About the possibility of defining a standard method for iron loss measurement in soft magnetic materials with inverter supply

Due to the increase of electromagnetic and electromechanical devices supplied by static converters, the classification and evaluation of the energetic behavior of soft magnetic materials, with nonsinusoidal supply, is becoming mandatory. In this paper, the possibility of defining a standard methodology for the specific iron loss measurement (iron losses per mass unity), with static supply, is analyzed. In particular, the paper underlines the main problems which can be found when standard magnetic measurements are carried out with nonsinusoidal sources. Pulsewidth modulation (PWM) inverters can be considered an industrial standard solution as a static supply source. As a consequence, the problems linked to the use of this kind of supply with magnetic material have been analyzed, taking into account the effects due to the PWM inverter characteristics (for example, modulation index, switching frequency, and modulation technique). In addition, in the paper, a basic structure of a standard test bench is proposed, also taking into consideration the required instrumentation.