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IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON MAGNETICS 1

Effect of Magnetic Annealing on Magnetic Characteristic

of Amorphous Wound Core
Takeru Sato and Takashi Todaka
Division of Electrical and Electronic Engineering, Department of Innovative Engineering,
Faculty of Science and Technology, Oita University, Oita 870-1192, Japan
In this paper, in order to make a clear principal cause in increasing iron loss of amorphous wound cores in processing, effects of
bending stress on magnetic characteristics of a Fe-based amorphous wound core are clarified. The amorphous magnetic materials
have been widely used as a core material of power transformers to reduce iron loss due to their excellent soft magnetic characteristics.
However, the amorphous magnetic material has an issue that the building factor (B.F.) is very large in comparison with that of
grain-oriented electrical steel sheets. The amorphous transformers usually use a wound core formed by stacking plural amorphous
sheets in different lengths. Bending stress is, therefore, generated at each corner of the wound core in processing. Due to this
bending stress, the magnetic characteristics of the wound core deteriorate. The deterioration of magnetic characteristics of the
wound amorphous core is so large because of the large magnetostriction constant. As a result, the B.F. of this material becomes
larger. In order to remove the residual stress, which is generated in the wound core including the bending stress, the amorphous
wound core is usually annealed in a magnetic field, which is called “a magnetic annealing.” In this paper, the effect of the magnetic
annealing on the magnetic properties is studied experimentally by evaluating some wound amorphous model cores. As a result,
a suitable magnetic annealing condition is clarified and the iron loss of the wound amorphous model core is reduced by 65.7%.
Index Terms— Amorphous wound core, bending stress, magnetic annealing, magnetic characteristic.

I. I NTRODUCTION

F E-BASED amorphous magnetic materials have been

widely used as a core material of power transformers
to reduce iron loss due to their excellent soft magnetic
characteristics [1]. The amorphous transformers usually use
a wound core formed by stacking plural amorphous sheets
in different lengths. Because bending stress is generated at
each corner parts of the wound core as shown in Fig. 1,
the magnetic characteristics deteriorate at the corners. As a
result, the iron loss of the wound core becomes larger due to
the bending stress. The amorphous magnetic material has an
issue that the building factor (B.F.) is very large in comparison
with that of grain-oriented electrical steel sheets. To effectively Fig. 1. Bending stress generated at corners of a wound core.
utilize amorphous magnetic materials as a wound core of the
transformer, the B.F. of the wound core made of the amorphous
magnetic material should be reduced to a level equivalent
to that of the grain-oriented electrical steel sheets. It can be
considered that the main cause in increasing the B.F. of the
amorphous wound core is the effects of the bending stress,
which is generated at the corner parts in processing.
In order to improve magnetic property and to remove the
residual stress, which is generated in the wound core including
the bending stress, the amorphous wound core is usually
annealed in a magnetic field with an electric furnace [2]. Fig. 2. Iron loss of a wound core at a corner.
Although it is well-known that the magnetic characteristics of
the amorphous wound core can be recovered with the magnetic intuition and experience of a worker. In this paper, the effect of
annealing, it has not yet made clear the suitable magnetic the magnetic annealing on the magnetic properties is studied
annealing condition and effects of the bending stress in detail. experimentally by evaluating some wound amorphous model
The magnetic annealing conditions are still depending on cores in a different diameter.
Manuscript received March 16, 2018; revised May 26, 2018; accepted II. E FFECT OF B ENDING S TRESS
June 5, 2018. Corresponding author: T. Sato (e-mail: satou-takeru@
oita-u.ac.jp). A. Effect of Bending Stress at Corner Parts of Wound Core
Color versions of one or more of the figures in this paper are available
online at http://ieeexplore.ieee.org. Fig. 2 shows the iron loss distribution at the corner part of
Digital Object Identifier 10.1109/TMAG.2018.2847698 the wound core made of a grain-oriented electrical steel sheet.
0018-9464 © 2018 IEEE. Personal use is permitted, but republication/redistribution requires IEEE permission.
See http://www.ieee.org/publications_standards/publications/rights/index.html for more information.
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2 IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON MAGNETICS

Fig. 3. Wound sheet model to calculate bending stress.

