Core loss calculation for magnetic materials

employed in SMPS under rectangular

voltage excitations
Cite as: AIP Advances 8, 056121 (2018); https://doi.org/10.1063/1.5007201
Submitted: 01 October 2017 • Accepted: 29 November 2017 • Published Online: 10 January 2018

Shuaichao Yue, Qingxin Yang, Yongjian Li, et al.

COLLECTIONS

Paper published as part of the special topic on 62nd Annual Conference on Magnetism and Magnetic Materials

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AIP Advances 8, 056121 (2018); https://doi.org/10.1063/1.5007201 8, 056121

© 2018 Author(s).
 AIP ADVANCES 8, 056121 (2018)

Core loss calculation for magnetic materials employed

in SMPS under rectangular voltage excitations
Shuaichao Yue,1 Qingxin Yang,1,2 Yongjian Li,1,a and Changgeng Zhang1
1 State Key Laboratory of Reliability and Intelligence of Electrical Equipment, Hebei University

of Technology, 300130 Tianjin, China

2 Tianjin Key Laboratory of ATEEE, Tianjin Polytechnic University, Tianjin 300387, China

(Presented 7 November 2017; received 1 October 2017; accepted 29 November 2017;

published online 10 January 2018)

Magnetic materials are widely used in switching-mode power supplies (SMPS) and
magnetic components in SMPS usually work under two typical rectangular excita-
tions (with or without the period of zero voltage). Extensive experimental results have
shown that there is quite a difference of core loss between sinusoidal excitations and
rectangular excitations, which means the traditional core loss calculation methods are
no longer applicable. In this paper, two formulas for core loss calculation under the
above rectangular excitations are derived based on the Improved Generalized Stein-
metz Equation (IGSE). Core loss of different magnetic materials, under both sinusoidal
excitations and rectangular excitations with different frequencies and duty cycles, are
measured. Experimental results show that the formulas are accurate enough and very
useful to predict the core loss. © 2018 Author(s). All article content, except where
otherwise noted, is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license
(http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). https://doi.org/10.1063/1.5007201

I. INTRODUCTION
Magnetic properties of the magnetic materials in switching-mode power supplies (SMPS)
play essential role in core loss calculation and performance optimization. SMPS usually work
at kHz level in order to reduce volume, which means the core loss of magnetic materials will
be remarkable. Traditionally, the core loss calculation methods are divided into three main cat-
egories in the literature:6 hysteresis model method, core loss separation method and Steinmetz
equation (SE) method. The first method usually base on Jiles–Atherton or Preisach models.
Although they have satisfactory accuracy, both the two methods require extensive computation
and additional parameters to determine. The second method expresses core loss as the sum of
three types: the eddy current loss, the hysteresis loss and the excess loss. However, this method
also requires additional parameters well beyond what is typically available in manufacturers’
data sheet. In the third method, the core loss are represented by an empirical formula (1) in
which the core loss depends only on the excitation frequency f and the maximum magnetic flux
density Bm .
β
Pc |SE = k · f α · Bm (1)
where k, α and β are the frequency-dependent Steinmetz parameters, which are usually provided
by the manufacturers or can be acquired by curve fitting. This method is relatively practical and
straightforward to core loss prediction.
Note that the magnetic components in SMPS often suffer from not sinusoidal excitations but
two typical rectangular excitations, as shown in Fig. 1(a,b), which makes the above methods not
accurate and not suitable anymore.1 Recent years, many other core loss calculation approaches based
on SE have been developed for non-sinusoidal excitations, including the modified Steinmetz equation

a
Corresponding Author is Yongjian Li. Electronic mail: liyongjian@hebut.edu.cn

2158-3226/2018/8(5)/056121/6 8, 056121-1 © Author(s) 2018

056121-2 Yue et al. AIP Advances 8, 056121 (2018)

FIG. 1. (a) Voltage/magnetic flux density waveforms of rectangular excitations without period of zero voltage.
(b) Voltage/magnetic flux density waveforms of rectangular excitations with period of zero voltage. (c) Loss ratio K Dα1
as a function of duty cycle D and Steinmetz parameter α. (d) Loss ratio K Dα2 as a function of duty cycle D and Steinmetz
parameter α.

