Considerations on the preliminary sizing of electrical machines with hairpin windings

Although the standard preliminary sizing of electrical machines equipping random windings is well consolidated and is worldwide acknowledged to be a good starting point for the design, there is no proof of accuracy and confidence when it comes to hairpin windings. This winding technology is gaining extensive attention due to its inherently high slot fill factor, good heat dissipation, strong rigidity, and short end-windings. These features make hairpin windings a potential candidate for some traction application to enhance power and/or torque densities. In this paper, a comparative design is done using the classical sizing tools available in literature between two surface-mounted permanent magnet synchronous machines, one featuring a random winding and one with a hairpin layout. The study aims at highlighting the hairpin winding challenges at high frequency operations and at showing limits of applicability of these standard approaches when applied to this technology. For verification purposes, finite element evaluations are also performed

Analysis and Mitigation of AC Losses in High Performance Propulsion Motors

In this paper, the AC copper losses in classical random windings are investigated and mitigated using several techniques across a range of permanent magnet synchronous motor designs. At high operating frequencies, AC copper losses can represent a substantial share of the total loss in electrical machines, thus, reducing the machine's overall performance, and increasing the thermal loading. Recently, different approaches for modelling AC copper losses have been proposed. This paper utilises simulation software to quantify the expected AC losses in six different propulsion motor designs. The motor designs are then modified to reduce the AC winding losses through the implementation of five different methods. Using two-dimensional finite element analysis, the magnetisation direction, magnet to airgap ratio, copper stranding, magnetic wedges and the motor slot openings are modified to reduce AC losses. The paper considers distributed, fractional, slot and concentrated windings, and the results show promising reductions across these different winding configurations

High power density electrical machines with hairpin windings

Nowadays, electrical machines are seeing an ever-increasing development and extensive research is currently being dedicated to the improvement of their efficiency and torque/power density. Compared to conventional random windings, hairpin winding inherently features lower DC resistance, higher fill factor, better thermal performance, improved reliability, and an automated manufacturing process. However, several challenges need to be addressed, including electromagnetic, thermal, and manufacturing aspects. Of these, the high ohmic losses at high-frequency operations due to skin and proximity effects are the most severe, resulting in low efficiency or high-temperature values. In this work, the hairpin winding challenges were highlighted at high-frequency operations and at showing the limits of applicability of these standard approaches. Afterward, a multi-objective design optimization is proposed aiming to enhance the exploitation of the hairpin technology in electrical machines. Efficiency and volume power density are considered as main design objectives. Subsequently, a changing paradigm is made for the design of electric motors equipped with hairpin windings, where it is proven that a temperature-oriented approach would be beneficial when designing this type of pre-formed winding. Furthermore, the effect of the rotor topology on AC losses is also considered. After providing design recommendations and FE electromagnetic and thermal evaluations, experimental tests are also performed for validation purposes on a motorette wound with pre-formed conductors. The results show that operating the machine at higher temperatures could be beneficial to efficiency, particularly in high-frequency operations where AC losses are higher at low operating temperatures. The last part of the thesis focuses on comparing the main electromagnetic performance metrics for a conventional hairpin winding, wound onto a benchmark stator with a semi-closed slot opening design, and a continuous hairpin winding, in which the slot opening is open. Lastly, the adoption of semi-magnetic slot wedges is investigated to improve the overall performance of the motor

Automated Design Optimization of Synchronous Machines: Development and Application of a Generic Fitness Evaluation Framework

A rotating synchronous electric machine design can be described to its entirety by a combination of 17 to 24 discrete and continuous parameters pertaining the geometry, material selection, and electrical loading. Determining the performance attributes of a design often involves numerical solutions to thermal and magnetic equations. Stochastic optimization methods have proven effective for solving specific design problems in literature. A major challenge to design automation, however, is whether the design tool is versatile enough to solve design problems with different types of objectives and requirements. This work proposes a black-box approach in an attempt to encompass a wide variety of synchronous machine design problems. This approach attempts to enlist all possible attributes of interest (AoIs) to the end-user so that the design optimization problem can be framed by combination of such attributes only. The number of ways the end-user can input requirements is now defined and limited. Design problems are classified based on which of the AoI’s are constraints, objectives or design parameters. It is observed that regardless of the optimization problem definition, the evaluation of any design is based on a common set of physical and analytical models and empirical data. Problem definitions are derived based on black-box approach and efficient fitness evaluation algorithms are tailored to meet requirements of each problem definition. The proposed framework is implemented in Matlab/C++ environment encompassing different aspects of motor design. The framework is employed for designing synchronous machines for three applications where designs based on conventional motor construction did not meet all design requirements. The first design problem is to develop a novel bar-conductor tooth-wound stator technology for 1.2 kW in-wheel direct drive motor for an electric/hybrid-electric two wheeler (including practical implementation). The second design problem deals with a novel outer-rotor buried ferrite magnet geometry for a 1.2 kW in-wheel geared motor drive used in an electric/hybrid-electric two wheeler (including practical implementation). The third application involves design of an ultra-cost-effective and ultra-light-weight 1 kW aluminum conductor motor. Thus, the efficacy of automated design is demonstrated by harnessing the framework and algorithms for exploring new technologies applicable for three distinct design problems originated from practical applications

