An engineer's diary

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  1. [No. 49] Hair-pin winding

    The hair-pin winding has become prominent in drive-train motors for electric and hybrid vehicles, with many creative examples in manufacturing. Although ‘push-through’ hair-pin co…

    • [No. 50] Insulation

      In this series of Engineer’s Diary, the topics are selected by following the letters of the alphabet, giving an almost random walk through the field of electrical engineering. ‘I’…

      • [No. 51] Current-density J

        Next in alphabetic sequence is J — which could stand for 'JMAG' or 'JAPAN', but instead let us think of J as the common symbol for current-density. Sometimes when I think about c…

        • [No. 52] JMAG goes to work

          This new book is written for engineers concerned with the design and development of electric machines.

          • [No. 53] K : Kennlinie, ken-lines, and cissoids

            Progressing through the alphabet of electrical engineering topics, we come to the letter K, and for this Diary I have to say I had some difficulty finding a suitable topic beginni…

            • [No. 54] K : Kron

              Last month the letter K failed to provide a ready supply of suitable electrical engineering topics for the Diary, so we borrowed the German term Kennlinie.

              • [No. 55] L : Library

                A personal library can be a valuable asset. Before the internet, it was usually the first ‘port of call’, the first available source of reference material on engineering theory an…

                • [No. 56] Lèse-Majesté

                  It is easy to imagine the IPM (interior permanent-magnet motor) as the monarch of electric motors. Indeed to question its supremacy could be said to be lèse-majesté.

                  • [No. 57] L and Linkage and Leakage

                    Readers may have noticed that Engineer’s Diary has been trying to follow the alphabet in selecting monthly topics, and some letters provide more ideas than others.

                    • [No. 58] Maxwell

                      Almost exactly 10 years ago I made a ‘pilgrimage’ to visit the grave of James Clerk Maxwell at Parton Kirk in Dumfries and Galloway in the south-west of Scotland.

                      • [No. 59] Mutual inductance

                        Mutual inductance M is one of the most common concepts in electromagnetic engineering. Indeed we can argue that it is also one of the most fundamental concepts.

                        • [No. 60] Mystery, Magic and Mappings

                          Mystery is not confined to novels.We have it in abundance in engineering.I remember as an apprentice in the 1960s working alongside a service engineer on a new DC drive system, an…

                          • [No. 61] Nervous about Neumann?

                            Continuing the more-or-less alphabetic sequence of initial letters for the titles of Engineer’s Diary, we arrive at the letter N. What topic could be more relevant in finite-eleme…

                            • [No. 62] OK — the laws of Ohm and Kirchhoff

                              OK — We’ve reached letter ‘O’ in the alphabetic sequence of Diary topics, and Ohm’s law immediately comes to mind. When I was a student, one of my room-mates (a medical student) h…

                              • [No. 63] Oh no! No magnets!

                                Scarcity is nothing new in human history, and in electrical products we hear about it all the time in relation to lithium or rare earths, or even copper. So the poem might seem li…

                                • [No. 64] Eddy-currents

                                  Eddy-currents flow in closed loops. It follows that for any physical device in which eddy-currents arise, only a three-dimensional analysis can be complete. Any two-dimensional an…

                                  PROFILE

                                  Prof. Miller was educated at the universities of Glasgow and Leeds, U.K., and served an industrial apprenticeship with Tube Investments Ltd. He worked for G.E.C. in the U.K. and General Electric in the United States. From 1986-2011 he was professor of electric power engineering at the university of Glasgow, where he founded the Scottish Power Electronics and Electric Drives Consortium. He has published more than 200 papers and 10 books and 10 patents, and he has given many training courses. He has consulted for several industrial companies in Europe, Japan and the United States. He is a Life Fellow of I.E.E.E. and in 2008 he was awarded the Nikola Tesla award.

                                  The Green Book: “Design of Brushless Permanent-Magnet Machines”

                                  The Blue Book: “Design Studies in Electric Machines” (June 30, 2022)