Applying Expert Systems for Designing High Frequency Power Transformers Rakesh K. Dhawan Ned Mohan Department of Electrical Engineering ‘University of Minnesota ‘Trondhiem, Minneapolis, MNSSSS4 Abstract - In industry, its becoming increasingly important to reduce concept-to-product time. The design of high frequency transformers: presents a challenge due to it dependence on application and its need to be very low cost. To mect these challenges, am expert-system-based design ix presented which is able capture the design proces wed by experts. LINTRODUCTION For several years, automated design procedures have been used for large’ power and distribution transformers. However, for high frequency transformers (where offhe-shelf cores are used), the computerized designs have been dificult. Due to a wide range of applications and limited flexibility in the selection of cores, the design process has fo be iterative. Because of the trial-and-error approach used in such designs, it becomes difficult to adapt the design process in the form of an algorithm for computer ‘implementation. The design algorithm in {1] requires core shape and materia, type of winding and winding arrangements as inputs which are usually decided by an expert on the basis of hisher experience along with other design considerations. Rather than building up sophisticated analysis models, the experienced designers (expers) develop rules-of-thumb (called heuristics) which are then integrated with electromagnetic field calculations using finite element analysis and computerized optimization to produce a feasible design. The design-rues developed by experts are dificult to ‘model because of their non-numerical and heuristic nature [2], However, the heuristic design process canbe very’ useful In cutting down the design cost and time, An expert system jis an efficient tool (© capture and simulate heuristic procedures [3]. ‘The objective ofthis paper isto illustrate usefulness of expert systems in designing high frequency transformers. This paper focuses on the characteristics of such a design and hhow expert systems can be employed 10 model the design Process, A system called TRANSEX for designing high frequency transformers has been developed in collaboration, with a tansformer manufacturer and this paper deseribes a design methodology based on expert systems and some ofthe salient features of TRANSEX. 0-7803-1456-5/08 $8.00 © 1994 IEEE oe Robert Nilssen Norwegian Inttut of Technology Patrick Davis Schott Corporation 'N-7034, Norway Wayzata, MNSS391 IL HIGH FREQUENCY TRANSFORMER DESIGN ‘CONSIDERATIONS ‘A high frequency transformer designer is usually faced with «number of decisions during the design process. The most critical of them being the selection of core geometry, core, ‘magnetic material, wire and the interleaving sequence to reduce proximity effects. The decision processes discussed below have been incorporated into TRANSEX A. Selection of Core Geometry ‘A. umber of factors go into selecting a core geometry. Most prominent factors which influence the decision process are EMI , temperature, voltage and current levels. cost, ‘mounting flexibility, availability and volume. B. Maximum flux density Selection It is desirable to have the maximum possible Mux density in a design. However, there are a_number of constraints: increased core losses, saturation, dramatic increase in core losses. at high frequencies and increased magnetizing current .Core selection ‘A core is selected on the bass of power handling capability of the core [4], The power handling capability is based on the topology in which the transformer is to be used. For all topologies (excluding the yback topology = ie, Half-bridge, Full-bridge, Push-Pull and Forward), the design process essentially remains the same, However, the same core employed in a given topology will have a specific power handling capability because of its nature of the ‘magnetization cycle. D. Temperature rise calculations A transformer has three kinds of losses - winding . core and. Tosses in the insulating materials. Increased temperature is responsible for increased copper and core loses, reduction of the saturation ux density and degradation ofthe insulating materials. These effects can be evaluated by calculating theimemal temperature of the wansformer. A. method which takes into account all three modes of heat transfer ~ Radiation. Convection and Conduction is presented in (8. E Transformer Copper Losses ‘Skin effects and the proximity effects tend to increase the copper losses. Skin effects can be reduced by using parallel conductors, itz wire or the fol windings. Ina square wave excitation the skin effects need to be