A Simple Compensation Method for the Accurate Measurement of Magnetic Losses With a Single Strip Tester

We present a new method for the accurate characterization of soft magnetic sheets using a permeameter based on the precise compensation of the magnetomotive force (MMF) drop in the flux-closing yoke. It has been developed in order to overcome the systematic uncertainty affecting the value of the magnetic field strength in single sheet testers when obtained, according to the standards, through the measurement of the magnetizing current. This phenomenon is more critical to high-permeability materials, because of the reduced MMF drop across the sample. While additional sensors and auxiliary windings have been proposed in the literature, a novel approach is demonstrated here, based on the use of the permeameter upper half yoke as the MMF drop sensor and of an auxiliary winding on the lower half yoke, implementing compensation. This solution, dispensing one from dealing with the usually small signal levels of the conventional MMF drop sensors (e.g., Chattock coils), provides the best results with the introduction of wedge-shaped magnetic poles, in order to accurately define the magnetic path length. The method is validated by the measurements of power loss, apparent power, and hysteresis cycles on non-oriented and grain-oriented Fe-Si steel sheets, which are compared with local measurements performed on the same samples using H-coil and B-coil across a uniformly magnetized region.