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

Abstract

5 kW high-efficiency induction motor is analyzed using 2D open-source platform and the results are compared with commercial software and measurements. The importance of equivalent circuit parameters in 2D analyses is highlighted. The non-commercial and commercial software give similar results. The motor is further analysed in the 2.5D domain and the results are compared with measured results. The losses obtained with 2D, 2.5D 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 FEA. 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 2D 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