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Improved Calculation Method for Inductance

Value of the Air-Gap Inductor
Xinsheng Zhang, * Fei Xiao, Ruitian Wang, Xuexin Fan, Haichao Wang
2020 IEEE 1st China International Youth Conference on Electrical Engineering (CIYCEE) | 978-1-7281-9659-6/20/$31.00 ©2020 IEEE | DOI: 10.1109/CIYCEE49808.2020.9332553

 Abstract – An improved method for calculating the parameters are illustrated in Fig. 1.
inductance of the air-gap inductor is introduced. The existing In [4], the capacitance-to-reluctance analogy is used to
calculation methods mainly focus on the air-gap fringing effect research the air-gap reluctance. Based on the Schwarz–
while ignoring the winding reluctance's influence. In some
Christoffel transformation, analytic expressions (2)-(5) are
large-capacity occasions, since the winding of the inductor also
has a large volume, the influence of the winding reluctance on developed for the air-gap reluctance of several commonly
the inductance value cannot be ignored. In this paper, the encountered core configurations, which are shown in Fig. 2。
winding reluctance is calculated, and the total inductance is
solved based on a magnetic reluctance model. The results show
that the proposed method is effective.

Index Terms—air gap, fringing flux, inductor, inductance,

reluctance.

I. INTRODUCTION

I N the field of power electronics application, magnetic

components are of great significance for realizing
electrical energy conversion and inductors are often used
for filtering and energy storage [1][2]. The inductance value
is the main parameter of the inductor, and some application
occasions have high requirements for the accuracy of the
inductance. For example, for the LC filter, the inductance
value is one of the cutoff frequency factors. In addition, the
inductor is sometimes required to work under overload
conditions, in which the influence of the core saturation on Fig. 2. Core configurations.
the inductance is evident. 1
Ra 
In the past, many constructive works have been done in w 2  h  (2)
0    1  ln 
the inductance calculation, especially in the fringing effect of
 2 d   4d  
the air gap.
1
Rb 
w 4   h  (3)
0    1  ln 
d  4d  
Hw d 1
Rc 
 w 1  h  (4)
0    1  ln  
 2d   2d  
Fig. 1. C-type core parameters. 1
Rd 
Reference [3] provided a correction factor for C-type and w 2  h  (5)
0    1  ln  
E-type core to describe the influence of the air gap fringing d   2d  
flux on the inductance value. The expression is given as Reference [5] proposed a 3D fringing factor to improve the
d 2H calculation accuracy of the method in [4]. The approach is
F  1 ln( w ) , (1)
Ac d introduced using the example in Fig. 3. Assuming that the air
where Ac is the cross-sectional area of the core, d is the height gap is infinitely long in the X-direction, the air gap can be
of the air gap, and Hw is the height of the window. The simplified to a 2D model in YZ-plane, then the per-unit-of-
length reluctance Rx can be obtained by the method in [4]。
Ry is obtained in a similar manner. Finally, the air-gap
Xinsheng Zhang is with the National Key Laboratory of Science and reluctance considering 3D fringing effect is derived as
Technology on Vessel Integrated Power System, Naval University of
Engineering, Wuhan 430033, China. (Email: marvinzxs@163.com) follows.
Fei Xiao is with the National Key Laboratory of Science and
Technology on Vessel Integrated Power System, Naval University of
Engineering, Wuhan 430033, China. (Email: xfeyninger@gmail.com)

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Rx Ry the winding reluctance of one limb, which is usually ignored

