A 2-DIMENSIONAL SINGLE SHEET TESTER INCORPORATING CONTROLLED MAGNETIZATION DIRECTION

The existence of magnetic anisotropy in electrical steels has long bee n known to designers of electrical machines. However the effect of thi s anisotropy in real devices has not to date been studied in any great depth. Finite element modeling software is proving useful for designi ng such electrical machines, however, the material models which form t he heart of the process are based on limited data and indeed often mak e incorrect assumptions regarding the anisotropic nature of the machin e core. This article discusses shortcomings of present anisotropic mat erial models, suggests what is needed to overcome these shortcomings a nd presents one such two-dimensional magnetic test system capable of g enerating the materials data required. The method by which the data is obtained is described,and measured results are presented, indicating some of the features of the system. (C) 1996 American Institute of Phy sics.