Chapter 7. Simulation of Electrical Machines and Systems

In the industrial world, the bulk of the energy produced is consumed by a vast number of electric motors that are rarely powered directly from the main supply and rarely operated at steady state. In many practical systems, an electric machine is often a member of a group of machines that are interlinked at the control level. The electric machines in such systems start and stop frequently, change their operating modes to motoring or generating, and, in most cases, are controlled by power electronics drive systems, which in reality never operate at steady state. Therefore, understanding the operation and the behavior of electric machines and drives in a dynamic environment requires special attention.

Most of the textbooks published in this area provide static models of electric machines and drives. However, since static models do not take time variations into account, they provide very limited insights under real, dynamic operating conditions. Although there are a few alternative software tools (other than LabVIEW) and textbooks available in the market, these are either expensive or require additional time and effort to make the software modules fully functional.