x  , y  (6) in the design of small power inductors. However, for large-
d d
capacity inductors, to meet the large current requirements, the
0 w y 0 wx
windings also have a large volume, so the magnetic field in
d the winding also has an obvious impact on the inductance.
R3D   x y (7)
0 wx wy In summary, the total inductance value is given as
N t2
L , (8)
Rc  2   Rgi || Rw 
d where Nt is the total turns of the inductor.
z
wy
wx
x
y
Fig. 3. Three-dimensional air gap.
In the above references, the winding reluctance is ignored
or roughly considered. For large-capacity inductors, the
winding reluctance has an obvious impact on the inductance,
and the calculation method of the transformer leakage
inductance can be used as a reference. In reference [6], the
formula of the transformer leakage inductance was derived
based on the assumption of the parallel magnetic field.
Moreover, in reference [7], the combination of the Dowell
model and the Rogowski coefficient [8] led to remarkable Fig. 4. Magnetic reluctance model of the inductor. (Rc is the reluctance of
the core, Rg1–Rg2 are the air-gap reluctances in a limb, and Rw is the winding
results. However, there is a contradiction between the reluctance of one limb)
calculation methods of the transformer leakage inductance
and the air gap reluctance, so the two cannot be directly used. III. RELUCTANCES CALCULATION
The main contributions of the work in this paper include
The key to solving the inductance value of the inductor is
the following:
to calculate reluctances. The calculation methods of air-gap
1) A method for inductance calculation of air-gap
reluctance, winding reluctance, and core reluctance are
inductors, which includes reluctance models of air gap,
respectively introduced in this section.
winding and core, is proposed.
2) Large-scale FEM simulations were carried out to verify A. Air-gap reluctance
the accuracy of the proposed work; A simplified air gap is shown in Fig. 5, and the reluctance
3) The proposed method was used to design a large- can be regarded as a result of the parallel connection of the
capacity inductor, and the test result verified the effectiveness air-gap internal reluctance and the fringing reluctance.
of the method. Assuming that the magnetic field inside the air gap is uniform,
This paper is organized as follows. The magnetic the air-gap internal reluctance is given as
reluctance model is introduced in Section II. Section III is d
associated with reluctance calculation. Verifications and Rin  i , (9)
analysis are demonstrated in Section IV. Finally, Section V 0 Ac
lays out the conclusions. where di is the air gap height, Ac is the cross-sectional area,
and u0 is the air permeability.
II. MAGNETIC RELUCTANCE MODEL An equivalent current source Ieq with a diameter di is
introduced at the edge of the air gap to simplify the fringing
For distributed air-gap inductors, it is possible to solve the
magnetic field (Fig. 6). Since the core magnetic permeability
total inductance value by a magnetic reluctance model. The
is much larger than the air permeability, a mirror current
magnetic reluctance model of the E-type core is given in [5],
source Ieq′ is made with the core boundary as the symmetry
and the magnetic reluctance in the window is considered to
axis. Since Ieq is just at the core boundary, the positions of Ieq
be very large and ignored in the reluctance model. However,
and Ieq′ overlap. As shown in Fig. 6, the fringing magnetic
for large-capacity inductors, ignoring the winding reluctance
field is replaced by the surrounding magnetic field of the
will adversely affect the calculation accuracy.
equivalent current source. Then, the fringing reluctance can
The magnetic reluctance model of distributed air-gap
be obtained by solving the surrounding magnetic field of the
inductor, which has an asymmetrical structure, is given in Fig.
current source, which is regular and easy to solve. Finally, the
4. Rc is the core magnetic reluctance, which is usually small
air gap fringing reluctance is given as
and non-linear, and it can be used to describe the saturation
characteristics of the inductor. Rg1–Rg2 are the air gap 
Rfr  , (10)
reluctances in a limb, which are usually the factors that have  2h  di 
the most significant influence on the inductance value. Rw is
0Cln  
 di 

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where C is the perimeter of the cross-section.

The total reluctance of one air gap is
Rgi  Rfr || Rin . (11)

Fig. 5. Simplified air gap.

Fig. 7. Calculation regions of the air-gap reluctance and the winding

reluctance, and the schematic diagram of the Magnetomotive force (MMF).
(a) r=0 , (b) 0<r≤Dc-w , (c) Dc-w<r≤Dc-w+Dw ( x is the distance from the
outer surface of the winding; Dw is the thickness of the winding; Dc-w is the
distance between winding and core limb; 2h is the height of a segment of
core limb; di is the height of an air gap. Red region for calculating the air-
gap reluctance; blue region for calculating the winding reluctance )
Fig. 6. Equivalent transformation of the air-gap fringing magnetic field. 1）0<r≤Dc-w
As shown in Fig. 7(b), there are many air gaps in a core
B. Winding reluctance
limb, and the radius r of the fringing field is smaller than the
To calculate the winding reluctance, a method, which is core-winding distance Dc-w between the winding and the core
based on the calculation method for the transformer leakage leg. The magnetic field in the radius r is neglected in the
inductance, is proposed. It is assumed that the magnetic flux winding reluctance calculation. In the region between the
lines in the winding are parallel, and the magnetic field and core limb and the winding, MMF = NI, and the magnetic
magnetomotive force (MMF) are shown in Fig. 7(a). The reluctance in this region is
equivalent height of the magnetic circuit is
He
h Rw'  , (15)
He  w , (12) 0  Dc-w  r  Cc-w
KR
where hw is the winding height, KR is the Rogowski factor where Cc-w is the average perimeter.
and its expression is given as [8] In the winding region, for a thin layer with a width dx, the
1  e  hw / Dw MMF is different with different x, where x is the distance
KR  1  . (13)
 hw / Dw from the inner surface of the winding. Assuming that the
Since part of the fringing magnetic field of the air gaps is current density is uniformly distributed in the winding region,
distributed in the winding space, it is necessary to reconsider the number of the equivalent turns in different x position is
the boundary of the calculation region of winding reluctance given as
to avoid the double-counting of the magnetic energy. As x (16)
N eq  N,
shown in Fig. 7(b) and (c), the boundary of winding Dw
reluctance calculation region is determined by the radius of where N is the turns of one core leg. Then the magnetic
the fringing field. If the air gaps are evenly distributed, the linkage of the winding region is calculated by
radius of the fringing field is 2
d  x
Dw  Iu0 MTL N 2 I 0 MLTDw
r h i . (14)  w''    N dx  , (17)
 Dw  He 3H e
0
2
where MLT is the mean length of turns.
According to the magnetic reluctance model in Fig. 4, the
MMF of total winding reluctance is approximately equal to
NI. Making the MMF=NI, the equivalent reluctance in the
winding region is given as
 '' 3H e
Rw''  2w  . (18)
N I  0 MLTDw
Finally, the total winding reluctance is
He
Rw  Rw' || Rw''  . (19)
0  Dc-w  r  Cc-w  0 MLTDw / 3