considered for various harmonics as well. The proximity effects can be reduced by reducing the number of lavers and interleaving the layers proper IM, EXPERT SYSTEM SHELLS ‘The expert systems have boen applied for many years as decision making tools in business applications such as banking and insurance, military operations and in medical services [6-10 In electrical engineering. expert systems hhave been used extensively in control of power plants, transmission line operations [11] and design [12]. However, exper systems forthe design of high frequency transformers ‘which is also @ typical decision making procedure) are considered only recently ‘An “expert system shell" is a programming tool which is specially made to describe a rule-based (heuristic) process. The program made by such a shell, employing fundamental techniques such as forward and backward chaining. (described below) to desribe a heuristic process is called an expert stem. There are three main parts of an expert system (Sce Fig, 1) a user interface, a knowledge base and fan inference engine The user imerface provides. mainly ‘windows. displays and icons (push buttons) ‘The Knowledge base consists of rules, methods, data sinuetures (in modem systems, often called objects). databases and external programs. In most expert systems, rules have the commonly used IF-THEN structure, and are ‘writen in an expert sistem language. This language can represent symbolic and conceptual knowledge hich is 319 ical to deal with in other computer languages. Methods are similar to sub-routines in conventional programming However. instead of being called, they are associated with a variable. They are executed when the variable changes or is unknown and needed ‘The inference engine processes the knowledge available in the Knowledge base Decisions can be performed in a forward manner. which means that decisions are made when sulfcient data is available (often called data driven reasoning ot forward knowledge processing), Alternatively ‘backward chaining can be performed when the reasoning is goal driven, which implies searching from an assumption t0 find information to suppor that assumption. Backward and forward chaining can be combined 0 yield a very flexible and powerful processing strategy Fig. 2 dpiets the basic architecture ofan expen system. The inference engine accesses the contents of the knowledge bose, caries out knowledge processing by fornard and tuackward chaining and displays the results and satus tothe ser, A set of goals (hypothesis or assumptions) 10 be ‘achieved canbe formulated. Similarly, the knowledge base editor can be used to add or edit the knowledge base Contents The explanation facility provides explanation of the knowredge procesing tothe user This ability of the exper systems to explain the reasoning process makes ita powerful tutoring tot {13} TV, BUILDING OF KNOWLEDGE BASE In TRANSEX, the knowledge base was gained from experts in the field of wansformer design and design literature [45.14]. In its development, there were dhree dominant forms of knowledge acquisition - 1) experience ofthe experts involving various heuristics and procedures, 2) catalogs fram ‘core and wire manufacturers to build up databases of core, wire and bobbin information [15.16] and 3) books and {journals used 10 supplement the knowledge gained from the teens. The following is a description of wire, bobbin and core databases and ther interaction with TRANSEX1) Wire Database: This database is built in Microsoft Excel under Microsoft. Windows Operating System, The wires are arranged in the decreasing order of ‘their gauge numbers. The various fields ofthe database are as: gauge, bare diameter, bare cross-sectional area , insulated diameter, insulated area , resistance per unit length , Curent ‘carrying capacity ata spocfied current density, diameter to skin depth ratio at a specified frequency, number of ‘conductors in parallel for reducing the diameter to skin ‘depth ratio, Certain fields in the database are linked to other fields through numeric constraints in the form of an equation, The field representing arca can be derived ftom another field representing diameter. The resistance per unit, length R/L (in fem) is calculated as shown below where AT is the temperature difference (°C) and A is the crossesectional area (em): RL o ‘The above field derives its value from the field representing ‘area of the wire in the database. Any change in the area of the wire will cause a change in resistance ofthe wire. This process is referred to as "Numerical Constraint Propagation ‘Network’ in Al (Artificial Intelligence) terms, The database field representing (number of conductors in parallel (n) is calculated as shown below, where A, (m') is the wie area required at DC conduction and A,"(em) is the wire area ‘requited atthe specified frequency ( @) 2) Core Database: The core database is built in Microsoft Excel. The various core geometries included inthe database are E. EC. ETD. Pot and RM. The various fields in the database are core part number. core area, bobbin area, area Product. power handling capacity of the core ata given Trequency. flux density, duty cycle and current density volume, height, width, temperature rise of the core at given power los, cost ofthe core. index and radiating area of the @ 20 core [4}, The single-valued fields are ux density, duty cexele, frequency, current density, output power, efficiency and power loss. ‘The power handling capacity ofthe core (power in W) is calculated as shown below where K, Bog. f. Ayn. ff J and D are scaling factor for various topologies, ux density (G), frequency (Hz). area product (cm), ficiency, fill-factor, courtent density(CMW/A) and duty cycle respectively. n powers ° “The temperature rise of the core (AT in °C) is calculated as shown below where A, isthe total surface area (em) and P, is power loss (W). This temperature rise is used to set a ‘database query to search the core database: ars sa43"P] « ‘The database architecture is shown in Fig 4. The following. equations have been used for determining the internal aod ‘the surface temperature of a transformer: aves)" «(S24 i. (ek © oO Where Pay Pan and P,,y are heat transfers duc to radiation, convection and conduction respectively E. T, T.. d. hand x fare emissivity, surface temperature. ambient temperature, iameter of an equivalent cylindrical body, thermal ‘conductivity and thickness of the bod in appropriate unit, 3) Dynamic Data Exchange Link herween TRANSEN and the Databases: The Microsoft Windows ‘Operating System provides Dynamic Data Exchange (DDE) facility. I allows two programs to exchange data with each Peaother. The program ‘Client nitates the conversation (DDE protocol). The program "Server responds to the request. TRANSEX uizes DDE to interact with the wire database. “The database architecture is shown in Fig. 3. There are 14 fields in the database, The data inthe fields AWG. Diam. Paralfeled has many instances (implying a umber of tows) whereas the data in the fields Freq. D... Curr. Den. and Skin Depth are single valued. The broker arrows in the figure indicate a formula link between the flelds. The field pointed 10 by an arrow derives its values by virtue of a formula from the fields atthe other end of the arrow. As an example. bare area of the wire can be calculated if bare diameter of the wire is known, TTRANSEX interacts with the database by sending the value ofthe frequency and curtent density as it becomes available ‘Then it accesses the database to determine D,.. ( This is done when RMS value ofthe current is known), t sends this value of D,, 10 the database to be stored under the field ‘De! I accesss the database again to determine actual wire sizes with due consideration to skin depth, This process is repeated for each of the transformer windings. For the core datgbase TRANSEX acting as a ‘client’ establishes a DDE protocol and sends the following data to the core database - maximum flux density. duty cycle, efficiene. frequency, current density and output power. It accesses that database thereafter. Fig, 4+ shows the core database architecture Similar database architecture exists for bbbin database \Y. REPRESENTATION OF KNOWLEDGE ‘The representation (rules. methods. objects) of knowledge requires programming heuristics. sequence of commands which are numerically intensive and data. The heuristics are normally represented in the form of rules. In TRANSEX. aa example of heuristic is shown followed by a derived rule: Given the maximum temperature rise and the efficiency of @ transformer, caleulate the required thermal resistance ofthe core meen bts in TREN 221 OBIECT primary wining is fase is Sitmeer ut one i ‘Tamer matted i sree imlated i eance i ‘arent apace it asia bi ‘inductors para i Inamber of arm per ayer Fie 6 The objec primar winding The atte nue comdicts ‘Rhea a nbd fete sent wie Then select @ core which has o thermal resistance value lower than the one acceptable’ Rule for finding a suitable core IF max. temperature rise 1s known AND efficiency ts known ‘AND output power is known THEN FIND core WHERE thermal resistance of core required thermal resistance For the ‘then’ parts of the rule to be executed, the value of the required thermal resistance needs 10 be calculated. The inference engine is instructed to search for 2 method that calculates the value of the