M.E.

El-Hawary, Editor
Power Engineering Letters
T
his section of the magazine offers a vehicle that speeds publica-
tion of new results, discoveries, and developments. The section
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The following editorial board members are responsible for the peer re-
view of all Letters appearing in this section:
G
M.E. El-Hawary (editor), Dalhousie University, Canada
G
A. Bose, Washington State University, U.S.A.
G
M.T. Correia de Barros, Universidade Tecnica de Lisboa, Portugal
G
A.M. DiCaprio, PJM Interconnection, U.S.A.
G
A.R. El-Kieb, University of Alabama, U.S.A.
G
R.K. Green, Jr., Central and Southwest Services, U.S.A.
G
T.J. Hammons, University of Glasgow, UK
G
S.I. Iwamoto, Waseda University, Japan
G
J.H. Jones, Southern Companies Services, U.S.A.
G
P. Kundur, Power Tech Labs, Canada
G
F.N. Lee, University of Oklahoma, U.S.A.
G
J. Momoh, Howard University, U.S.A.
G
M.M. Morcos, Kansas State University, U.S.A.
G
A. Papalexopoulos, Pacific Gas and Electric, U.S.A.
G
M. Poloujadoff, Universite Pierre et Marie Curie, France
G
N. Rau, ISO New England Inc., U.S.A.
G
A. Schwab, Universitat Karlsruhe, Germany
G
M. Shahidehpour, Illinois Institute of Technology, U.S.A.
G
W.L. Snyder, Jr., Siemens Energy & Automation, Inc., U.S.A.
G
J.S. Thorp, Cornell University, U.S.A.
G
S.S. Venkata, Iowa State University, U.S.A.
G
B.F. Wollenberg, University of Minnesota, U.S.A.
In This Issue
This issue includes the following Power Engineering Letters:
G
Fitting Saturation and Hysteresis via Arctangent Functions, by
Carlos Prez-Rojas
G
Induction Motors Broken Bars Monitoring Using the H-H
Method, by M.S. Nat Sad, M.E.H. Benbouzid
G
A Simplified Method for Outage Reduction Impact Estimation,
by D. Pedro Miquel, B. Jos R. Figueroa
G
HIPER: Interactive Tool for Mid-Term Transmission Expansion
Planning in a Deregulated Environment, by R.D.
Cruz-Rodrguez, G. Latorre-Bayona
G
A Review of a Quasistatic and a Dynamic TCSC Model, by
Ricardo J. Dvalos, Juan. M. Ramrez
Fitting Saturation and Hysteresis
via Arctangent Functions
Carlos Prez-Rojas
Author Affiliation: Facultad de Ingeniera Elctrica, Universidad
Michoacana de San Nicols de Hidalgo, Michoacn, Mxico.
Abstract: In this letter an approach for fitting saturation character-
istic and hysteresis using arctangent functions is presented. It has direct
application to modeling transformers and electric machines. The ap-
proach is based on measurements of the of magnetizing curve of the
ferromagnetic material. The analytical formof the characteristic can be
completely described by only three parameters. These three parameters
are enough to take into account: the slope of the linear region, the posi-
tion of the knee, and the saturating slope. The appropriate selection of
these parameters allows the fitting of a wide class of magnetizing char-
acteristics in simulation programs.
Keywords: Magnetic saturation, hysteresis, arctangent function.
Introduction: Saturation and hysteresis characteristics in ferro-
magnetic materials have been the subject of much research. The repre-
sentations vary from empirical relationships to more sophisticated
analytical expressions such as exponential, hyperbolae, polynomials,
arctangent [1-3], and differential relay equations. The interest in a more
rigorous modeling is justified in systems that require that the operation
be predicted accurately. This implies that their parameters should be
known with the minimum of uncertainty regardless of the operating
point and the size of the electric devices. A substantial amount of re-
search has been done in this area with each method having its own ad-
vantages and disadvantages for simulation purposes.
This work suggests an alternative based on the arctangent function
that requires a minimumnumber of parameters and at the same time al-
lows precise adjustment to any saturation characteristic. The simplicity
IEEE Power EngineeringReview, November 2000 0272-1724/00/$10.002000 IEEE 55
Figure 1. Real and approximate by arctangent of the saturation curve
of the analytic equation renders an algorithm that is not
computationally time consuming.
Characteristic of Saturation: The actual saturation characteristic
of a magnetic component can be approximated using an arctangent
function of the form

m m n m m
i m i i ( ) ( ) + atan . (1)
The constants
m
, m, and , which are calculated, form the actual
curve shown in Figure 1, as follows:

n x

2
(2)
m
i i
s

( )
( )