Analysis and Mitigation of AC Losses in High Performance Propulsion Motors

In this paper, the AC copper losses in classical random windings are investigated and mitigated using several techniques across a range of permanent magnet synchronous motor designs. At high operating frequencies, AC copper losses can represent a substantial share of the total loss in electrical machines, thus, reducing the machine’s overall performance, and increasing the thermal loading. Recently, different approaches for modelling AC copper losses have been proposed. This paper utilises simulation software to quantify the expected AC losses in six different propulsion motor designs. The motor designs are then modified to reduce the AC winding losses through the implementation of five different methods. Using two-dimensional finite element analysis, the magnetisation direction, magnet to airgap ratio, copper stranding, magnetic wedges and the motor slot openings are modified to reduce AC losses. The paper considers distributed, fractional, slot and concentrated windings, and the results show promising reductions across these different winding configurations

Multiphysic Design and Modeling of Rotating Electrical Machines

This paper presents a general overview on design process of electrical machines considering a multiphysic point of view, and a road map for a comprehensive design approach is drawn. The objective multi-physical criterion including electromagnetism and mechanics physics, thermodynamics, fluid dynamics, structural dynamics, noise and vibration are discussed. Also, various modelling methodologies are presented and compared in terms of computational-time resources and accuracy. Current state of art in this approach will be presented highlighting the advantages and disadvantages of such methodologies

Design and Application of Electrical Machines

Electrical machines are one of the most important components of the industrial world. They are at the heart of the new industrial revolution, brought forth by the development of electromobility and renewable energy systems. Electric motors must meet the most stringent requirements of reliability, availability, and high efficiency in order, among other things, to match the useful lifetime of power electronics in complex system applications and compete in the market under ever-increasing pressure to deliver the highest performance criteria. Today, thanks to the application of highly efficient numerical algorithms running on high-performance computers, it is possible to design electric machines and very complex drive systems faster and at a lower cost. At the same time, progress in the field of material science and technology enables the development of increasingly complex motor designs and topologies. The purpose of this Special Issue is to contribute to this development of electric machines. The publication of this collection of scientific articles, dedicated to the topic of electric machine design and application, contributes to the dissemination of the above information among professionals dealing with electrical machines

Design and Control of Electrically Excited Synchronous Machines for Vehicle Applications

Electrically excited synchronous machines (EESMs) are becoming an alternative to permanent magnet synchronous machines (PMSMs) in electric vehicles (EVs). This mainly attributes to the zero usage of rare-earth materials, as well as the ability to achieve high starting torque, the effectiveness to do field weakening and the flexibility to adjust power factor provided by EESMs. Furthermore, in case of converter failure at high speed, safety can be improved by shutting down the field current in EESMs. The purpose of this study is to investigate the potential application of EESMs in EVs. To achieve this aim, several topics are covered in this study. These topics are studied to confront the challenges before EESMs could become prevalent and to maximumly use the advantages of EESMs for EV applications. In control strategies, the challenge is to properly adjust the combination of stator and field currents so that high power factor and minimum copper losses can be achieved. To tackle this, control strategies are proposed so that reactive power consumption and total copper losses are minimized. With the proposed strategies, the output power is maximized along the torque-speed envelope and high efficiency in field-weakening is achieved. In dynamic current control, due to the magnetic couplings between field winding and stator winding, a current rise in one winding would induce an electromagnetic force (EMF) in the other. This introduces disturbances in dynamic current control. In this study, a current control algorithm is proposed to cancel the induced EMF and the disturbances are mitigated. In machine design, high starting torque and effective field weakening are expected to be achieved in the same EESM design. To realize this, some criteria need to be satisfied. These criteria are derived and integrated into the design procedure including multi-objective optimizations. A 48\ua0V EESM is prototyped during the study. In experimental verification, a torque density of 10 N\ub7m/L is achieved including cooling jacket. In field excitation, a contactless excitation technology is adopted, which leads to inaccessibility of the field winding. To realize precise control of field current in a closed loop, an estimation method of field current is proposed. Based on the estimation, closed-loop field current control is established. The field current reference is tracked within an error of 2% in experimental verifications. The cost of an EESM drive increases because of the additional converter used for field excitation. A technique is proposed in which the switching harmonics are extracted for field excitation. With this technique, both stator and field windings can be powered using only one inverter. From all the challenges tackled in this study, it can be concluded that the application of EESMs in EVs is feasible