required thermal resistance [A method represents a sequence of commands which se numerically intensive. In TRANSEX. it takes the following form «with reference tothe example above) WHEN NEEDED required thermal resistance required thermal resistance ~ max. temperature ‘se output power effcieney-oulput power) ‘There are two forms of methods - "WHEN NEEDED’ and WHEN CHANGED’. The 'WHEN NEEDED’ method is executed when a variable is unknown The "WHEN: CHANGED’ method is executed when a variable changes its value In most modern expert systems, the data is structured in the form of abjects [18]. Associated with each object are several Variables (called attributes). The relationships between different objects are defined and operations are carried out ‘on these objects by the inference engine. For example, in TRANSEX. the following objects have been defined (as shown in Fig 5) transformer, bobbin. core. primary winding, secondary winding. wire and insolation. 1t can be observed. that, an object can be part of another objet. For example, the higher object "transformer" inherits information from ‘other objects "bobbin". "core". etc. For an example of an ‘object soe Fig, 6, In this figure the primary winding has beenshown to be an object and it has various attributes such as ~ gauge, diameter. area. layer thickness, fill factor etc. (The ‘INP’ stands for numeric attribute). The atiributes gouge, diameter,..conductors in parallel ate inherited from the ‘object wire. Also, they are same as the fields in the wire database (See Fig. 3). Other objets have attbutes which Gescribe the object in detail. This is an efficient way of dealing with a large amount of information, 1) Handling of databases as objecs: An object is 4 general form of representation of a data to be modeled, ‘When values are stored in the attributes of an objec, we obtain an instance of that abject. For example for the object primary winding, it has an attbute called gauge. When a Particular value is stored in this attribute (for example, 20 ) then we obtain a specific instance of the object primary winding. Ifwe have @ number of such instances then we can represent the whole information in the form of a database Similarly the information stored in a database can be read into the various instances of an object. The various database fields in that case become the attributes of the object. As an ‘example the object wie has atibutes which are the same as the multivalued fields of the wire database. This database ‘when accessed is stored inthe form of instances of the abject wire. Each instance represents a row of the wire database. ‘The expert system developing environment allows a communication 10 take place between the database and TRANSEX. Similarly we read the core and bobbin databases to form various instances of the objects core and bobbin 2) Transformer temperature rise calculations: ‘The Uwansformer temperature rise calculations are carried out on the basis of a thermal model of a transformer {13}. This ‘model is helpful in determining the internal temperature rise of the transformer. This calculation is carried out when the expert eystem is able to come up with a layering sequence for reducing the proximaty effects so that conduction through the various layers can be accounted for. The model has been developed in the form of a worksheet which exploits the equation solving and mumeric constraint propagation abilities of Microsoft Excel, The solution to the heat transfer ‘equations is iterative in nature. This process is commanded by TRANSEX. 3) Proximity Effect Evaluations: For a number of layers in a transformer, interleaving bocomes a necessity to reduce the prosimity effects. A procedure in the expert system inferleaves the layers in such a manner s0 aso come ‘up with minimum numberof ampere-turs atthe interface of various layers. This procedure inerleaves the primary and the secondary layers and thereafter conveys this information {oan extemal program which determines whether there has ben a decrease in the ampere-turns atthe layers interface ot not by calculating amperesums at the interfaces. This information is sent back 19 TRANSEX. Whereupon it is shovin to the user ina graphical form, VL. KNOWLEDGE PROCESSING STRATEGIES ‘As described earlier, an expert system mainly deals with 190 Kinds of knowledge processing strategies ~ backward knowledge processing strategy (also known as backward chaining) and forward knowledge processing strategy (also Jknown as forward chaining). A variable syle of knowledge processing is possible by employing a combination of backward and forward chaining. Different situations call for different knowledge processing strategies. Im