(MSE),2 the generalized Steinmetz equation (GSE),3 the improved generalized Steinmetz equation
(IGSE),4 the improved-improved generalized Steinmetz equation (I2 GSE)5 and waveform coefficient
Steinmetz equation (WcSE).6 Each of these methods has its advantages and disadvantages, generally
speaking, IGSE is considered as the best method in terms of accuracy and practical point of view,7
which expression is given as follows:
 T  dB α
ki
Pc |IGSE =   |∆B| β−α dt (2)
T 0  dt 

k
ki =  2π (3)
2β−α (2π)α−1 α
|cos θ| dθ
0

where ∆B is the peak-to-peak magnetic flux density value (i.e., 2Bm ). k, α and β are the Steinmetz
parameters as used in SE.

II. CALCULATION FORMULAS AND ANALYSIS

A. Calculation formulas
In this part, IGSE is applied to two rectangular excitations (with or without the period of
zero voltage), as shown in Fig. 1(a,b), to obtain corresponding calculation formulas. By piece-
wise linear (PWL), the |dB/dt|. for the two excitation waveforms can be expressed as (4) and (5)
056121-3 Yue et al. AIP Advances 8, 056121 (2018)

respectively.

∆B

 dB   0 ≤ t < DT
DT


  = 

(4)
 ∆B
 dt  

 DT ≤ t < T
 (1 − D)T
∆B

 0 < t ≤ DT/2
DT/2





 dB  
 0

 DT/2<t ≤ T/2
  =  (5)
dt ∆B
T/2 < t ≤ (1 + D)T/2

   

DT/2




(1 + D)T /2 < t ≤ T

 0


where D is the duty cycle of the excitation waveform. Combining (4)–(5) with IGSE, core loss
calculation formulas for the two rectangular excitations can be acquired. The loss ratios of the two
rectangular excitations to sinusoidal excitations can also be derived in the condition of the same f
and Bm , as shown in Table I and as illustrated in Fig. 1(c, d), where K Dα1 represents the loss ratio for
the rectangular excitations without period of zero voltage and K Dα2 represents the other one. Typical
values of α vary from 1 to 2 and the D vary from 0 to 1 theoretically.

B. Core loss analysis

It is seen from Table I that the core loss depends not only on the magnetic flux density amplitude
Bm and frequency f, but also strongly on the duty cycle D. For the rectangular excitations without period
of zero voltage, as shown in Fig. 1(c), during the α range from 1 to 2, the core loss reaches minimum
value when D is 0.5. Moreover, the core loss may even be less than that of sinusoidal excitations (i.e.,
K Dα1 <1) as D is around 0.5. When D is lower or higher than 0.5, the core loss increases approximately
symmetrically.8–10 For the rectangular excitations with period of zero voltage, as shown in Fig. 1(d),
it is obvious that during the α range from 1 to 2, the core loss reaches minimum value when D is
close to 1, where the core loss may even be less than that of sinusoidal excitations (i.e., K Dα2 <1).
With D approaching 1 from 0, the core loss increases gradually.
Actually, the changing trends of core losses for the above two rectangular excitations are actually
in consistent. In the first case, the harmonic currents are gradually increasing with D approaching 1
or 0 from 0.5, which results in a rapid increase of eddy current loss. In the second case, it has the
same effect as the previous one when D approaches 0 from 1. In other words, the duty cycle can
reflect the content of harmonic currents, thereby having a significant influence on the core loss.

C. Comparison with other methods

As we mentioned above, since IGSE is considered as the best method in terms of accuracy and
practical point of view, the new formulas based on IGSE can also retain relatively better accuracy than
MSE, GSE and WcSE. Compared with I2GSE, they don’t need extra parameters besides Steinmetz
ones. In addition, the new formulas are of more computational simplicity and easier to use than
IGSE.

TABLE I. Formulas and corresponding loss ratios for two rectangular excitations.

Excitation Waveform Formula Loss Ratio

β 2π 1 - α [D1−α +(1−D)1−α ]
Rectangular without Zero Voltage ki · f α · Bm · 2 β [D1−α + (1 − D)1−α ]  2π
|cos θ | α d θ
0

β 2 α + 1 D1−α π 1 - α
Rectangular with Zero Voltage ki · f α · Bm · 2 α+β · D1−α  2π
|cos θ | α d θ
0
056121-4 Yue et al. AIP Advances 8, 056121 (2018)

FIG. 2. (a) Schematic diagram of the test setup (b) Prototype of the test setup.

