Iron losses in magnetic materials with six-step and PWM inverter supply

The energetic behavior of two samples of soft magnetic materials fed by inverters has been studied. The authors dealt with the increase of the iron losses due to a nonconventional voltage supply. Six-step and PWM (pulse width modulated) inverter output voltages have been selected as the excitation waveforms for the samples under test. Extensive experimental results of high-quality grain-oriented silicon steel and amorphous-alloy-wound core samples are presented. A detailed description of the testing procedure is shown. The results are quite informative and quantify the iron-loss increase with nonsinusoidal supply in comparison with the results obtained by the standard tests (sinusoidal supply and Epstein method). The comparison can give useful indications to electromagnetic-device designers about the derating factors for the different magnetic materials that have to be used in designing devices fed by static power sources.