backward chaining the inference engine needs to know a ‘goal’ ( see Fig. 7). The ‘goa’ is in general the same as a formulated hypothesis, which has to be validated The inference engine searches for the available rules which contain the goal in their ‘then’ pars The ‘it parts can be known facs (in which case the goal stands proved) or/and statements which need to be proved (in which case we have see step 3 in Fig. 7), The subgoals are treated as the goal and the process continues until no further sub-goals are found Fig. illustrates forward chaining. In forward chaining. the inference engine looks at the known facts and tries to match them with the if parts of the rues, In case of success in matching, the ‘then’ pars stand verified. The verified then pars’ become new facts (new knowledge) and the process continues until no new knowledge can be generated. For high frequency transformer design procedure, it has been ound that forward chaining most closely simulates the tia and error and iterative mature of the design procedure, Forward chaining has also been found useful to provide feedback 10 the user. carry out database searches, make decisions and carry out a constrained optimization of the ‘design. However. a combination of backward and forward rancmanena Fig 7, Backward hing 322fet Foread Caine chaining, in a specific order is quite advantageous for design evaluation, 1) Decision im selecting a core: Each part number ‘which satisfies the search criteria, is subjected to an Iulti-decision-component based objective function. This function 1s heurisue in narure as it involves such factors as cost fil factor andthe temperature rise “These factors are assigned different weights according tothe user preference. Any of the components can be eliminated from the objective function to reflect that itis no more part ‘of the decision process. A component can be more important im decision making process than another component. This ‘is accomplished by increasing the weight on that component. nature of the objective function is shown below. where AT.T,, Off ff... Ws %, are normalized cost difference of the specified” and ‘actual temperature rise, specified temperature rise. difference of the specified and the actual fill-factor. specified fill-factor and weights 10 cost, ‘temperature rise and fillfactor components respectively 8) Fig. 9 illustrates the variation of the abjecuive function for ‘to sets of weights In the first case is assigned a value of ‘2er0 to eliminate the effet of cost inthe decision process. In the second case w, i assigned a valve of 1 to include cost as ‘a decision component. The core with the maximum value of the objective function is selected. TRANSEX selects core ESS im the first case and E21 in the second case 2) Selecting wire mumbers: This decision process helps in determining how many conductors need 0 be paralleled and whether foil winding would be a good choice ‘The copper fol is stored in the database as another wire ‘gage whose diameter isthe perimeter of the foil. The height ‘of the copper fol is same as the height of the bobbin and. width as 1.37 times the skin depth [4], The objective function (=) for the wire selection is shown below. where ACu,DC_Cu, Aff, W,, and Wy; are difference in actual poner loss and the de power loss” de power loss, difference of actual fill factor and specified fill factor. specified fill, factor and weights 10 the copper loss and fill factor ‘components, respectively ° 3) Optimizing the design: The modular nature of IF-THEN statements has been found 10 be effective in iterative optimization of the design cycle. Fig. 10. lutrates the optimization technique. An IF-THEN statement can be represented as a combination of AND and OR gates. The forward chaining behavior can be represented by associating 2 switch wath each of the arguments in the IF part of the rule its valve, A switch will momentarily close af the attribute associated with it changes Upon closing ofa switch at a input of the gate, the conditions at the input will be tvaluated The AND gate in fig. 10. has five arguments concerning the temperature rise. flux density and user's ‘input, When all three conditions associated with these arguments are tue, the output is executed. This causes the maximum flux density (0 be increased thereby causing the switch at the output to close momentarily. This ation causes flurry of activity in all the IF-THEN statements whic’ PrN > nj fio toto sei oe 329 — (same |p ~{ anerspa)Fig 1h Telemed rion aa seach pce have maximum flu density as an argument in the IF part of the mle. Some ofthe actions being recaleulating the number of turns, wie selection, temperature rise calculations etc ‘This process continues til one of the conditions become false VIL IMPLEMENTATION AND RESULTS ‘TRANSEX is an exper system for design of high frequency ‘wansformers in the frequency range of 20 kHz to S00 KHz and in the power range of up to 1 kW. TRANSEX has been implemented in LEVELS OBJECT for windows [18], The windows environment [19] provides an ability to access the databases prepared using LOTUS 1-2-3 [20] and Microsoft Excel [21]. The databases are manipulated and searched ‘through TRANSEX. Computational intensive work is coded in Microsoft Excel, TRANSEX has been coded in Production Rule Language (PRL) which is the language of the expert system shell ‘The transformer design problem can be viewed as a search space as shown in Fig. 11. Any one branch ofthe search tree will produce a design which may or may not be feasible. By the application of the expert system technique, goals and rules are formulated to cut down on the seatch space and. produce a feasible design. For example, if it were known, that the minimization of EMI/RFI is very important, then the search space is limited to that branch which utilizes a pot Table 1 summarizes the various design inputs and outputs ‘The program recommends or selects a magnetic material ‘based on temperature rise and power density considerations ‘he program is able to recommend or select a core geometry by using space constraints and temperature rise considerations (see Fig. 12 ), It recommends or selects the ‘winding. ‘pes (slid, foil or Litz wire) on the basis of Tapes INPUT AND OUTPUT FOR ADESION PROBLEM Sormemon ieee past Noosa 2 Me ey Core geen Unda Bf SGheen Antec Tp CO) 27 ly Azan Syctied Temp CC) 30 % Gov Syct fi acee 60 Prepon) 20 Gecmery Family Ears Mata Famiy BC Core GoePan No -ECTD” Maral” S085 ‘Talfifacee 62% Bobinpur No, OPT maviGaus) 1900 Opt Pome) JoT8 Caetow(¥) 279 Copprtame(®) 27 TommRie(e) 4482 Ete Wing Curent Gauge Tums Condason Thisknes Layer a Mimry 1) wa sel ase 2 om sea} 2 toms sp} er 6 ms a Sate Fe! ig Fp 13 Pointy fiat estaon The progam hs ete the Ist The pai arp tue at poe wow 63.33 oma nga vale 168.77( Arado 6) 328heuristics which involve proximity effects. It calculates the ‘winding and core losses. The temperature rise is determined using a thermal model of the wansformer (See Fig. 14). It recommends a layering sequence in order to reduce the proximity effects (Fig, 13). It provides various optimization ‘options tothe user through its main menu. The information| is displayed to the user inthe form of tables and graphs. Vin, DISCUSSION “The expert system technology has been successfully applied to the high frequency transformer design cases. However, it has been known that this technology can be applied to mode! only well understood and well tesed technologies. This is partly because of the nature of decision making and partly because ofthe limitation of the existing expert system shells Fig. 14. Thema aah Thee ai abe deine cnr eg Tepes dacs pare The tempera tee Sse ae dale Decision making is @ highly complex task and it can be captured only when all the components of decision making are known and enough past data is available to corroborate this information. In TRANSEX. an objective function based decision making has been incorporated. However. because of the coupled nature of the decision components. the decision process is not represented realistically in complex situations Research is needed to improve the decision process. Cases ‘where contain components may have an uncertainty factor, ced tobe studied under the light of fuzzy logic. SUMMARY AND CONCLUSIONS ‘The objective ofthis paper isto illustrate usefulness of expert systems in designing high frequency transformers. An expert sistem, called TRANSEX, has been developed in collaboration with a transformer manufacturer. TRANSEX has been successful in capturing the design process of an expert It performs detailed analysis which is otherwise avoided in conventional designs du to its laborious nature ‘The know ledge gathered from various sources is available at one place ina structured form, The knowledge can be readily ‘manipulated and accessed with minimum time delay. The ‘stem provides flexibility, standardization and automation to the design process of high frequency transformers. I is also an excellent means of knowledge preservation REFERENCES. 1M. Grads ous Mlln Manone, ad Fre CU ied Dent High Freon Pon Tamers” IEEE Pah Aonied Per Eetone onerese proces, ppb 36349, 1990, RD Comes A Rosner © D hag M Bache oe 13 Goo Bionndge sed denign pats, Aon Wey obisng compan. 1990. Dini reat, Dewlping and Monegng Export ystems ‘Addu We Pushing Coma 1990. 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