Laboratory system for measurement of iron losses in high speed drives

Iron loss measurement has always been a concern for the engineers designing electrical machines. A novel test method developed for fast and accurate measurement of iron losses in permanent magnet synchronous machines and a dedicated laboratory system for performing automatic measurements are presented. The principle of the measurement technique, the main building blocks of the laboratory system and the procedures of tests are described. Furthermore a method for the separation of the iron loss into hysteresis and eddy current components, the correction of the change in the magnetic flux density due to varying temperature of the rotor permanent magnets and the calculation of the instantaneous permanent magnet temperature are presented in more detail.