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2）Dc-w<r≤Dc-w+Dw considering the hysteresis, it is possible to solve the equation

As shown in Fig. 7(c), there are few air gaps in a core limb,
and the radius r of the fringing field meets the condition that
Dc-w<r≤Dc-w+Dw. The magnetic field in the radius r is
neglected in the winding reluctance calculation. The
derivation process is similar to (16)-(18), and the winding
reluctance is given as
3He Dw 2
Rw  3 .
0 MLT  Dc-w  Dw  r 
C. Core reluctance
The core magnetic reluctance is described as Rc. When the
non-linear characteristic of the core material is not
considered, the total core magnetic reluctance is given as
MPL  di
Rc  , (21)
0r Acv
where MPL is the magnetic path length, di is the length of the
air gap, μr is the relative magnetic permeability of the core
material, and Acv is the valid cross-sectional area.
As far as the overload condition is concerned, the
influence of non-linear characteristics of the core material on
the inductance value is considered. With the increase in the
magnetic field intensity, the magnetic permeability of the
core decreases when approaching the saturation point.
Meanwhile, the inductance value decreases. In this paper, the
influence of the core saturation on the inductance value is
described by a non-linear reluctance of the core material.
Therefore, the core reluctance is redefined as
MPL   di
Rcn  B   , on the inductance value. When the other parameters are fixed,
0 r-n  B  Acv
where μr-n is the non-linear permeability. To get the μr-n, the
H-B magnetization curve of the operating frequency is
needed, which is shown in Fig. 8.
using linear interpolation and dichotomy according to the
specified H-B curve. Then, the value of permeability under
overload condition is given as
Bs
ur-n  . (24)
u0 Hs
According to (1), (22), (23) and (24), the inductance value
under overload condition can be solved. It also should be
(20)
noted that when the inductor is severely saturated, the
magnetic field is very different from that in normal operation,
and this method is no longer suitable.
IV. VERIFICATION AND ANALYSIS
This section presents the calculation, analysis, comparison
and verification of an 8mH/182A/2kHz inductor. The
structure of the inductor is shown in Fig. 9.
Fig. 9. Internal structure of the inductor. (a) Core and air gaps (b) Water-
cooling system (c) Prototype model
A. Influence of winding reluctance
Fig. 10 shows the influence of the core-winding distance
(22)
the increase in the core-winding distance slightly increases
the inductance value. As a comparison, the calculation results
of the method in [5] is also presented, which is independent
of the distance. According to Fig. 7, the MMF is highest in
the region between the core leg and the winding, and the
increase of the Dc-w leads to a decrease in the winding
reluctance.

Fig. 8. Magnetization curve.

Assuming that the flux density is uniformly distributed on
the cross-section of the core, the core flux density under
overload condition is given as Fig. 10. Influence of the core-winding distance on the inductance and
method comparison.
N t Is
Bs  , (23)
2(  Rgi | |Rw )Acv  Rcn  Bs  Fig. 11 shows 28 different cases that have the same flux
density but different turns, and they all have the same design
where Is is the peak value of the overload current, Bs is the
target of 8 mH. Based on the FEM results, the errors of the
flux density under the excitation of Is.
inductance results with consideration of winding reluctance
Equation (23) is a fixed-point equation of Bs, where Rgi
are smaller than those without consideration of winding
and Rw are independent of the flux density. Without

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reluctance. If the winding reluctances are not considered, the

errors increase with the increase in the number of turns. The
reason is that the increase in the number of turns makes the
winding cross-section larger, which leads to a decrease in the
winding reluctance and an increase in the inductance.

Fig. 13. Influence of the air gap height on the inductance.

