAtherton (JA) vector hysteresis model [8], [9]
with the 2-D FEM coupled with the external circuit for the
analysis of an induction machine operating as self-excited Fig. 2. Magnetization curve and capacitor characteristic line.
generator. The inverse vector model is, here, considered,
because it has the magnetic induction as input variable and, II. S TUDIED T OPOLOGY
therefore, it is suitable for vector potential formulations. Fig. 1 shows a scheme of the studied system which
The coupling between the finite element (FE) and hysteresis is composed by an induction generator connected to a
models is carried out using a differential reluctivity tensor. three-phase balanced capacitor bank responsible for reactive
FE equations with hysteresis modeling are coupled to power supply. The capacitor bank has an important role in
electrical circuit equations and the system is solved in a the system, because it enables the self-excitation and keeps
time-step procedure considering the rotor movement. To the the generator voltage in a stable operating point. The terminal
best of our knowledge, the modeling where all the phenomena voltage also depends on the load impedance and the generator
are considered has been never presented in the literature, rotational speed.
and this is the main contribution of this paper. Computed Operating at constant speed, it is possible to keep the voltage
results are compared with the experimental ones to show the constant at load terminals by suitable choice of the capacitor
effectiveness of the modeling procedures. bank. At no load, the generator operates at a point given by
the intersection of the magnetization curve with the capacitor
characteristic line (Fig. 2).
Manuscript received June 25, 2015; revised September 11, 2015; accepted
September 24, 2015. Date of publication September 28, 2015; date of
current version February 17, 2016. Corresponding authors: J. B. Padilha III. JA V ECTOR H YSTERESIS M ODEL
(e-mail: juliano.padilha@posgrad.ufsc.br) and N. Sadowski (e-mail:
nelson@grucad.ufsc.br). In order to briefly recall the principles of the model, an
Color versions of one or more of the figures in this paper are available auxiliary vector variable  f is introduced as follows [8], [9]:
online at http://ieeexplore.ieee.org.
Digital Object Identifier 10.1109/TMAG.2015.2483201  f = k1 ( M
 an M)
 (1)
0018-9464 2015 IEEE. Personal use is permitted, but republication/redistribution requires IEEE permission.
See http://www.ieee.org/publications_standards/publications/rights/index.html for more information.
7000304 IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON MAGNETICS, VOL. 52, NO. 3, MARCH 2016

where M  an , M,
 and k are, respectively, the anhysteretic mag- For a circuit-coupled nonlinear 2-D FE modeling, including
netization, the total magnetization, and a second rank tensor eddy currents and moving parts, the whole matrix system can
whose terms must be obtained experimentally. On the other be written in the following form, where time derivatives are
hand, the effective field vector variation is given by approximated by Eulers scheme [11], [12]:
d He = d H +  d M
 (2) (Si +t 1 N)Ai PIi = (Si1 +t 1 N)Ai1 Hi1
1
where d H is the magnetic field variation and  is a tensor. t QAi +(RG6)Ii G4 Xi = t 1 QAi1 +G5 Ei
With this model, the evolution of the magnetization vector is G3 Ii +(t 1 1G1)Xi = t 1 1Xi1 + G2 Ei (11)
calculated according to the sign of the scalar product between
 f and d He as follows. where matrix S depends on the differential reluctivities and
moving part positions at steps i and i 1; t is the time
1) If ( f d He ) > 0
step and rotation is considered with a moving band in the air
 = 1  gap. Matrix N is related to eddy currents in massive conductive
dM (1 +  f | f |1  f (1  ) + c (1  ))1
0 parts; H is FE contribution associated with the third right-hand

( f | f |1  f + c )d B. (3) side term in (9). Matrices P and Q are the FE contributions
associated with the windings and their electrical resistances
2) If ( f d He ) 0 are included in R. Matrices G1 to G6 and vector E are related
to the external electric circuit topology; 1 is the unity matrix.
 = 1 (1 + c (1  ))1 (
dM c )d B.

0 The unknowns are Ai , Ii , and Xi , respectively, the magnetic
vector potential in the FE nodes, the current in the windings,
In (3), 1 is the unity matrix, 0 is the air magnetic and the state variables of the electrical circuit (the voltage
permeability, d B is the magnetic induction variation, c is a across the capacitors in this paper). The Gauss elimination
tensor, which should be experimentally obtained, and  is a method combined with successive approximations are used
square matrix of the anhysteretic functions derivatives with to solve (11). An under-relaxation is required in the iterative
respect to x and y components of the effective field He . solution (typically a factor of 0.03 was used in this paper).
Using (3), the magnetic field is evaluated by To ensure the numerical stability of the hysteresis model,
1  a time discretization that includes a high amount of time steps
d H = 
d B d M. (4)
0 per excitation cycle is needed. This prevents too high induction
variations. A possible solution to avoid a very small time step
In 2-D, the relationship between d H and d B can be
in the simulations with the FEM, while ensuring the stability
approximated by
  of the hysteresis model, is to discretize the vector model at
 Hx Hx  each time step. Once the input variables in the hysteresis model
   
 Bx B y   x x x y  for each FE are the magnetic inductions in the current time
   
d H = d B =  H    
H y  d B =  yx yy  d B. (5) step ( Bi ) and in the previous time step ( Bi1 ), the range  B =
 y

