Advances in dual-three-phase permanent magnet synchronous machines and control techniques

Multiphase electrical machines are advantageous for many industrial applications that require a high power rating, smooth torque, power/torque sharing capability, and fault-tolerant capability, compared with conventional single three-phase electrical machines. Consequently, a significant number of studies of multiphase machines has been published in recent years. This paper presents an overview of the recent advances in multiphase permanent magnet synchronous machines (PMSMs) and drive control techniques, with a focus on dual-three-phase PMSMs. It includes an extensive overview of the machine topologies, as well as their modelling methods, pulse-width-modulation techniques, field-oriented control, direct torque control, model predictive control, sensorless control, and fault-tolerant control, together with the newest control strategies for suppressing current harmonics and torque ripples, as well as carrier phase shift techniques, all with worked examples

Emerging Multiport Electrical Machines and Systems: Past Developments, Current Challenges, and Future Prospects

Distinct from the conventional machines with only one electrical and one mechanical port, electrical machines featuring multiple electrical/mechanical ports (the so-called multiport electrical machines) provide a compact, flexible, and highly efficient manner to convert and/or transfer energies among different ports. This paper attempts to make a comprehensive overview of the existing multiport topologies, from fundamental characteristics to advanced modeling, analysis, and control, with particular emphasis on the extensively investigated brushless doubly fed machines for highly reliable wind turbines and power split devices for hybrid electric vehicles. A qualitative review approach is mainly adopted, but strong efforts are also made to quantitatively highlight the electromagnetic and control performance. Research challenges are identified, and future trends are discussed

Concept study of 20 MW high-speed permanent magnet synchronous motor for marine propulsion

High-speed permanent magnet synchronous machines are of great interest in the applications where high utilization factor and efficiency are required. Depending on application, power requirements change from kilowatts to megawatts. To investigate power limits of high-speed machines, the present feasibility study focuses on a 20 megawatt (MW) electric drive for marine propulsion. However, in addition alternative propulsion systems, ranging 100 kW to 20 MW, have been considered in an attempt to highlight some of the scaling rules that are apparent to high-speed machine considering their specific power level. In marine propulsion, the electric drive has to provide high torque at low speed to the propeller, however at different levels due to pole towing or open water operation. For electric drives, this tends to require high frequencies (large number of poles) as well as high currents. In general, ocean-going ships exist to provide affordable transport for cargo or passengers. In this respect, there exists a range of speeds within which virtually all ocean-going ships have operated and still operate. Within this range of speeds, roughly 10-30 knots, ship propulsion speed, in revolutions-per-minute (rpm), lie within a certain range, up to a couple of hundred rpm. The horsepower range coupled with propulsion rpm makes ship propulsion motor applications a high-torque, slow-speed electric drive. To deliver 20 MW propulsion power at a rotational speed of 150 rpm requires almost 1,300,000 newton meter (Nm) of torque. Emerging ship designs that employ different propulsion, e.g. water jets, may change this. However, in the following decades, ship propulsion motors will remain to be dominated by high torque, slow-speed motors, which are likely to remain for quite some time yet. In this respect, state-of-the-art ship propulsion motors are almost entirely alternating current (AC) synchronous wound field water cooled motors, or AC asynchronous induction motors. This report aims to give a general introduction to the concept of electrically-propelled vessels and presents specifically a feasibility study to a 20 MW high-speed permanent magnet synchronous motor (PMSM) to be used for ship propulsion. Although that also an initial attempt is documented to provide scaling laws for high-speed PM motor ranging from 100 kW to 20 MW. The purpose of this report constitutes a concept study and not an in-depth system analysis that would be required when implementing this technology for an electrical drive in future propulsion systems, such as ships or large vehicles. However, special attention is given to the apparent design challenges for these large high speed electric drives and their possible solutions

Advanced Non-Overlapping Winding Induction Machines for Electrical Vehicle Applications

