Simulation Software for a Permanent Magnet Alternator Design

[Bcavender]

I am looking to try some design ideas using PMs for alternator design. I am a retired EE so I do not have corporate capital for simulation software.

Does anyone know of low to medium cost simulation software that might be workable for basic flux/emf/etc calculations and modeling? Or other approaches to software?

Thanks!

Bruce

 

[berkeman]

I am looking to try some design ideas using PMs for alternator design. I am a retired EE so I do not have corporate capital for simulation software.

Does anyone know of low to medium cost simulation software that might be workable for basic flux/emf/etc calculations and modeling? Or other approaches to software?

Thanks!

Bruce

Welcome to the PF, Bruce.

I'm not aware of low-cost alternatives to COMSOL and similar packages, and I'm guessing you have used Google to try to find such packages. Can you maybe look at using Excel to write your own simulations? It will take some work on your part, but if you are familiar with differential equations and numerical simulation concepts, you could probably do some good work with some large Excel spreadsheet simulations...

https://www.comsol.com/video/modeling-rotating-electrical-machines-in-comsol-multiphysics

 

[Bcavender]

Welcome to the PF, Bruce.

I'm not aware of low-cost alternatives to COMSOL and similar packages, and I'm guessing you have used Google to try to find such packages. Can you maybe look at using Excel to write your own simulations? It will take some work on your part, but if you are familiar with differential equations and numerical simulation concepts, you could probably do some good work with some large Excel spreadsheet simulations...

https://www.comsol.com/video/modeling-rotating-electrical-machines-in-comsol-multiphysics

Berkeman,

Thank you for the reply.

I have some basics in a spreadsheet as we speak, but I am still plying search engines for a sniff of low freq EM productivity boost. My goal here is to test the waters to see if there was any mid-Level engineering entrepreneurs out there that may have already put together software in seeking economic independence through their valuable skills/risk taking and have finally graduated from Cubelife.

Clearly the big simulation houses have far too much capital invested that requires giant covering cash flows annually. By this strategy, IMHO they have priced their products out of the small/midrange application market. Autodesk recognized this and addressed this marketspace in the CAD/CAM world with their Fusion360 product. It appears to me they are trying to aggressively corner the edu/small/medium shop marketplace with this very capable product ... and then be able to drive the highly productive in that group to their high range products. I love the recognition of the mid-range marketspace and product tech strategy, but their marketing strategy is economically narrow/harsh and legally brusque. Time will tell if this subscription-only strategy will pay off. ADSK hasn't been in the black since 2014Q2. Investment analysts love the new marketing play do death as they only foresee steadily increasing cash flows. Many in their previous customer base, for example in the PracticalMachinist.com community, have disparaged the move with prejudice ... to say it politely. I do a bit of proto work. Fusion360 is technically powerful, but I am avoiding it as past treatment of customers could very likely repeat. It is unfortunate when ill conceived biz policy wrecks perfectly good technology sales. There seems no shortage of CEOs willing to throw away half of their customer base for issues, sometimes, unrelated to their products entirely. Puzzling.

I am happy to trade off a smidge more incremental work as I go along and not have to be worried about getting locked into someone's massive learning curve that suddenly doubles/quadruples/8X in cost and opting out locks me out of all past work I have performed. (Not to mention risking IP liability if some Bulgarian Basement Blackhat triggers a cloud theft/ransom/delete all including backups exploit.) I like to keep it simple and controllable. Time will ID the real risks here. As an engineer, it is difficult to trust to good luck and not design for the worst case situation. Just too old fashioned I guess.

A great example in the medium productivity software level space is LISA. It is a really nice basic FEA package that imports a variety of common 3D file formats for well above trivial level designs and costs $300. I am guessing that this venture is a one man show, but both the software and support are top shelf. It does 80% of what I find necessary for good/economic design and saves a great deal of wheel-reinvention on my part. From the verbose responses to support questions, you can tell the gent behind the package lives, breathes and loves practical, usable FEA. He appears to be having a ball. Thirteen years ago the 80/20 mindset got me out of the exponentially expanding frustration of engineering/managing in the bigcorp/big city enviro in order to work on simply what I like ... only. Life is way too short to be 80% frustrated all the time.

Pareto was a very wise man.

I too have been in AmRadio since high school (in the 70s) and participate in Infragard activity occasionally. Extra class, 160m-70cm, hoping to experiment with some of the advanced modulation modes/SDR on completion of this low freq EM project. AmRadio has been quite the learning/fun experience with really great people.
Bruce
Exurbs, TN

 

[berkeman]

A great example in the medium productivity software level space is LISA. It is a really nice basic FEA package that imports a variety of common 3D file formats for well above trivial level designs and costs $300. I am guessing that this venture is a one man show, but both the software and support are top shelf. It does 80% of what I find necessary for good/economic design and saves a great deal of wheel-reinvention on my part. From the verbose responses to support questions, you can tell the gent behind the package lives, breathes and loves practical, usable FEA. He appears to be having a ball.

Thanks for the tip on LISA, I'll check it out.

I too have been in AmRadio since high school (in the 70s) and participate in Infragard activity occasionally. Extra class, 160m-70cm, hoping to experiment with some of the advanced modulation modes/SDR on completion of this low freq EM project. AmRadio has been quite the learning/fun experience with really great people.

 

[Tom.G]

For just the field aspect, take a look at: http://www.femm.info/wiki/HomePage

It does Magnetic, Heat, Current fields, and maybe others... and it's FREE!

 

[wetel]

For just the field aspect, take a look at: http://www.femm.info/wiki/HomePage

It does Magnetic, Heat, Current fields, and maybe others... and it's FREE!

Is it possible to see motor simulation in it ?

 

[Tom.G]

Don't know, haven't used it. But it's not mentioned on the website.

 

[wetel]

Don't know, haven't used it. But it's not mentioned on the website.

Yeah it's not mentioned in website.

But I saw some youtube video of motor simulation in femm with rotor movement and all. Don't know how the author did it

Femm is go tool for electromagnetic simulation and it is also free