III. EXPERIMENTAL VERIFICATION AND DISCUSSIONS

A. Core loss measurement
In order to evaluate and compare the core loss calculation with experimental measurements, two
different magnetic materials, including nanocrystalline FT-3KS (core part number: F4032E) from
Hitachi and ferrite N87 (core part number: B64290L0022) from EPCOS are tested. Both sinusoidal
excitations and rectangular excitations with different duty cycle D are built to conduct the experiments,
as shown in Fig. 2. The possible DC components can then be removed through a blocking capacitor,
thereby exciting the core under test (CUT). The Steinmetz parameters of above two materials are
acquired by curve fitting under sinusoidal excitations, as shown in Table II. The B-H loop measurement
method is selected in this paper to calculate core loss for the copper loss is excluded.11
B. Results verification and discussion
In order to verify the formulas and analysis in section II, the core loss of nanocrystalline FT-
3KS and ferrite N87 under the above two rectangular excitations, at different D, are measured and
compared with the results calculated from formulas. Fig. 3(a) shows the core loss of FT-3KS under
rectangular excitations (without period of zero voltage), with different D (from 0.1 to 0.9), at 10kHz.
It can be observed from Fig. 3(a) that the core loss reaches its minimum at D=0.5 and increases
approximately symmetrically with D gradually lower or higher than 0.5. Fig. 3(b) illustrates the core
loss of FT-3KS under rectangular excitations (with period of zero voltage), with different duty cycle
D (from 0.1 to 0.9), at 10kHz. It can be seen from Fig. 3(b) that the core loss gradually increases
with D approaching 1 from 0. The above experimental results are completely in consistent with the
analysis in section II.
Fig. 4 show the core loss comparison of measurement and calculation, under two rectangular
excitations with different duty cycle, for FT-3KS and N87 respectively. In case of the rectangular
excitations (without period of zero voltage), as shown in Fig. 4(a) and Fig. 4(c), the calculation results
show good accuracy (more than 90%) for a duty cycle range of [0.25-0.75]. However, the accuracy
decreases rapidly with the duty cycle out of this range, reducing to 55% at the duty cycle of 0.05 or
0.95. In addition, the core loss is less than that of sinusoidal excitations when the duty cycle is around
0.5. In case of the rectangular excitations (with period of zero voltage), as shown in Fig. 4(b) and
Fig. 4(d), calculation results also show good accuracy (more than 92%) for a duty cycle range of
[0.25-0.95]. Similarly, the accuracy also decreases rapidly with the duty cycle approaching 0, dropping

TABLE II. Steinmetz parameters.

Material k (kW/m3 ) α β Frequency (kHz)

Nanocrystalline (FT-3KS) 0.000214 1.448 2.15 10

Ferrite (N87) 0.05 1.13 2.16 20
056121-5 Yue et al. AIP Advances 8, 056121 (2018)

FIG. 3. Core loss of FT-3KS under two rectangular excitations with different D [0.1-0.9], at 10kHz. (a) Without period of
zero voltage. (b) With period of zero voltage.

to 70% at the duty cycle of 0.05. When the duty cycle is around 1, the core loss is less than that of
sinusoidal excitations. Actually, the change in formula accuracy can be explained by the conclusion
drawn in the section II which states that the duty cycle can reflect the content of harmonic currents.

FIG. 4. Core loss comparison of measurement and calculation, under two rectangular excitations with different D [0.05-0.95].
(a) FT-3KS under rectangular without period of zero voltage, at 10kHz. (b) FT-3KS under rectangular with period of zero
voltage, at 10kHz. (c) N87 under rectangular without period of zero voltage, at 20kHz. (d) N87 under rectangular with period
of zero voltage, at 20kHz.
056121-6 Yue et al. AIP Advances 8, 056121 (2018)

That is to say, the constant Steinmetz parameters (k, α, β) used in the formulas are not applicable
anymore when the harmonic currents are much higher due to the duty cycle out of the corresponding
ranges, causing a decrease in the accuracy.

IV. CONCLUSION
In this paper, two core loss calculation formulas for two typical rectangular excitations are derived
and discussed in detail, especially the impact of variable duty cycle. Core losses of nanocrystalline
FT-3KS and ferrite N87 under above excitations are measured and compared with the results calcu-
lated from the formulas. As a result, the formulas are proved to have satisfactory accuracy within
a large range of duty cycle, typically [0.25-0.75] and [0.25-0.9] for the two rectangular excitations
respectively. When the duty cycle out of the corresponding ranges, the constant Steinmetz parameters
cause the calculation deviate to predict the core loss accurately with harmonic currents increasing.
Generally speaking, the formulas can well meet the requirements of engineering applications where
the duty cycle usually varies within the acceptable ranges.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
This work was supported in part by the National Natural Science Foundation of China, (No.
51777055, 51690181), the National Key R & D Program of China (2017YFB0903904), and the
National Key Basic Research Program of China (973 Project) under Grant 2015CB251000.
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