An engineer's diary

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  1. [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. 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. 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. 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. 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. 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. 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. 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. 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. 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. 52] JMAG goes to work

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

                        • [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. 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. 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. 48] Helical winding

                                The helical winding (Figs. 1 and 2) was originally examined as a candidate air-gap winding for large 2-pole superconducting alternators at International Research and Development C…

                                • [No. 47] Harmonic poles again — this time produced by the stator!

                                  In Engineer’s Diary No. 46 we discussed the harmonic poles of a 2-pole rotary machine. ‘Harmonic poles’ refers to the space-harmonics of the flux distribution around the air-gap. …

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