Unconventional windings for traction motors in electric vehicles

In this dissertation, combined star-delta windings and single-layer fractional-slot distributed windings are mainly evaluated, which are incorporated within a cage-induction machine and an electrically excited synchronous machine, respectively. Both electrical machines were de-signed as prototypes for automotive applications. The combined star-polygon windings feature an increased fundamental winding factor and a decreased harmonic leakage factor. These characteristics make them suitable for traction appli-cations to increase the torque density of electrical machines, to widen the field-weakening region and to reduce the noise, vibration, and harshness (NVH). Almost every winding, in-cluding some single-layer fractional-slot distributed windings, can be connected in combined star-polygon. Due to the undesired magnetic coupling between the additional spatial harmonics generated by the winding and the low-resistance rotor circuit, the single-layer fractional-slot distributed windings are only suitable for synchronous machines without electrically conductive solid rotors or damper windings. Besides, they do not need an additional insulation layer inside the slots to isolate different coil sides compared to the double-layer windings. This provides an additional space inside the slots, which can be used to increase the slot-filling factor. Moreo-ver, an increased slot-filling factor and a reduced number of insulation layers improve the ef-fectiveness of the cooling system. Nevertheless, a single-layer compared to a double-layer fractional-slot distributed windings excites additional spatial harmonics, which can affect the performance and the NVH behavior of synchronous machines. Therefore, the performance and the NVH results measured on com-parable electrically excited synchronous machines are studied in detail. In contrast to other winding types, the star of slots is found being insufficient to design some single-layer fractional-slot distributed windings. Thus, part of this work deals with the sys-tematic design method of fractional-slot distributed windings based on the winding index. Through the analyses of this work, some analytical methods such as calculation equations of the winding factor are developed and the harmonic leakage factor of the zero sequence is de-rived. Besides, the rotating field theory is integrated with the winding function approach to consider the possible unipolar flux densities, the stator and rotor slotting, the static and dy-namic air-gap eccentricities, the magnetic saturation and the stator and rotor magnetic aniso-tropies. The Fourier series of the measured terminal currents, voltages and accordingly the instantaneous powers bring some additional information, which can be applied to the rotating field theory to explain the corresponding magnetic NVH excitations

Synchronous Machines with High-Frequency Brushless Excitation for Vehicle Applications

Electrically excited synchronous machines (EESM) are becoming an alternative to permanent magnet synchronous machines (PMSM) in electric vehicle (EV) applications. This mainly attributes to the zero usage of rare-earth material as well as the capabilities of high starting torque and good field weakening provided by EESM. EESM also improves safety in case of converter failure at high speed. The prevalence of wireless power transfer (WPT) technologies enables the employment of high frequency brushless excitation in EESM. This reduces the friction loss and maintenance effort compared with traditional excitation through brushes and sliprings.Hence this study aims at investigating the potential of EESM with high frequency brushless excitation in EV applications. Modeling, design and control are the main aspects of interest in this study. Due to the varieties of different vehicle applications, this study covers the developments of three EESM drive systems, one for mild hybrid vehicles, one for electric passenger cars and one for heavy duty vehicles. To achieve a comprehensive understanding of the system, modeling is firstly studied. This includes the modeling of the machine as well as the modeling of the high frequency brushless excitation system. Nonlinear properties of magnetic material are taken into considerations. Based on the machine modeling, the vector loci of current, voltage, torque and power factor in dq-frame as well as the envelop in torque-speed map are derived analytically. One step further, algorithms to achieve unity power factor along with minimizations of copper loss or field current are studied. To achieve unity power factor at high speed, the field excitation needs to be stronger than the armature reaction.\ua0 The design of the system starts with profiling of the specifications for the three applications. The varieties in specifications lead to the differences in design strategies. This study adopts a general design procedure with interactions of FEM analysis and operation point iterations. Then the design strategies are established based on each set of design specifications to tune the parameters of the machine geometry accordingly. The design for mild hybrid vehicles emphasizes on widening the flux path. In terms of the design for electric passenger cars, a good balance is required between copper area and flux path. Comparisons between open-slot and closed-slot designs bring a trade-off of torque ripples and average torque. Adding ferrite to the top of rotor slots introduces a study of influence from the ferrite pieces to the field excitation. This includes a possible ease of local saturation in rotor and a reduction of copper losses etc. As for the machine design for heavy-duty vehicles, investigations show that, the adjustable field in EESM brings a significant benefit in field weakening operation.A 48 V EESM with high frequency brushless excitation for mild hybrid vehicles is prototyped. The experimental results of both machine and exciter are consistent with the FEM calculation results. This verifies the modeling and the methods that are applied in the design and analysis.One challenge for the prevalence of EESM is the difficulty to access the field winding after assembly. As a solution, an algorithm is developed to estimate the field winding current and temperature. The dc-link current is utilized as a feedback in the algorithm to correct the estimations. The current and temperature variations are tracked quite well. As one step further, a closed-loop field current control is established. The ability to track field current reference is experimental verified as well. This closed-loop field current control enables a complete dynamic closed-loop control of the EESM