 Bx By  Bi Bi1 can be divided in n equal parts. Thus, the JA model
is implemented from Bi1 to Bi , with an increment  B/n  in
IV. C OUPLING C IRCUIT AND F IELD E QUATIONS each time step. The value of n depends on the magnitude of
C ONSIDERING THE V ECTOR H YSTERESIS M ODEL the induction. In saturation region, a typical value of 20 is
Equation (5) can be rewritten in a time-step procedure employed; under low induction levels this value may be lower
applying Euler scheme (5 is used). This methodology allows simulations with less
processing time, and helps the convergence of the nonlinear
Hi =  ( Bi Bi1 ) + Hi1 (6)
analyses.
where i corresponds to the i th calculation step. Using (6) in
Ampres law curl H = J, one has V. R ESULTS
curl ( ( Bi Bi1 ) + Hi1 ) = Ji (7) A specially constructed 1 hp three-phase, 60 Hz, 380 V
wye-connected stator, four poles, 0.5 mm air-gap cage rotor
where J is a current density. By using a magnetic vector induction machine with unskewed slots is used to validate this
potential formulation, in which B = curl A,
 (7) becomes
paper. Each stator winding presents 171 conductors. A per
curl( curl Ai ) = Ji + curl( curl Ai1 ) curl Hi1 . (8) phase 15 F balanced bank of wye-connected capacitors is
connected in parallel with the generator, as shown in Fig. 1.
For a 2-D approximation, A = Az and J = J z , where Isotropic characteristics were assumed for modeling the core
z is the unit vector in the z direction. In this case, (8) can be of the machine and the JA model parameters are presented
written as in Table I.
   
div  gradAi = Ji + div  gradAi1 cur Hi1 (9) The simulation is carried out as follows. First with
switches S1 closed and switches S2 opened, the induction
where [10], [13] machine is operated as motor in a short period of time with
 
 yx 
 =  yy . (10)
locked rotor in order to establish a remnant magnetization in
 x y x x  the machine. Second, switches S1 are opened and after also a
PADILHA et al.: VECTOR HYSTERESIS MODEL ASSOCIATED WITH FEM
TABLE I
JA H YSTERESIS M ODEL PARAMETERS
Fig. 3. Experimental apparatus.
Fig. 4. Experimental line voltage build-up process.
Fig. 5. Calculated line voltage build-up process.
short period of time, switches S2 are closed, while the speed
of the rotor is imposed at 1800 r/min.
An experimental workbench was used to verify the simu-
lation procedures. A dc motor was employed as prime mover
and the experimental initial magnetization was also established
by operating the induction machine previously as motor with
locked rotor. Fig. 3 shows the experimental apparatus.
Figs. 4 and 5 show, respectively, the experimental and
calculated line voltage of the generator as well its
7000304
Fig. 6. Measured and calculated line voltages at steady state.
Fig. 7. Measured and calculated line currents at steady state.
TABLE II
RMS L INE V OLTAGE C OMPARISON
Fig. 8. Measured and calculated phase voltage at steady state.
self-excitation process. In simulation, each electrical period
was sampled into 360 points. The steady-state waveform was
reached after 116 electrical periods. The total simulation time
was 24 h on a Core i7 3770, 8GB RAM personal computer.
Fig. 6 shows the line voltage waveforms at steady state and
Fig. 7 shows the corresponding windings currents. The rms
expected line voltage (capacitor characteristic line intersection
with magnetization curve, as shown in Fig. 2) is 430.23 V.
Assuming this value as reference, the difference between the
results obtained experimentally (D1 ) and by the FEM (D2 ) is
calculated and presented in Table II. One observes very good
agreement between these three different approaches.
7000304
Fig. 9. Hysteresis loop in a stator tooth (radial component).
TABLE III
H ARMONIC C ONTENTS
Fig. 10. Measured and calculated phase voltages when induction machine
and capacitors bank neutrals are connected.
Fig. 11. Measured and calculated line currents when induction machine and
capacitors bank neutrals are connected.
Fig. 8 shows the steady-state phase voltage waveforms.
One can observe the ripple due to the unskewed slots, either
on experimental and simulated results. These ripples strongly
affect hysteresis modeling. As a matter of fact, they increase
the difficulties in modeling the whole problem because minor
hysteresis loops are introduced on the main cycle as shown,
for instance, in Fig. 9, where a B(H ) loop in a stator tooth at
steady-state operation is presented.
The 21st harmonic appears in the generator phase voltage
due to unskewed slots. The main harmonic contents obtained
experimentally and by the FEM are shown in Table III.
A set of results is also presented, considering that the
generator and capacitor bank neutrals are both connected.
IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON MAGNETICS, VOL. 52, NO. 3, MARCH 2016
The corresponding phase voltages and phase currents are
shown in Figs. 10 and 11 respectively, showing again good
agreement between modeling and experimental results.
VI. C ONCLUSION
In this paper, a self-excited induction generator is analyzed
using a coupled 2-D FEM field-circuit modeling. The remnant
magnetization required for the self-excitation process of the
induction generator is considered in the stator and rotor cores
material model by means of a developed vector hysteresis
model. As already mentioned, this is the main contribution of
this paper, since in most works, the self-excitation process is
not naturally established by the residual magnetization of the
ferromagnetic material but by means, for instance, a preloaded
capacitors bank.
Comparison between simulation and experimental results
show the effectiveness of the proposed methodology as well
as that of the developed simulation tools.
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