A Hybrid Modeling Approach for Current Diffusion in Rectangular Conductors

This paper deals with modeling and simulation of devices where current-carrying conductors are located close to magnetic bodies. These configurations typically occur in electromechanical energy converters such as in slots of electrical machines. Additional losses due to the inhomogeneous current density distribution (“current” or “field” diffusion) at high excitation frequency are a well-known phenomenon. However, classical approaches reach their limits as soon as field diffusion is influenced by ferromagnetic material with non-linear properties. An accurate but time-consuming computation can be achieved by using time-transient quasi-stationary finite-element analysis (FEA). Current diffusion can be described more efficiently by separating the conductor into parallel filaments, following the partial element equivalent circuit (PEEC) approach. As long as linear material characteristics are prevailing, the problem can, thus, be solved efficiently in the frequency domain. In this paper, a hybrid FEA-PEEC modeling approach is presented, where the magnetization of the ferromagnetic material is represented by equivalent currents obtained by 2-D FEA. It is suitable for complex multi-conductor configurations even including non-linear ferromagnetic material. For the proposed method, the resulting linear system is efficiently solvable in the frequency domain by direct solvers. A numerical example from the field of electric traction motors is presented to emphasize the accuracy and benefit of the proposed method for practical electromagnetic computations.