As shown in Fig. 14, 180 inductor cases were calculated
using the method in [5] and the proposed method in this
paper, respectively, and then compared with the FEM results.
For the existing method, the maximum error is 10%, and the
average error is 4.1%. While for the proposed method, the
maximum error is 4%, and the average error is 1.2%. In
comparison with the literature method, the accuracy of the
proposed method is better.

Fig. 11. Influence of the winding reluctance on the inductance calculation.

B. Influence of core saturation

As shown in Fig. 12, when the designed flux density of the
inductor is close to the saturation point, the current overload
will reduce the core permeability and cause the inductance
value to decrease significantly.

Fig. 14. Comparison of the results of the different calculating method.

D. Prototype and test

Fig. 12. The influence of core saturation on the inductance value. (Ldy is the
dynamic inductance calculated by no-linear core reluctance; Lst is the static An inductor prototype was designed and manufactured,
inductance calculated by linear core reluctance; I is the current value; In is which is shown in Fig. 15. The measured value is 8.07mH,
the normal current value)
and the designed inductance value is 8.11mH with an error of
C. Simulation verification and comparison 0.5%.
Fig. 13 shows the influence of the air gap height on the
inductance value. When the other parameters are fixed, the
increase of the air gap height obviously decreases the
inductance value. The calculation results of the proposed
method are close to the FEM results.

Fig. 15. Inductor prototype.

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V. CONCLUSION
For the air-gap inductor, an improved method for
inductance calculation, which considering the winding
reluctance, is proposed in this paper. According to the FEM
results, the average relative error of the existing method is
4.1%, and the average relative error of the proposed method
is 1.2%. An inductor prototype was manufactured, and the
effectiveness of the proposed method was verified by test.
VI. REFERENCES
[1] G. Yang, F. Xiao, X. Fan, R. Wang and J. Liu, “Three-Phase Three-
Level Phase-Shifted PWM DC–DC Converter for Electric Ship
MVDC Application,” IEEE Journal of Emerging and Selected
Topics in Power Electronics, vol. 5, no. 1, pp. 162-170, March 2017.
[2] X. Fan, G. Yang, F. Xiao, R. Wang and P. Guo, “Linear and Nonlinear
Composite Control Strategy of a Three-Level Phase-Shift PWM DC-
DC Converter for Electric Ship MVDC Application,” 2018 37th
Chinese Control Conference (CCC), Wuhan, 2018, pp. 361-367.
[3] C. W. T. McLyman, Transformer and Inductor Design Handbook.
Beijing, China: China Elect. Power Press, 2008, pp. 370–372.
[4] A. Balakrishnan, W. T. Joines and T. G. Wilson, “Air-gap reluctance
and inductance calculations for magnetic circuits using a Schwarz-
Christoffel transformation,” IEEE Transactions on Power
Electronics, vol. 12, no. 4, pp. 654-663, July 1997.
[5] J. Muhlethaler, J. W. Kolar and A. Ecklebe, “A novel approach for 3d
air gap reluctance calculations,” 8th International Conference on
Power Electronics - ECCE Asia, Jeju, 2011, pp. 446-452.
[6] P. L. Dowell, “Effects of eddy currents in transformer
windings,” Proceedings of the Institution of Electrical Engineers,
Authorized licensed use limited to: University of Canberra. Downloaded on May 20,2021 at 04:48:57 UTC from IEEE Xplore. Restrictions apply.
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vol. 113, no. 8, pp. 1387-1394, August 1966.
[7] M. Mogorovic and D. Dujic, “Medium frequency transformer leakage
inductance modeling and experimental verification,” 2017 IEEE
Energy Conversion Congress and Exposition (ECCE), Cincinnati, OH,
2017, pp. 419-424.
[8] S. V. Kulkarni and S. A. Khaparde, Transformer Engineering: Design
and Practice. New York, NY, USA: Marcel Dekker, Inc., 2004.
VII. BIOGRAPHIES
Xinsheng Zhang was born in China. He received the B.E. degree in
electrical engineering and automation from Shandong University, Jinan,
China, in 2015. He received the M.E. degree in electrical engineering and
automation from Naval University of Engineering, Wuhan, China, in 2017.
He is currently working toward the Ph.D. degree in electrical engineering at
Naval University of Engineering, Wuhan, China. His research interests
include design and analysis of magnetic components in power electronics
converters.
Fei Xiao was born in China. He received the B.E. and M.E. degrees in
electrical engineering from Naval University of Engineering, Wuhan, China,
in 1999 and 2001, respectively. From 2004 to 2012, he worked toward the
Ph.D. degree in electrical engineering with Zhejiang University, Hangzhou.
In 2003, he was a Lecturer with the Naval University of Engineering, where
he was an Associate Professor in 2009 and a Full Professor in 2012. His
research interests include renewable energy generation, modeling and
control of power electronic system, and high-voltage large-power electronic
equipment.