| As fast digital computers became popular for engineering calculations, accurate and flexible numerical techniques for the computation of magnetic fields in electrical equipment emerged and became of prime importance to designers and engineers. Since the early seventies, Finite Element Methods (FEM) have provided more flexibility than other numerical techniques and have become the leading engineering tool for field computations.; This thesis is concerned primarily with the application of FEM to the solution of magnetic fields and the design of power equipment. The thesis can be classified into five categories: (1) application of the FEM to nonlinear magnetostatic field problems and modification of the two dimensional field formulation to compensate for three dimensional effects, (2) computation of magnetic forces and torques directly in terms of the magnetic vector potential and FE quantities, (3) application of the FEM to nonlinear time-dependent two dimensional and axisymmetric magneto-mechanical problems, combining all of the system's governing equations into a single linear set of algebraic equations, (4) formulation of the nonlinear FE problem in an inverse fashion, and (5) application of the FEM to nonlinear axisymmetric steady state AC multiconductor field problem.; The accuracy and flexibility of the FE formulations are demonstrated by way of numerous examples of academic as well as practical value. |
