Abstract
The universal motor, versatile and capable of running on both AC and DC sources, is utilized in various household appliances and power tools. This paper presents a featured methodology for analyzing a universal motor (UM) that does not have design data by extracting it via reverse engineering. These gained data were used to model the motor by Maxwell program and analyzing it by finite element method (FEM). Adopting the Maxwell program's drawing capability to design the square-shaped stator of a universal motor not part of the program library will also enable the Maxwell program to be widely used and unrestricted to use with particular motor designs. After modeling and solving the motor model, the performance characteristics of UM when operated with alternating current (AC) and direct current (DC) power supplies were investigated. The UM simulation results were compared with test results with good agreement. The success of a proposed methodology paved the way for the analysis of any electric motor included in the Maxwell program, even if this motor does not have design data.