Investigation of the compaction process of electrical machines magnetic circuits and its detrimental effect on magnetic performances.

The manufacturing processes of electrical machines may lead to significant degradation of the magnetic properties of their magnetic core (stator, rotor) performances and, as a consequence, to a decrease of their energy efficiency. While the effects of some processes (cutting, welding …) are widely discussed in the literature, this is not the case with the compaction process although it is systematically used to maintain the assembly of electrical steel sheets that compose the magnetic circuits. In addition to the conventional one, a specific compaction process exists for high-power electrical machines. After an introduction, the paper firstly deals with the two studied processes (conventional, specific). Then, an experimental mock-up to study the impact of the two configurations on the magnetic properties (iron losses, normal magnetization curve) is presented. This mock-up is the first, in the literature, that allows to study the effect of a controlled compaction mechanical stress on magnetic properties. Obtained results in both configurations highlight a magneto-mechanical effect that is not reported in the literature where these effects are commonly considered following in-plane mechanical stresses. This paper presents a magneto-mechanical model, taking into account the compaction stress effect, as well as a modelling protocol to model the effect of 3D mechanical stress on magnetic properties, which has never been done in the literature.