2 1
2 1
2
(3)

[ ( )]
s n s
s
m i
i
atan
(4)
where

x
is the value of at the intersection of slopes,

n
is the value of
x
normalized to the maximum of the arctangent
function, /2,

s
is the saturated value of in the actual magnetizing characteris-
tic,
m is the curves initial slope, normalized to the maximum
arctangent value /2 and to the saturation value
s
,
i
s
is the value of i corresponding to
s
,
is the linear increment of
m
,

m
is the magnetizing flux linkages, and
i
m
is the magnetizing current.
Note that evaluating the parameters of (2)-(4) uses a simple procedure
directly from the actual characteristic of Figure 1. The effect of each
parameter is demonstrated in Figures 2-4.
In modeling electromagnetic and electromechanical systems the
magnetization inductance L
m
is defined as
L
d i
di
m
m m
m

( )
.
(5)
From (1) we have
L
d i
di
m
m i
m
m m
m
n

+
+

( )
1
2 2
.
(6)
These equations are applicable when the formulation of the systems
is developed on the currents taken as state variables. The result can be
extended to the case of flux linkages taken as state variables. For this
case the nonlinear relationship is i f
m m
( ) , as shown in Figure 5.
From (1) we obtain
i
m
i
m m
m
n n
m
( ) tan

_
,

1
(7)
and for this case the inverse of the magnetization inductance is
1 1
1
2
L
di
d m
i
m
m m
m n
m
n n
m
+

_
,

1
]
1
( )
tan

.
(8)
Hysteresis: A simple hysteresis model is used consisting of a resis-
tance, representing the iron losses, in parallel with a nonlinear induc-
tance, as shown in Figure 6. It has been proven that a reactors
nonlinearity is easily represented with the arctangent. It will be shown
56 IEEE Power EngineeringReview, November 2000
Figure 4. Relative movement varying
Figure 3. Relative movement varying
n
Figure 2. Relative movement varying m
that the hysteresis phenomenon is also efficiently represented with this
formulation.
Application to a Reactor: Let us consider the reactor of Figure 7.
Figure 1 illustrates the nonlinear characteristic of the reactor. Once the
indicated constants are obtained (see Appendix A) the arctangent func-
tion is calculated as
i i
m m
m
m
( ) . tan
.
.

=

11571
0 3215
0 0115 .
(9)
using the flux linkages formulation because of its simplicity. As a result
we obtain a model for the circuit of Figure 7.
Solving the model of the reactor, the results are illustrated in Fig-
ures 8-9, where we plot the current and the hysteresis cycle. The results
show how hysteresis is modeled in the reactor circuit.
Conclusions: An alternative for representing saturation and hyster-
esis characteristics has been presented. Only three parameters are
enough to characterize a wide class of saturation curves. The representa-
tion is based on the arctangent function. The usefulness of the approach
here presented has been illustrated with a simple but practical case.
References:
[1] M.M. Hassani, G. Lachiver, and G. Jasmin, Numerical simula-
tion of the magnetic core of a transformer in transient operations, Ca-
nadian Conf. Elect. Comput. Eng., pp. 289-291, 1989.
[2] K.A. Corzine, B.T. Kuhn, S.D. Sudhoff, and H.J. Hegner, An
improved method for incorporating magnetic saturation in the q-d syn-
chronous machine model, IEEE Trans. Energy Conversion, vol. 13,
pp. 270-275, 1998.
[3] J.R. Lucas and P.G. Mclaren, B-H loop representation for tran-
sient studies, Int. J. Eng. Educ., vol. 28, pp. 261-270, 1991.
Appendix A: Constants for the arctangent method,

s
= 0 3215 .
m = 0 8642 .
= 0 0037 .
Copyright Statement: ISSN 0282-1724/00/$10.00 2000 IEEE.
Manuscript received 4 April 2000. This paper is published herein in its
entirety.
IEEE Power EngineeringReview, November 2000 57
Figure 5. Characteristic i f
m m
= ( )
Figure 7. Reactor equivalent circuit
Figure 6. Hysteresis equivalent circuit
Figure 8. Reactor magnetizing current
Figure 9. Reactor hysteresis cycle