Paul R. Ohodnicki¹, Vinicius Cabral Do Nascimento², Richard Beddingfield², Kevin Byerly², Seung-Ryul Moon², Scott Sudhoff³; ¹National Energy Technology Laboratory (presently at University of Pittsburgh), ²National Energy Technology Laboratory, ³Purdue University

Benefits of spatial permeability optimization in the magnetic core for electromagnetic devices with emphasis on DC and AC inductors will be explored in detail, using the achievable properties obtained through strain annealing treatment of Metal Amorphous Nanocomposite (MANC) alloys. This capacity introduces a new design element which involves the spatial variation of permeability throughout an inductor core that can result in superior performance. However, the device characteristics result from a multitude of aspects besides the material properties, including its geometry and operational context (e.g. frequency, current waveform, and temperature constraints). In order to fully leverage the capacity of spatial dependent permeability engineering, the geometry, windings, and core permeability should be optimized simultaneously. Comparisons will be presented for viable solutions using permeability tuned un-gapped inductors against traditional gapped devices through multi-objective design optimization. Case studies included in this work evaluates AC and DC inductors with toroidal and racetrack parametrized geometries.