Designing Energy Storing Inductors Properly
by Gregory Mirsky, Continental Automotive Systems, Deer Park, Ill., How2Power Today, Jan 16 2019
Focus:
This article attempts to show that when designing an energy-storing inductor, one
should consider not just the current ripple in the coil and filter capacitors but also
the dc biasing current and power that the inductor must store and release. Engineers
usually overlook the dc bias and do not link the inductor’s physical size with the
required power. Instead, they focus on the desired current ripple, obtaining a value
for the core’s physical size from the winding size. After the article derives inductor
design equations that account for dc bias and the amount of power to be stored, use of
the equations is demonstrated with a boost inductor design example. This article may
be useful for those who design diverse types of power converters, filters subject to
dc biasing, solenoids and other electromagnetic components such as electromagnetic
accelerators and weapons.
What you’ll learn:
- How to account for dc bias when designing energy storing inductors
- How to properly size the core (accounting for power stored) in energy storing inductors
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