Excerpt from the Proceedings of the COMSOL Users Conference 2006 Bangalore

Analysis of Lorentz and Saliency Forces in

Rotating Machines
Amogh V. Kank S. V. Kulkarni (M’99)
amogh@ee.iitb.ac.in svk@ee.iitb.ac.in
Department of Electrical Engineering,
Indian Institute of Technology Bombay, Powai, Mumbai-400076

Abstract— Electromagnetic force calculation is essential B. Maxwell Stress Tensor

in analysis and design of any electrical machine. Two kinds
of forces, saliency force and J ×B force, play an important
role in behavior of any electrical machine. The paper first
gives overview of methods of force calculation. It compares
results obtained by different methods using COMSOL-
Electromagnetics Module for a simple representative geom-
etry. The results are also compared with that of analytical
formulation. Also, the analysis of forces acting on rotor
in the embedded conductor slot region is reported. It is
shown that the saliency force acting on the rotor core is
dominant as compared to the J × B force acting on the
embedded rotor conductor.
Index Terms— Local virtual work, Lorentz force,
Maxwell Stress Tensor, Finite Element Method (FEM).
I. I NTRODUCTION
Electrical machine analysis using Finite Element
Method (FEM) has gained importance with increasing
complexity of analysis and need for more optimized and
efficient designs. One of the most important parameters
in the analysis is electromagnetic force or torque acting
on various parts of structure of machines.
Saliency forces and ( J × B ) forces are two kinds of
forces which are important for the analysis of electrical
machines. The various methods of force computation are
based on:
1) Lorentz Force
2) Maxwell Stress Tensor
3) Virtual Work
4) Equivalent Sources
The paper first gives overview of these methods of
force calculation. Also, it presents results of forces
obtained by Virtual Work Method and Maxwell Stress
Tensor Method for a particular geometry. Analysis of
forces acting on iron and conductor in a rotor slot region
is subsequently reported.
II. M ETHODS OF F ORCE C ALCULATION
A. Lorentz Force Method
In this Method, the total force on body is obtained by
integrating the forces due to a magnetic field acting on
each differential current carrying element,
Z displacement of elements or nodes. If the nodes are
Fv = (J × B)dV (1)
V method. The expression for the magnetic energy stored
where J × B is the force density in conductor.
Maxwell Stress Tensor is widely used for the elec-
tromagnetic force computation. Maxwell Stress Tensor
based method and its related aspects such as error perfor-
mance are discussed in [1], [2] and [3]. A quantity called
stress tensor is defined in this method whose divergence
is actually the force density throughout the volume of the
body on which the force is to be determined. Applying
divergence theorem to the stress tensor we can consider
Maxwell stress as surface force density which when
integrated over surface enclosing the body gives total
force acting on it. The choice of surface can be chosen so
as to satisfy certain performance criterion and to improve
accuracy of results. The expression of stress tensor is,
1 1
Tij = (Bi Bj − B 2 δij ) (2)
µ 2
where (i, j) can take values (x, y, z). δij is 1 if i = j
and zero otherwise. The same can be written in terms
of force density vector as,
Z Z
1 1 2
F = ( B(B.n) − B n)ds (3)
µ 2µ
where n is the normal unit vector to the surface under
consideration.
C. Virtual Work Method
The method of Virtual Work for electromagnetic force
calculation is based on the generalized principle of vir-
tual displacement [4], [5]. Movable part is assumed to be
displaced and change in stored magnetic energy divided
by displacement gives the force acting on the body as the
displacement tends to be infinitesimal. The displacement
is not actual physical displacement of the body; hence it
is called as virtual displacement. One precaution which
needs to be taken while virtually displacing the body is
that the flux linkage has to be kept constant throughout
the motion. The implementation can be both at the level
of displacement of the whole body or at the level of
displaced then the method is called local virtual work
in the field is
 Excerpt from the Proceedings of the COMSOL Users Conference 2006 Bangalore

