2-D Reduced Model for Eddy Currents Calculation in Litz Wire and Its Application for Switched Reluctance Machine

The strong correlation between the level of eddy current losses and the winding geometry shows the necessity to pay attention to the manner of disposition of coils in machine slots. The conductor type, whether it is solid or stranded, also has a crucial influence. This paper suggests an electromagnetic analysis of complex stranded conductors, such as litz wire (LW) and twisted wire. Each conductor is composed of individual strands that are woven or twisted in the slot throughout the machine length. Combined with several electric circuit relationships that interpret the strands transposition, a 2-D finite-element (FE) model is developed in this paper so that the copper losses in each strand can be calculated individually. A model reduction is also proposed in the case of LWs. This allows the benefit of only one complete FE solution to find fast solutions in the slots' domains when any variation of geometrical data occurrs. It allows adapting non-conforming subdomains' meshes and seeing that it prevents the Newton-Raphson iterations and the moving band technique, the model reduction presents clear interests in repetitive analysis, such as winding optimization processes.