CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION

1.1 Overview

An inductor is a passive element that does not allow sudden change in current flowing through it. It is consist of conductor wire having certain number of turns forming a coil. When the current flows through the inductor, it stores energy temporarily in the magnetic field in a coil. Inductance is the property of the inductor that is the ratio of the voltage to the rate of change of current flowing through it. Many inductors have a magnetic core made of iron core or ferrite inside the coil. Which serves to increase the magnetic field and thus the inductance of the coil? Any change in the current flowing through an inductor creates change a changing flux, which in turn induces the voltage across the inductor. According to the Faraday's law the induced voltage is given by equation 1.

(1)

An ideal inductor has inductance but no resistance or capacitance and it does not dissipate or radiate the energy. However real inductor has side effects which departs the inductor from its ideal characteristics. At higher frequency, resistive losses increase in the winding due to skin effect and proximity effect. Inductors with ferromagnetic material have additional losses due to hysteresis and eddy current losses.

Different types of Inductor are available which are used in different applications like air core inductors, are often used at higher frequencies because they are free from losses called core losses radio frequency inductor. Ferromagnetic core inductor, are made of magnetic material such as ferrite or iron core to increase the inductance. Other types of are laminated core inductor, ferrite core inductor, toroidal core inductor, variable inductor.

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1.2 About variable inductor

There are mainly two ways to obtain the variable inductor. The first method is the simplest manual method in which inductive value is changed through manual switching. The inductive value of the circuit is obtained is by mechanical movement of the switch for adding and removing the inductor connected either in series or parallel to increase or decrease the value of inductor. However, it is more desirable to vary the inductance value continuously by means of electrical signal rather than by mechanical movement.

In 2001, the UK patent has disclosed variable inductive element. Various configurations have been developed and their merits and demerits were being reported. In this, the working principle is based on the saturation effect of the magnetic core material has been employed for creating a current controlled variable inductor. The variable inductor consists of three limb core including two outer limbs and central limb, having winding in each of the three limbs. The core is a ferromagnetic material made of either iron core or ferrite core. The outer two limbs are wounded with the identical windings with the same number of turns that can be connected either in series or in parallel depending on the requirement of the application. Central limb is also wounded with winding. In one of the method, control current is fed through the outer windings. This will give rise to magnetic flux in the outer windings that will point in the opposite direction of the flux induced in the center windings. In this way, ac coupling is avoided between the center and outer windings. In this way the inductance of the control winding changes substantially with the control current. The voltage across each control winding and parasitic capacitance effect in the center winding limits the operating frequency. In other configuration the control current is made to flow through the center winding to control the inductance of the outer limb by changing the saturation level, whereas the inductance of the central limb remains almost constant with the change in the control current. The magnetic cross section of the central limb is relative to the magnetic cross section of outer limbs such that the saturation level is substantially equal. So, different arrangements were mentioned for obtaining the desired variable inductor.

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1.3 Applications
Inductor is widely used in alternating current electronic equipment, particularly in radio equipment. They are used to block the flow of alternating current (AC) while allowing DC current to pass. The inductors designed for this purpose are called chokes. Inductors are used extensively in analog circuits and signal processing. Inductors in conjunction with the capacitor forms tuned filters for specific frequency.

Now a day it becomes more desirable to use a variable inductor that can be used with capacitor to form filter which can be tuned for desired range of frequency. This not only allows the designer to change the tuning frequency but also avoids the resonance in the circuit. There are many other applications of the variable inductor that has been reported in the literature. It can be used in various circuit applications like in solar applications by varying the duty cycle of the buck converter such that the load resistance can be matched to the internal resistance of the photo-voltaic solar panel for maximum power point tracking. The required characteristic of output inductor of buck converter also changes in continuous mode. The other uses are for tuned filter designing, as variable load, in magnetic amplifier for regulating the power and varying the resonant frequency by changing the inductance of the circuit element.

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CHAPTER 2 VARIABLE INDUCTOR

2.1. Introduction
In the literature, various different types of hardware configurations of the variable inductor have been mentioned. Variable inductors with different hardware structure can be designed and developed for integrating them in different applications depending on the requirement.

The configuration of the experimental setup is made of the magnetic core consists of the saturable ferrite material. The core has three limbs and each of the limbs is wounded with identical conductor wire. The outer two legs having identical windings are connected in series and the windings are called main winding. They are connected in such a way that magnetic flux arise in the control winding due to the flow of control current in control winding will point in the opposite direction to cancel the flux induced in the center winding. This prevents the ac coupling consists of three limb core including two outer limbs and central limb, having winding in each of the three limbs. The outer two limbs are wounded with the identical windings with the same number of turns that are connected in series are called main winding. The winding on the central limb is called the control winding through which the control current is made to flow to control the inductance of the outer limb by changing the saturation level, whereas the inductance of the central limb remains almost constant with the change in the control current. The magnetic cross section of the central limb is relative to the magnetic cross section of outer limbs such that the saturation level is substantially equal.