Z Z B
W = [ H.dB]dV (4)
V 0

where V is the volume of the field region, B is the

flux density, and H is the magnetic field intensity. The
force acting on a node which is virtually displaced is
given by,
∂W
Fk = (5)
∂q
where q is the amount of virtual displacement. This
Local Virtual Work Method has been used for the
analysis of forces on a slot region of rotating machines
in section IV.
Fig. 1. Geometry of problem for saliency force calculation
D. Equivalent Sources Method
This method uses equivalent magnetizing currents.
Theory and implementation of the method are discussed
in [6], [7]. It uses the fact that there is physical existence
of microscopic atomic current loops in any material,
particularly ferromagnetic material, which experience
the force in presence of magnetic field, which eventually
gets transfered to the body. Conventionally, the field
intensity produced by these atomic current loops is taken
care of by introducing concept of relative permeability
for isotropic material without hysteresis. The relative
permeability value is taken for calculating flux inside the
ferromagnetic material and hence the presence of atomic
current loops are not required to be considered separately
for calculating saliency force. Otherwise by keeping
permeability inside the material same as that of air we Fig. 2. Plot of Az in saliency force calculation
can take into account the presence of atomic current
loops separately in the Equivalent Sources Method.
Thus, instead of considering the presence of actual current Jm . The force can be calculated by formula
atomic current loops, we can find the total force acting similar to Lorentz force formula. It should be noted that
on the body by calculating the forces acting on these Jm exists only on the boundaries.
fictitious sources and they turn out to be the same as the In another approach, the magnetic material with per-
actual forces. meability µ is replaced by a non-magnetic material
The magnetic behavior of a ferromagnetic material having a superficial distribution of magnetic charges [8]
can generally be described as, and the force density is calculated as the product of the
B = µ0 H + M (6) superficial surface charge density and calculated surface
magnetic field intensity.
where B is the flux density, H the field strength, µ0 the
magnetic permeability of vacuum and M the magneti-
III. V ERIFICATION P ROBLEM
zation. For soft magnetic materials, M is induced due
to external field and is a function of H. Fig. 1 shows geometry of the problem. There are two
solid cylinders. The left cylinder is a ferromagnetic ma-
M = (µr − 1)µ0 H (7) terial having relative magnetic permeability, µr , of 1000.
where µr is the relative permeability which may be con- The right cylinder (conductor) carries (short circuit) cur-
stant or a function of H. In non-ferromagnetic materials rent only in z direction with current density of 10000000
M vanishes. The governing equation is: A/m2 and µr = 1. Boundary condition imposed is flux
1 1 parallel at the outermost boundary. Fig. 2 shows plot
∇× B=J+ ∇×M (8) of vector magnetic potential. Since the ferromagnetic
µ0 µ0
material has high µr , it experiences saliency force. FEM
where J is the conduction current density. The second simulations using COMSOL-Electromagnetics module
term on the right side has the same effect as the conduc- by Maxwell Stress Tensor Method and Virtual Work
tion current, hence it is called equivalent magnetizing Method give its value to be 7.6 N (attractive in nature)
 Excerpt from the Proceedings of the COMSOL Users Conference 2006 Bangalore
and 7.2 N (attractive in nature) respectively; the corre-
sponding analytical value is 14.7 N. The analytical result
for force per unit depth is obtained by formula [9]
µr − 1 µ0 I 2 a 2
F =
µr + 1 2πd d2 − a2
Here I is the current through conductor material and a is
the radius of ferromagnetic cylinder, and d is the distance
between centers of the two cylindrical structures.
TABLE I
C OMPARISON OF ANALYTICAL AND SIMULATION RESULTS
Analytical Maxwell Stress Virtual Work
Method Tensor Method Method
Saliency Force 14.7 N 7.6 N 7.2 N
The results of the three different methods are summa-
rized in table I.
IV. P RACTICAL A PPLICATION - E MBEDDED
C ONDUCTOR IN ROTOR S LOT
Now forces acting in conductor embedded in a rotor
slot are analyzed. Fig. 3 shows representative geome-
try of rotor slot region of rotating machines. Relative
magnitudes and behavior of saliency force acting on the
high permeability rotor core and J × B force acting
on the embedded rotor conductor are analysed. It is
found from the results of the simulation that the saliency
force acting on the high permeability rotor is dominant
as compared to J × B force acting on the embedded
rotor conductor, which is a welcome phenomenon. The
ratio of the saliency force to the J × B force on rotor
conductor is found to be about 23. Also, the resultant
of the forces acting on vertical edges of the teeth is in
the same direction as that of J × B force acting on
the rotor conductor. The field distribution is shown in
Fig. 4. Origin of the saliency force can be explained
as follows. Let us say, initially, there is no current in
the rotor conductor. The current flowing through the
stator conductor will produce symmetrical magnetic field
around the rotor conductor, i.e., the field on either side
of rotor conductor is similar. Now according to Fig.
3, the three slot edges face the rotor conductor. Under
the assumption of no rotor current, two opposite edges
(i.e. vertical edges) of the slot would have same flux
distribution along them. Now the saliency force density
is given by the expression,
Z
1 2
F salv = (− H ∇µ)dV (10)
V 2
Now, ∇µ has value other than zero only at the inter-
face between air and permeable material. Hence ∇µ
has nonzero value only at the three edges. Hence, the
saliency force acts only on these three edges. The
force on the horizontal edge is radial and hence does
not contribute to the torque. According to the above
expression, the saliency forces acting on the two vertical
(9)
Fig. 3. Geometry of embedded slot
Fig. 4. Field plot of embedded slot
edges are equal and opposite, and hence cancel each
other. When current flows through the rotor conductor
the flux densities along the vertical edges will no longer
remain equal and hence a resultant force will act on the
rotor core, which is dominant as compared to the J × B
force acting on the rotor conductor.
V. C ONCLUSION
Computation of forces in electrical machines is an im-
portant design activity. The forces can be determined by
various Methods, viz. Lorentz Force Method, Maxwell
Stress Tensor Method, Virtual Work Method and Equiva-
lent Sources Method. Lorentz Force Method gives forces
on current carrying parts. Virtual work method method
is used to calculate saliency forces on ferromagnetic
materials. Maxwell Stress Tensor Method and Equivalent
Sources Method account for both the types of forces.
The paper has elaborated all the above methods.
Comparison of forces obtained by Maxwell Stress Ten-
sor Method, Virtual Work Method and Analytical For-
mulation is presented for a simple geometry. Further,
the analysis of forces in a representative geometry of
rotor slot region in a rotating machine is reported. The
analysis reveals that the saliency force acting on the rotor
core is dominant as compared to the J × B force acting
on the rotor conductor.
R EFERENCES
[1] A. N. Wignall, A. J. Gilbert, and S. J. Yang, “Calculation of
forces on magnetised ferrous cores using the maxwell stress tensor
method,” IEEE Trans. Magn., vol. 24, no. 1, pp. 459–462, 1988.
[2] T. Onuki, S. Wakao, and H. Saito, “Improvement in the calculation
of electromagnetic force by the FEM,” IEEE Trans. Magn.,
vol. 30, pp. 1863–1866, July 1994.
[3] Z. W. Shi and C. B. Rajanathan, “A method of reducing errors
in the calculation of electromagnetic forces by Maxwell stress
summation method,” IEEE Trans. Magn., vol. 35, no. 3, pp. 1358–
1369, May 1999.
 Excerpt from the Proceedings of the COMSOL Users Conference 2006 Bangalore