Fig. 5. Wound model core.

TABLE I
B ENDING S TRESS OF W OUND M ODEL C ORE

Fig. 4. Calculated bending stress in any radius.

like a hyperbolic function as radius r decreases. This tendency
This iron loss distribution was measured with a thermography of bending stress indicates that the bending stress inside the
camera [3]. The iron loss became larger inside of the wound wound core is larger than outside.
core due to the concentrated magnetic flux flow and the
bending stress, which was generated at the corner. To improve
efficiency of the wound-core transformers, the iron loss at the C. Evaluation Method of Magnetic Characteristics Depending
corner parts must be reduced. on Bending Stress
In this paper, to evaluate the magnetic characteristics
B. Calculation of Bending Stress depending on bending stress of the amorphous wound core,
four kinds of wound model cores in different bending stresses
To make clear effects of bending stress on the magnetic
were assembled by using the amorphous sheet. Fig. 5 shows
properties of the amorphous wound core, hollow-columnar-
the assembling method of the wound amorphous model core.
shaped ring model cores in a different diameter are used.
The amorphous sheet was wound on a hollow-columnar-
The residual stress in one turn ring core can be calculated
shaped frame and fixed with a heat-resistant adhesive tape.
analytically as a sharing stress by the following equations:
  The number of turns of the amorphous sheet was kept being
2(r + d)π − 2 r + d2 π 80 turns. After wound sheet was fixed, the winding frame
σ1 = E   (1) was removed from the wound core, and then the exciting
2 r + d2 π
  coil and the B-coil were wound over the wound core. The
2r π − 2 r + d2 π bending stress depends on the radius of the wound model
σ2 = E   (2)
2 r + d2 π core. The winding frames in which the radius is 25, 35, 50,
σ S = σ1 + σ2 (3) and 100 mm were prepared in these assemblies. The bending
stress σsi of each wound core with respect to r was evaluated
where σ1 and σ2 are the outside and inside stresses as shown with (4). Table I shows the calculated bending stresses. The
in Fig. 3. σs is the shearing stress, r is the inner radius of the bending stresses σsi of the wound model cores were from
cross section, d is the thickness of the amorphous sheet, and 29.42 to 111.3 MPa.
E is the Young’s modulus. In addition, the average value of
the parameter of the bending stress of the n-turn wound model
core can be calculated by the following equation [4]: D. Measurement System of Magnetic Characteristics

n of the Wound Model Cores
dE 1
σSi = (4) Fig. 6 shows a measurement system for the magnetic
n 2ri + d
i=1 characteristic of the wound model cores. In the measurements,
where σsi is the total bending stress of the n-turn wound model the magnetic flux density B was obtained from the induced
core. The calculated result of the total bending stress (n = 80) voltage of the B-coil and (5), and the magnetic field strength H
with (4) is shown in Fig. 4. The bending stress σsi increases was also obtained from the current flowing in the shunt
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SATO AND TODAKA: EFFECT OF MAGNETIC ANNEALING ON MAGNETIC CHARACTERISTIC 3

TABLE II
S AMPLES AND A NNEALING C ONDITIONS

Fig. 6. Magnetic characteristic of the measurement system.

value without any stress measured by using an single sheet

tester [5]. The deterioration of magnetic properties depending
on the bending stress can be observed. The iron loss tended
to increase as the bending stress increased. This iron loss
tendency indicates that the iron loss inside the part becomes
larger than that outside the wound transformer core.

