Comparison of Commercial and Open-Source FEM Software: A Case Study

5-kW high-efficiency induction motor is analyzed using two-dimensional (2-D) open-source platform and the results are compared with commercial software and measurements. The importance of equivalent circuit parameters in 2-D analyses is highlighted. The noncommercial and commercial software give similar results. The motor is further analyzed in the 2.5-D domain and the results are compared with measured results. The losses obtained with 2-D, 2.5-D, and using the IEC segregation procedure of losses procedure are compared. The performance of an induction machine depends significantly on different parameters such as air gap and stator tooth tip height. Their impact on losses is studied with open-source finite-element analysis. The benefit of this open-source platform in the electrical motor analysis is the ability to use parallel-computing effectively and reduce the time required to solve the electromagnetic problem. Other benefits are the transparency of all features of the software and license-free usage. It is concluded that in 2-D analyses, the open-source software can be used on industrial-scale problems as it showed acceptable results for losses, and lower computational time when using appropriate mortar and conforming boundary conditions.