Harmonic balance FEA of synchronous machines using a traveling-wave airgap model

A novel harmonic balance finite element method suitable for the analysis of synchronous machines is presented. A traveling-wave description of the airgap magnetic vector potential is utilized along with a reference frame transformation to account for periodic motion of the rotor. A frequency domain boundary condition is developed which allows the meshed portion of the stator to be reduced to a third of a pole. The computational efficiency and accuracy of the proposed method is compared to an existing time-domain steady-state analysis strategy which has previously been shown to be an improvement over standard transient analysis. The new technique is demonstrated to produce accurate results significantly faster than existing methods.