[4] J. L. Coulomb and G. Meunier, “Finite element implementation

of virtual work principle for magnetic or electric force and torque
computation,” IEEE Trans. Magn., vol. 20, no. 5, pp. 1894–1896,
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[5] A. Benhama, A. C. Williamson, and A. B. J. Reece, “Virtual work
approach to the computation of magnetic force distribution from
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[6] T. Kabashima, A. Kawahara, and T. Goto, “Force calculation using
magnetising current,” IEEE Trans. Magn., vol. PAS-24, no. 1, pp.
451–454, Jan. 1988.
[7] G. Henneberger, P. K. Sattler, and D. Shen, “Nature of the
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[8] J. P. A. Bastos and N. Sadowski, Electromagnetic Modeling by
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[9] F. Moon, Magneto-solid Mechanics. New York: John Wiley and
Sons, 1984.

Amogh V. Kank is currently M.Tech student in Department of

Electrical Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology, Bombay, India.
He obtained his B.E. Degree from Sardar Patel College of Engineering,
Andheri, Mumbai in Electrical Engineering. He is currently working
in the area of computational electromagnetics particularly in magneto-
mechanical analysis.

S. V. Kulkarni is Associate Professor, Department of Electrical Engi-

neering, Indian Institute of Technology, Bombay, India. Previously, he
worked at Crompton Greaves Limited and specialized in the design and
development of transformers up to 400 kV class. He has authored book
”Transformer Engineering: Design and Practice” published by Marcel
Dekker, Inc. The author of more than 70 professional publications in
reputed journals and conferences, he is recipient of the Young Engineer
Award (2000) from the Indian National Academy of Engineering. He
has also received Career Award for Young Teacher from All India
Council for Technical Education in 2001. His research interests include
transformer design and analysis, computational electromagnetics and
distributed generation.