Search

The magnetic properties of soft magnetic materials, including their saturation magnetic induction strength and permeability, significantly affect the dynamic characteristics of electromagnetic relays. However, the soft materials most commonly used for relays in the magnetic conductive components of electromagnetic systems, such as electrical pure iron, limit further relay design improvement and optimization to a certain extent. Thus, this paper proposes the use of amorphous and nanocrystalline soft magnetic materials with good high-frequency magnetic properties in magnetic circuits. A wavelet analysis was conducted on the high-frequency components of the coil current while the relay operated, and the corresponding magnetic materials were selected. Considering the challenges in processing amorphous and nanocrystalline materials and collecting test data for the accuracy verification of simulation methods, we prepared a scaled-up prototype for use in dynamic characteristic tests. The simulation method was improved, yielding more accurate simulation results regarding the relay's dynamic characteristics. On this basis, six replacement schemes using amorphous and nanocrystalline materials were considered. The test results proved that this application could improve the relay's dynamic characteristics. Finally, a full-size sample with an iron core consisting of nanocrystalline alloy 1K107B was prepared, and the conclusions were verified in tests. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An electrical connector is an important component for achieving the interconnection of electric equipment. However, the degradation of contacting parts within the electrical connector under repetitive mechanical insertion and extraction operations causes a decrease in the contact reliability level, resulting in considerable safety hazards. The coating quality, determining the degree of degradation of contact pairs, is considered a critical factor in fabricating more reliable and safer electrical connectors. In this paper, a gold and nickel coating is deposited onto the surface of a pin within an electrical connector using magnetron sputtering and is compared to an electroplated pin, and the effects of different processing techniques on the microstructure, mechanical properties, and wear behavior are systematically investigated. The measurement results indicate that the surface quality (uniformity and defect density) and mechanical properties (hardness and elastic modulus) of the gold/nickel coating based on magnetron sputtering are significantly better than those achieved using electroplating, showing excellent wear properties and electrical contact stability after repetitive insertion–extraction operations. This study is critical for the development of advanced coatings using a novel deposition technique. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The reliability of DC-link electrolytic capacitors is crucial to ensure the quality of power supply systems. The degradation of capacitor parameters may lead to a higher temperature and thus accelerate degradation as a self-accelerating effect. In this article, an improved reliability prediction method for DC-link electrolytic capacitors is proposed, as existing methods have not adequately accounted for the self-acceleration effect. The degradation under dynamic stress is obtained by cumulative computations and the stress is updated according to the degraded parameters. The degradation models are converted into degradation rate models to overcome the computational challenges associated with small-step iterations that may make traditional methods unaffordable. The proposed method for developing the degradation rate model is widely applicable and achieves satisfactory accuracy. To demonstrate the practicality of the proposed method, a case study of a boost motor drive system is presented. The appropriate iteration step can be determined by comparing the results of the lifetime distributions obtained using different iteration steps. Degradation paths considering self-acceleration effects can be obtained, enabling more precise system quality analysis and reliability prediction. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Permanent magnet synchronous motors (PMSMs) have a scale of applications linking to the industrial machines. As these machines often work in a wide temperature range, the PMSM quality consistency is threatened by the temperature fluctuate. In fact, at the start of the production of the PMSMs, the quality consistency distribution already exist due to the manufacturing dispersion. However, traditional experiment‐based consistency analysis method is inadequate for the PMSM, due to its inevitable destructive measurement for the magnetic properties. To deal with the problem, this paper proposed a model‐based quality consistency analysis method. In this paper, mechanism analysis of the temperature influence on PMSMs is carried out by the finite element analysis and the digital modeling method, so that the impact of dispersion can be depicted by model rather than destructive measurement. The relationship between the temperature and PMSM cogging torque as well as other features is quantitatively revealed. To obtain the NdFeB temperature coefficient, magnetic samples were prepared and measured. Then, the temperature characteristics of the sensitive components of PMSM are established, and the PMSM temperature characteristics can be simulated by integrating temperature coefficients into the PMSM digital model. The qualitative and quantitative temperature characteristics of cogging torque are verified by experiments with a batch of