2.2. Working Principle

The working principle of the designed inductor is based on fact that the input controlling current in the central limb will induce the working flux in the main winding in such a way that the flux that is being induced by the control winding will be canceled by the flux produced in the central

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limb by the control winding. The outer two windings are connected in series and an ac source is connected across the main winding in such a way that the magnetic fluxes induced by the current in the outer winding cancel the magnetic flux induce by the current in the control winding. The flux cancellation prevents the AC coupling between the control winding and the main winding. A variable switch is connected across the control winding that controls the input current to the control winding. R

(from Control winding)

IC Im
Control Scheme

Im IC

I-, 230 V, 50 Hz AC Supply

Fig.2.1: Circuit diagram of variable inductor

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The current in the control winding is varied to change the saturation level of the each of the outer two limbs such that the inductance value of the main winding changes whereas the inductance value of the control winding remains substantially same. As the control current becomes very high enough than it will saturates the outer winding and thus the inductance of the center winding decreases due to saturation.

2.3 Principle of inductor design

The inductor is made of the magnetic material and the core flux is decided by the load current. Thus if the load current increases the core gets saturated and the inductance value decreases. So the primary consideration is to know the maximum load current and have the core which does not saturate at this current. This leads to large core size to handle such large current. The core size can be reduced by introducing the appropriate air gap in the magnetic circuit. Figure 2 shows the variation of the air gap on the B-H curve of the magnetic material.

Fig.2.2: B-H curve of Inductor core

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The equivalent magnetic circuit is shown in Fig. 3. Rc and Rg are the core and air gap reluctance given by:

(1)

(2)

Fig. 2.3: Equivalent Magnetic circuit of inductor reluctance

Assume that area of cross section of core and air gap is same that is neglecting fringing flux. The flux in the circuit is given by:

(3)

According to Faradays law:

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(4)

Where inductance L is given by:

If air gap length lg is zero, then

(5)

For the core with higher permeability the reluctance of the magnetic material is much less than that of the air gap. Thus the equation becomes:

i.e.

(6)

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For the hardware design of the inductor, the value of the inductance is to be determined depending upon the type of application. The inductive value of the inductor in the circuit depends on the number of turns and the permeability of the magnetic core used.

2.4

Designing process of variable inductor:

2.4.1 Designing Procedure of the inductor (main winding)

1. Select the value of inductor, maximum current as maximum flux density of the core as L, Im, and Bm. 2. Calculate the energy handled by the inductor is given by: (7)

3. Calculate the area product (AP) (8) Take Bm = 0.6 T, J = 3 A/mm2, KW = 0.4 in the above expression. But here AW is half as winding of inductor is done on the outer limbs so AP should be doubled. Therefore new AP = 2 * AP.

4. Select value AW and AC from the appendix III given in [1] corresponding to the value of AP. 5. Calculate number of turns (N) in the inductor as: (9)

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6. Determine the area of wire using the following expression and select it gauge from the appendix II of the [1]. (10)

7. After this cross check the values obtained by putting in the following expression: (11)

8. The approximate value of air gap between the E & I core is calculated as: (12)

2.4.2 Designing procedure of the inductor (Control Winding)

The flux density of the main winding (outer limb of the EI core) is given by: (13)

The flux C of control winding will be approximately twice of flux m of main winding as seen from Fig.2.1 and is given by: (14) Therefore for varying the inductance of main winding a flux opposing the flux density in the central limb of the core should be induced. This can be done by taking the opposing flux in the control winding (central limb of EI core) of the inductor. The value of the opposing flux (C opposing) is given by: ( ) (15)

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and

(16)

From eqn. (13) and (16) we have: (17)

In the above eqn. NC and IC are unknown rest all other parameters are known. Thus this will give product NCIC. By selecting the value of controlling current (IC), NC can be calculated easily.

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CHAPTER 3 DESIGNING, SIMULATION OF VARIABLE INDUCTOR

3.1 Calculation of Various Designing Parameter of Inductor

In this project the inductor is designed for 10mH with maximum current carrying capacity of 10A (rms). The maximum flux density in the side limbs of EI core is taken as 0.6T for calculation so that the middle limb will not reach the saturation state as flux density in it approximately double that in side limbs.

