Iron Loss Calculation in a Three-Phase-Laminated-Core Variable Inductor Based on Reluctance Network Analysis

Variable inductors, which consist of only a magnetic core and primary dc and secondary ac windings, can control effective inductance of the secondary ac winding by primary dc excitation. Therefore, the variable inductors can be applied as a var compensator in electric power systems. In a previous paper, we have proposed a novel three-phase-laminated-core variable inductor. It has only one laminated core in which the three-phase secondary ac windings are installed to reduce size and weight in comparison with a conventional single-phase variable inductor. Good controllability and sinusoidal output current of the proposed variable inductor were demonstrated. This paper presents a method for calculating iron loss of the three-phase-laminated-core variable inductor based on reluctance network analysis (RNA). The validity of the proposed method is proved by comparing with measured values.