PMSMs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The lithium thionyl chloride (Li/SOCl2) battery is widely used as an important long‐life backup power source. Accurate battery life prediction is essential to ensure the reliability of equipment and systems. In this paper, a novel method was proposed for the life prediction of Li/SOCl2 batteries based on the pulse load test and accelerated degradation test (ADT). The proposed pulse load test method can estimate the primary battery capacity accurately and nondestructively, which solves the challenge of quantifying degradation due to unknown initial values. Furthermore, we noticed a new phenomenon that capacity loss was affected by electrolyte fluidity, and unexpected capacity loss was observed for batteries at different discharge angles. By analyzing the mechanism of this phenomenon, we avoided serious capacity measurement errors in the 24‐week ADT. A life prediction model with a satisfactory ability to approximate the measured data was established depending on the exponential influence of time and temperature on capacity degradation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Minimax optimization (MMO), which aims at pursuing the solutions with the best performances in the worst case, is widely used in the robust design. However, there are still fundamental limitations for MMO to converge to the optimum when solving asymmetric problems. Moreover, when MMO is employed in robust design where the objective function is evaluated through costly simulations, the efficiency of the optimization becomes crucial. To address these issues, in this paper, A novel efficient global optimization algorithm based on co‐evolutionary strategy is proposed to solve the asymmetry MMO problem with satisfactory efficiency. Furthermore, the new algorithm is tested on eight analytical benchmark problems and compared with the state‐of‐the‐art methods. Lastly, the methodology has been successfully applied to the robust design of a practical engineering product. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A permanent magnet synchronous motor (PMSM) is a crucial device for power conversion in an energy system. The cogging torque of the PMSM is a crucial output characteristic, the robustness of which affects the operational reliability of the energy system. Therefore, the robust design optimization (RDO) of cogging torque has aroused widespread concern. There are several challenges in designing a robust cogging torque PMSM. In particular, some design parameters contain repetitive units, and the finite element analysis (FEA) method is time-consuming. State-of-the-art RDO methods usually treat these uncertainties from repetitive units as the same parameter, which neglects the fluctuation of the manufacturing process and cannot obtain a robust solution for the cogging torque of the motor efficiently and accurately. In order to solve this issue, an approximate modeling method based on manufacturing uncertainties analysis for RDO is proposed in this paper. First, the peak-to-peak value of cogging torque (Tcpp) is used to characterize the cogging torque, which is decoupled to an ideal component and fluctuation component produced by the center values and manufacturing tolerances of design parameters. The design of experiments (DoE) and simulation of the two components are carried out. Then, these two components are approximated separately, and the approximate model of Tcpp is obtained by adding the two components. Finally, the proposed approximate model is embedded into the RDO algorithm, and the PMSM design scheme for good Tcpp robustness is obtained. The effectiveness of the proposed method is verified through a case study of the PMSM. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Contact bounce is a common phenomenon in the closing process of electromagnetic relays, which seriously affects the electrical contact reliability of the system. The whole closing process of flexible spring components consists of the free movement stage and the contact bounce stage, which increases the complexity of analyzing the electrical contact behaviors of electromagnetic relays. In this study, a novel nonlinear dynamic model of the flexible spring components in electromagnetic relays is established to analyze the physical mechanism of the electrical contact bounce. Considering the electromagnetic effect, flexible deformation, contact collision, and welding force, the proposed mathematical model can capture the dynamic closing process accurately and collect bounce parameters efficiently. The Kelvin–Voigt viscoelastic contact model is employed to evaluate the nonlinear contact force between the static and movable contacts. Based on the Galerkin method, the nonlinear equations of motion for the movable spring within electromagnetic relays are formulated. A series of experimental work are designed to measure the typical waveforms of displacements of the movable contact and currents in the coil during the closing process of the movable spring. Furthermore, the theoretical results are validated by comparing with the experimental data. The dependences of some key factors, including the structural, material, and electrical contact parameters on the contact bounce characteristics, are investigated explicitly. The theoretical results attest that the proposed model can accurately predict the dynamic behaviors of the movable spring, and the contact bounce can be effectively suppressed by adjusting the parameters of the flexible spring component. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There are various challenges in designing a life-cycle robust permanent magnet actuator (PMA) to satisfy the application-oriented requirements of quality consistency. In particular, ubiquitous uncertainties from manufacturing and operating process that cause unstable or even infeasible solutions significantly increase the difficulty of the life-cycle robust design of PMA. Conventional methods usually treated these uncertainties as fixed design constraints, which neglect the nonlinear characteristic of time-dependent degradations, cannot reflect authentic impacts on the life-cycle robustness of PMA. To address this issue, this study propose a method of life-cycle dynamic robust design optimization for batch production PMA. An innovative time-dependent global sensitivity analysis-based classification method is first proposed to divide design variables into three categories: nonlinear, degradation insensitive, and degradation sensitive variables. Then, a modified Spatiotemporal Kriging model with Karhunen-Loeve expansion is applied to establish the life-cycle robustness model of PMA with consideration of uncertainties. This model can valid describe the nonlinear fluctuation of the life-cycle robustness. Furthermore, on the basis of the three categories of design variables and life-cycle robustness model, a multistage dynamic robust design optimization strategy is derived, which realizes the synchronous control of life-cycle robustness deterioration rate (mean value) and fluctuation (standard deviation). Finally, taking a case of rotary PMA, the effectiveness of the proposed method is verified. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Conventional electromagnetic acoustic transducers (EMATs) are generally only used to generate and detect guided waves with a single wavelength, which increases their sensitivity at that particular wavelength but limits their application scenarios and the accuracy of defect assessment. This article proposes a design method for multiwavelength EMATs based on spatial-domain harmonic control. First, the EMAT model is analyzed, where it is then outlined that the eddy-current density distribution of the specimen is equivalent to the spatial low-pass filtering of the coil-current density distribution. This shows that the multiwavelength guided waves can be achieved as long as the spatial distribution of the coil-current density contains those multiple harmonics that are desired. It is then proposed that the structure of the EMAT coil is equivalent to the spatial sampled pulse sequences of a spatial signal. The coil parameter design based on pulse modulation technology is proposed. Taking a dual-wavelength EMAT design for Lamb waves as an example, details of the coil parameter design are presented. The simulation and experiment with the dual-wavelength EMAT proved the correctness of the proposed method. Finally, an experiment with a three-wavelength EMAT demonstrated the feasibility of the proposed method in designing multiwavelength EMATs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Accelerated degradation test (ADT) is generally used to accelerate degradation processes in products to estimate their lifespan and to assess their reliability in a short period of time. How to perform the failure mechanism consistency test is crucial in the application of the ADT method. Existing failure mechanism consistency test methods assume that degradation rates among individual products are the same. However, these methods do not take degradation dispersions caused by manufacturing technologies into consideration. To address this issue, a failure mechanism consistency test method for ADT based on the activation energy invariant method and the likelihood ratio test is proposed. First, a degradation modeling method for ADT is introduced. Then, the logarithmic maximum likelihood function values of the degradation models are estimated based on the two‐step maximum likelihood estimation (MLE) method. Finally, the decision rule is proposed based on the likelihood ratio test. The method mentioned above is, then, used on the real degradation data of carbon‐film resistors and bullet O‐rings, and its effectiveness is verified. Furthermore, based on the failure mechanism change point in RTV5370 siloxane rubbers, the simulated degradation data are degenerated to compare the proposed method with the method not considering individual differences in different ADT programs and degradation dispersions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Currently, the finite element method (FEM) and analytical calculation are widely employed for the modeling of electromagnetic acoustic transducers (EMATs). However, it takes long time for finite element calculation. Previous analytical models for bulk wave EMATs are generally considered separately and incompletely, and expressions of radiated wave fields contain infinite integrations and multiple singular points, which result in complex numerical computation. A complete model containing the Lorentz force and radiated wave field calculation for the EMAT with a spiral coil and a NdFeB permanent magnet is established. By introducing a current loop instead of the permanent magnet and adopting the truncated region eigenfunction expansion (TREE) method, the distributions of static and dynamic magnetic fields and their generated Lorentz forces are calculated. A series expansion method is proposed for the computation of radiated wave fields, which replaces the integration by series operation and avoids the solutions of singular points effectively. The Lorentz forces and radiated wave fields of a typical transducer are computed. The validity of the model is verified by FEM and experiments. Their good agreements verify the accuracy and validity of the model. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]