3.1.1

Calculation for main winding:

The main winding of the inductor is having the following specifications: L = 10 mH, Irms = 10 A Im = 10 Bm = 0.6 T Energy handled by the inductor is: A

= E=1J

The area product AP = AW AC is calculated from as:

Here,

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KW = 0.6, KC = 1 Thus,
( )

AP = 185.37 cm4 The AW is half therefore AP should be doubled. Now, AP = 370.37 cm4 With the value of AP the nearest value of AP is selected from the Appendix III of the [1], which gives AP = 488.9 cm4 Which corresponds to T7 core and corresponding value of AC and AW are: AC = 25.8 cm2 AP = 18.95 cm2 The numbers of turns in the inductor main winding are:

( (

) )

N = 91.357 92

The area of wire required for winding is:

a=
a = 3.33 mm2

Now the result is verified by checking it for the condition:

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The approximate value of air gap between the E & I core is:

lg =

) (

lg = 2.744 mm

3.1.2

Calculation for control winding:

The flux m of main winding is:

( )

( )

The flux in control winding is:

The control winding is designed for the 60% variation. Therefore, ( )

Now,

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Taking Im = 5 ` 112.6 113

3.2

Simulation Implementation of the Variable Inductor

3.2.1 Simulation
The variable inductor simulated on MATLAB/SIMULINK using SimPowerSytems Toolbox is shown in Fig. 3.1-3.2. The simulation is designed before the hardware implementation to check the viability of the concept. Fig 3.1 shows the basic arrangement of the hardware implemented and calculation used for calculating L are shown in Fig. 3.2

Fig. 3.1: MATLAB implementation of Variable Inductor

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Fig. 3.2: Calculation block of MATLAB implementation

3.2.2 Simulation Results

The simulation results are shown in Fig. 3.3. The current of the control winding is increased in the circuit by switching the resistance connected in series with the control winding. Small change in inductance is also observed at t = 0.3 sec and t = 0.6 when the control winding current is varied by a small amount and at t = 0.8 to t = 1 sec an here a significant change of inductance is observed from Fig. 3.2 (g). This validates the concept that the inductance of side limb can be varied by controlling the current of the central limb.

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200
Vs

0 -200 0 100 0.3 0.6 (a) 0.8 1 1.5

Vm

0 -100

0.3

0.6 (b)

0.8

1.5

20

Im

-20

0.3

0.6 (c)

0.8

1.5

10

Ic

-10

0.3

0.6 (d)

0.8

1.5

600 400
P_Q

200 0 -200 0 0.3 0.6 (e) 0.8 1 1.5

Power factor

1 0.8 0.6 0 10 8 x 10
-3

0.3

0.6 (f)

0.8

1.5

L (in H)

6 4 2

.3

.6 (g) Time

.8

1.5

Fig 3.3. Simulation Results

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3.3

Hardware Implementation of the Variable Inductor

3.3.1 Hardware Designing and Testing

The material required for the hardware of the variable inductor is shown in Table 3.1.

S. No. 1 2 3 4 5 6

Items E-I core (CRGO core) Copper Enameled wire (19 SWG ) Bobbin Insulation paper Insulation tape Nut & Bolts
Table 3.1: Material required for testing

Amount 7-8 kg 2 kg 3 1m * 2m 1 10

The hardware is designee as the calculations as shown in Fig. 3.4. For testing the variable inductor the material required are shown in Table 3.2 and Fig 3.5 shows the complete testing circuit.

S. No. 1 2 3 4 5 Variac

Items

Rating 0-240V, 0-15A, 50Hz 65 , 5.5 A 1000 , 1.7 A 2000 A, 600 V -

Quantity 1 2 2 1 -

Rheostat Rheostat 345 PQ Clamp meter Connecting wires

Table 3.1: Equipment required for testing

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(a)

(b)

Fig. 3.4 Hardware of variable Inductor

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Fig. 3.5 Complete setup of variable inductor for hardware testing

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CHAPTER 4 RESULTS
4.1 Results of Testing

The results of hardware testing are as discussed in following section.

4.1.1 Main Winding reading

The main winding is tested for calculating the inductance without any control circuitry. The readings are shown in Table 4.1. From Table 4.1 It is observed that the inductance of main winding shows very less variation and the average value of inductance is 6.238 mH. The expressions used for calculating the value of inductance are as follow:

| |

(18)

(19)

| |

(20)

(21)

4.1.2 Observation of Main Winding with variation of control winding current

The observation for the controlling the inductance by varying the current in the main winding is shown in Table 4.2 and Table 4.3.

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S. No.

Vm (in Volt)
2.1 4.25 6.45 8.37 10.75 12.36 14.28 16.17 17.87 18.61

Im (in A)
1.04 2.04 3.06 4 5.2 6 7.02 8.05 9.03 9.47

power factor (cos )

0.5 0.22 0.25 0.242 0.25 0.243 0.24 0.23 0.28 0.234

P (in W)
1 2 5 8 14 18 24 30 38 41

Z ( in )
2.0192 2.0833 2.1078 2.0925 2.0673 2.06 2.0342 2.0087 1.979 1.9651

sin

L (in mH)
5.568 6.472 6.499 6.476 6.375 6.364 6.289 6.225 6.05 6.08

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

0.866 0.975 0.968 0.97 0.968 0.97 0.971 0.973 0.96 0.972

Table 4.1: Reading of Main Winding

Table 4.2 shows the observations when 4A current is set in the main winding through auto transformer and control winding current is varied from 0 to 3.8A. The inductance shows a significant decrease from 6.04 mH to .955 mH. The percentage variation in inductance is 84.14%. The main winding current is also altered by small value; this is result of flux variation in the main winding due to control winding current variation.