III. E FFECT OF M AGNETIC A NNEALING ON M AGNETIC

C HARACTERISTICS OF A MORPHOUS W OUND C ORE
A. Method of Magnetic Annealing
In order to recover the deteriorated magnetic properties
of the wound amorphous model cores as a function of the
Fig. 7. Effect of bending stress on the iron loss of wound amorphous model
cores. bending stress, these model cores were heat-treated in a
magnetic annealing. Table II shows the model cores and the
resistance and (6). The excitation frequency was 50 Hz magnetic annealing conditions. The bending stresses applied
 T to the model cores are the same conditions described in
1 Section II. To secure the reproducibility of the magnetic
B =− v B dt (5)
NS 0 annealing, the three model cores of the same bending condition
Nex Iex (radius) were prepared. In the magnetic annealing conditions,
H = (6) the applied magnetic field and the maximum temperature were
L
where N and Nex are the number of turns of the B-coil and the fixed to be 800 A/m and T °C, and the holding time was
exciting coil, respectively. S is the cross-sectional area of the changed from the reference time t to 16t.
B-coil, T is the time for one cycle, v B is the voltage induced
in the B-coil, Iex is the current flowing in the shunt resistance, B. Measured Results of Magnetic Characteristics
and L is the magnetic path length. The iron loss of the wound Figs. 8 and 9 show, respectively, the B–H curves
model cores was calculated by the following equation with the and the iron loss curves of the model cores under
hysteresis loops constituted of the magnetic flux density B and 57.72 MPa, before and after the magnetic annealing. “As cast”
the magnetic field strength H : in Figs. 8 and 9 shows the result of the model cores before the
 magnetic annealing. The B–H characteristics and the iron loss
1 dB
Wi = H (7) after the magnetic anneal were improved compared with those
ρT dt
of as-cast one, as shown in Figs. 8 and 9. In the other bending
where Wi is the iron loss and ρ is the material density. stresses (29.42, 81.16, and 111.3 MPa), the improvements of
the magnetic characteristics were found as well. However,
E. Iron Loss of Amorphous Wound Model Core Under excessive magnetic annealing (16t) showed the influence to
Bending Stress degrade the magnetic properties.
The magnetic characteristics of four kinds of the wound
amorphous model core under the bending stresses were mea- C. Examination of Appropriate Magnetic Annealing Time
sured in conditions of the magnetic flux density from 0.2 T to Amorphous Wound Core Under Bending Stress
to the measurable range. Fig. 7 shows the measured iron loss Fig. 10 shows that the iron loss depending on the bending
curves. The no-load curve in Fig. 7 is the standard iron loss stress at the magnetic flux density is equal to 1 T. The iron loss
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4 IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON MAGNETICS

Fig. 11. Iron loss depending on holding times of magnetic annealing.

Fig. 8. B–H curves at 57.72 MPa.

higher bending stress based on the tendency that the iron loss
became larger as the bending stress got larger. Fig. 11 shows
the iron loss dependence on the holding time of the magnetic
annealing. The total in Fig. 11 indicates the sum of the
values of the iron losses in all the bending stress conditions
29.42, 57.72, 81.16, and 111.3 MPa in order to assume as
a transformer model core. The total iron loss of the holding
time for 3t was smaller than that of the other holding times.
This total iron loss of the holding time for 3t was reduced
by 65.7% compared with that of the as cast one. From
these results, it became clear that the magnetic annealing
was an effective method to suppress the deterioration of
the magnetic properties caused by the bending stress in the
wound amorphous model core.
Fig. 9. Iron loss depending on magnetic flux density at 57.72 MPa.
IV. C ONCLUSION
In this paper, in order to make clear the effects of the
bending stress and the magnetic annealing on the magnetic
characteristics of the amorphous wound core, the wound
amorphous model cores in different bending stresses were built
and these cores were heat-treated with the magnetic annealing.
Although the iron loss of the wound amorphous model core
was increased due to the bending stress, it was reduced by
65.7% after the magnetic annealing. As a result, it became
clear that there was a suitable magnetic annealing condition
to improve the magnetic properties deteriorated due to the
bending stress.

Fig. 10. Iron loss versus bending stress at 1 T.
of the holding time for 16t could not be reduced effectively
compared with that of the other holding time conditions. It was
obvious that the holding time for 16t was excessive heat-
processing to the samples in this case. Except for the holding
time for 16t, the iron losses of all bending stress conditions
were reduced to the similar level about 0.1 W/kg after the
magnetic annealing. The improvement factor of the iron loss
with the magnetic annealing was large in the conditions of the
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