Modeling and Integrating Losses of Magnetic Components Into Time-Domain Electric Circuit Simulations

To shorten converter design time and maximize the cost efficiency, advanced design tools are needed. These tools need to be capable of performing simulations in multiple relevant converter domains, such as electric, magnetic, dielectric, and thermal, simultaneously. This paper presents a verified way to calculate semiconductor, magnetic core, and winding losses in a common simulation environment. For validation purposes, a circuit combining a full-bridge LLC resonant converter galvanically isolated through a transformer is simulated. The transformer model is based on electrical and core specifications of a 100 kW, 10 kHz realized medium frequency transformer prototype. The employed transformer model is permeance-based and includes the model of hysteresis losses, evaluated inside the time domain simulations. Thereby, the electrical behavior of the transformer remains preserved with simulated core losses which are consistent with the analytical estimate. Furthermore, the simulated winding losses at rated power match well the measured ones.