Accelerating Thermally Safe Operating Area Assessment of Ignition Coils for Hydrogen Engines via AI-Driven Power Loss Estimation

In order to determine thermally safe driving parameters of ignition coils for hydrogen internal combustion engines (ICE), a reliable estimation of internal power losses is essential. These losses include resistive winding losses, magnetic core losses due to hysteresis and eddy currents, dielectric losses in the insulation, and electronic switching losses. Direct experimental assessment is difficult because the components are inaccessible, while conventional computer-aided engineering (CAE) approaches face challenges such as the need for accurate input data, the need for detailed 3D models, long computation times, and uncertainties in loss prediction for complex structures. To address these limitations, we propose an artificial intelligence (AI)-based framework for estimating internal losses from external temperature measurements. The method relies on an artificial neural network (ANN), trained to capture the relationship between external coil temperatures and internal power losses. The trained model is then employed within an optimization process to identify losses corresponding to experimental temperature values. Validation is performed by introducing the identified power losses into a CAE thermal model to compare predicted and experimental temperatures. The results show excellent agreement, with errors below 3% across the −30 ◦C to 125 ◦C range. This demonstrates that the proposed hybrid ANN–CAE approach achieves high accuracy while reducing experimental effort and computational demand. Furthermore, the methodology allows for a straightforward determination of the coil safe operating area (SOA). Starting from estimates derived from fitted linear trends, the SOA limits can be efficiently refined through iterative verification with the CAE model. Overall, the ANN–CAE framework provides a robust and practical tool to accelerate thermal analysis and support coil development for hydrogen ICE applications.