Modelling anisotropy in non-oriented electrical steel sheet using vector Jiles–Atherton model

Purpose Non-oriented electrical steel presents anisotropic behaviour. Modelling such anisotropic behaviour has become a necessity for accurate design of electrical machines. The main aim of this study is to model the magnetic anisotropy in the non-oriented electrical steel sheet of grade M400-50A using a phenomenological hysteresis model. Design/methodology/approach The well-known phenomenological vector Jiles–Atherton hysteresis model is modified to correctly model the typical anisotropic behaviour of the non-oriented electrical steel sheet, which is not described correctly by the original vector Jiles–Atherton model. The modification to the vector model is implemented through the anhysteretic magnetization. Instead of the commonly used classical Langevin function, the authors introduced 2D bi-cubic spline to represent the anhysteretic magnetization for modelling the magnetic anisotropy. Findings The proposed model is found to yield good agreement with the measurement data. Comparisons are done between the original vector model and the proposed model. Another comparison is also made between the results obtained considering two different modifications to the anhysteretic magnetization. Originality/value The paper presents an original method to model the anhysteretic magnetization based on projections of the anhysteretic magnetization in the principal axis, and apply such modification to the vector Jiles–Atherton model to account for the magnetic anisotropy. The replacement of the classical Langevin function with the spline resulted in better fitting. The proposed model could be used in the numerical analysis of magnetic field in an electrical application.