Table 4.2 shows the observations when 8A current is set in the main winding through auto transformer and control winding current is varied from 0 to 3.96A. The inductance shows a

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significant decrease from 5.894 mH to 3.06 mH. The percentage variation in inductance is 48.08%.

S. No.

Vm (in Volt) 7.92 6.4 4.8 3.89 3.5 1.66

Im (in A) 4.04 3.9 3.85 3.88 3.84 3.866

Ic (in A) 0.18 0.98 1.97 2.7 3.11 3.8

power factor (cos ) 0.25 0.32 0.5 0.533 0.571 0.714

P (in W) 7 8 9 8 8 5

Z ( in ) 1.96 1.64 1.24 1.003 0.912 0.428

sin

L (in mH) 6.04 4.948 3.41 2.701 2.382 0.955

1 2 3 4 5 6

0.968 0.947 0.866 0.846 0.821 0.7

Table 4.2: Observations with Varying Control Winding Current Keeping Main Winding current at 4A (approx)

0.8 0.7 0.6 power factor 0.5 0.4 0.3 0.2 0.1 0 0 0.5 1 1.5 2 Ic (in A) 2.5 3 3.5 4

Fig.4.1: Graph showing variation of power factor with Ic when main winding current is set to 4 A

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0.8
0.7 0.6 L (in mH) 0.5 0.4

0.3
0.2 0.1 0 0 0.5 1 1.5 2 Ic (in A) 2.5 3 3.5 4

Fig.4.2: Graph showing variation of L with Ic when main winding current is set to 4 A

S. No.

Vm (in Volt)
15.05 13.79 11.35 10.06 8.27

Im (in A)
7.9 7.81 7.63 7.6 7.57

Ic (in A)
0.18 0.98 2.17 2.9 3.96

power factor (cos )

0.237 0.26 0.34 0.347 0.453

P (in W)
28 29 30 26 28

Z ( in )
1.905 1.76 1.48 1.32 1.078

sin

L (in mH)
5.894 5.412 4.43 3.94 3.06

1 2 3 4 5

0.9715 0.9656 0.94 0.9378 0.8915

Table 4.2: Observations with Varying Control Winding Current Keeping Main Winding current at 8A (approx)

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0.5
0.45 0.4 0.35

power factor

0.3 0.25 0.2 0.15 0.1 0.05 0 0 1 2 3 4 5

Ic (in A)

Fig.4.3: Graph showing variation of power factor with Ic when main winding current is set to 8 A

0.6 0.5 0.4 L (in mH) 0.3 0.2 0.1 0 0 0.5 1 1.5 Ic (in A)
Fig.4.4: Graph showing variation of L with Ic when main winding current is set to 8A

2.5

3.5

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CHAPTER 5 CONCLUSION AND FUTURESCOPE

5.1 Conclusion

The results have been observed from the observation table that shows that when there is no control current fed in the control winding, then the variation in the inductance value of the main winding found very less.

When control current is made to flow in the control winding through the rheostat for particular value of the current in the main winding. It is observed that the inductance of the main winding shows a significant change in inductance value. The variation in inductance value of the main winding is found to be more when the current in it was set at lower value. This is because when the current is higher in the main winding than it requires more flux to cancel the flux produced in the control winding.

5.2

Future scope

In the present experimental setup, the variation of inductance value of main winding is shown by variation in the control winding current through rheostat. Since rheostat has the limitation of availability in the desired rating and leads to more losses. This variation can be done by using an electronic switch like TRIAC voltage regulator. This leads to smooth variation in current by changing the firing angle and also leads to less heat losses. The automatic variable inductor obtained can be used in various applications.

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References
[1] [2] [3] Prof.V. Ramanarayan,Switched mode Power Conversion, QIP Short term intensive course , Aug, 2000. Arian M. Jansen, Thousand Oaks, CA (US), Patent Number US 6,317,021 B1 on variable inductor. W. Van B. Robert, Patent number 2,302,893 variable inductance arrangements.

[4] L.Umanand and S.R.Bhat, Design of Magnetic Components for Switched Mode Power Converters, Wiley Eastern Limited, 1992. [5] [6] [7] N.Radhakrishnan and S.R.Bhat, Design and technology of low power transformer and inductors, CEDT, IISc, 1988. http://www.kunalstamping.com/ http://www.sewaelectrical.com/

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