An Accurate Design Tool for Filter Inductors

The paper is focused on a new and accurate design tool which uses a high precision model for nonlinear lossy ferromagnetic cores. It can be easily included in a time-domain circuit simulator, like SPICE, being suitable to simulate any saturable inductor operating in any distorting regime at low or medium frequencies such cases are found in power electronics applications. The model uses as entry data the geometric dimensions of the magnetic core including air-gaps, the magnetic material properties given by the manufacturer data sheet and the winding constructive parameters. Therefore, the correspondence with the real device is realistic and undoubted. The proposed modeling technique takes its mathematical root from the Maxwell's theory. The simulation results give time-domain flux distribution in the magnetic core, the total core losses, as well as any working parameter of the circuit which includes the magnetic device. Experimental results obtained on a single phase inductor are compared with the obtained simulation results. Excellent concordance between both results is demonstrated in this paper.