A New Energy-Based Method for 3-D Finite-Element Nonlinear Flux Linkage Computation of Electrical Machines

This paper presents a new method for computation of the nonlinear flux linkage in 3-D finite-element models (FEMs) of electrical machines. Accurate computation of the nonlinear flux linkage in 3-D FEM is not an easy task. Compared to the existing energy-perturbation method, the new technique introduced in this paper is much easier to use and is computational faster. This method is derived based on the “apparent energy.” Calculation of the nonlinear flux linkage from this energy avoids numerical differentiation, which is sensitive to numerical errors but is required in the traditional energy-perturbation method. The new method proposed is validated using experimental results on two different permanent magnet machines.