This thesis presents an investigation into advanced squirrel-cage induction machines (IMs), with a particular reference to the reduction of the total axial length without sacrificing the torque and efficiency characteristics and analysis of recently found non-sinusoidal bar current phenomenon, which occurs under some certain design and operating conditions, and affects the overall performance characteristics of the IMs. As a first step, the most convenient method is determined by utilizing a fractional-slot concentrated winding (FSCW) technique, which has advantages such as non-overlapping windings, high slot filling factor, and simple structure. After implementing this technique, it is found that due to the highly distorted magnetomotive forces (MMFs) created by the FSCWs, significant high rotor bar copper loss occurs. In order to reduce the MMF harmonics without increasing the size of the machine, a new technique titled “adapted non-overlapping winding” is developed. This technique consists of the combination of the auxiliary tooth and phase shifting techniques, resulting in a stator with concentrated windings of two-slot coil pitches but without overlapping the end-windings. Thanks to this method a large number of the MMF harmonics are cancelled. Thus, a low copper loss IM with significantly reduced total axial length is obtained. Influence of design parameters; such as stator slot, rotor slot, and pole numbers, number of turns, stack length, stator and rotor geometric parameters, etc. on the performance characteristics of the advanced IM is investigated and a comprehensive comparison of advanced and conventional IMs is presented. This thesis also covers an in-depth investigation on the non-sinusoidal bar current phenomenon. It is observed that the rotor bar current waveform, usually presumed to be sinusoidal, becomes non-sinusoidal in some operation and design conditions, such as high speed operation close to synchronous speed, or fairly high electrical loading operation, or in the IMs whose air-gap length is considerably small, etc. Influences of design and operating parameters and magnetic saturation on the rotor bar current waveform and the performance characteristics of squirrel-cage IMs are investigated. The levels of iron saturation, depending on the design and operating parameters, in different machine parts are examined and their influences are also investigated, whilst the dominant part causing the non-sinusoidal rotor bar current waveform is identified. It is revealed that the magnetic saturation, particularly in the rotor tooth, has a significant effect on the bar current waveform

In-wheel Motors: Express Comparative Method for PMBL Motors

One of the challenges facing the electric vehicle industry today is the selection and design of a suitable in-wheel motor. Permanent Magnet Brushless (PMBL) motor is a good choice for the in-wheel motor because of its lossless excitation, improved efficiency, reduced weight and low maintenance. The PMBL motors can be further classified as Axial-Flux Twin-Rotor (AFTR) and Radial-Flux Twin-Rotor (RFTR) machines. The objective of this dissertation is to develop a fast method for the selection of appropriate in-wheel motor depending on wheel size. To achieve this, torque equations are developed for a conventional single-rotor cylindrical, twin-rotor axial-flux and twin-rotor radial-flux PMBL motors with slot-less stators based on magnetic circuit theory and the torque ratio for any two motors is expressed as a function of motor diameter and axial length. The theoretical results are verified, on the basis of magnetic field theory, by building the 3-dimensional Finite Element Method (FEM) models of the three types of motors and analyzing them in magnetostatic solver to obtain the average torque of each motor. Later, validation of software is carried out by a prototype single-rotor cylindrical slotted motor which was built for direct driven electric wheelchair application. Further, the block diagram of this in-wheel motor including the supply circuit is built in Simulink to observe the motor dynamics in practical scenario. The results from finite element analysis obtained for all the three PMBL motors indicate a good agreement with the analytical approach. For twin-rotor PMBL motors of diameter 334mm, length 82.5mm with a magnetic loading of 0.7T and current loading of 41.5A-turns/mm, the error between the express comparison method and simulation results, in computation of torque ratio, is about 1.5%. With respect to the single-rotor cylindrical motor with slotless stator, the express method for AFTR PMBL motor yielded an error of 4.9% and that of an RFTR PMBL motor resulted in an error of -7.6%. Moreover, experimental validation of the wheelchair motor gave almost the same torque and similar dynamic performance as the FEM and Simulink models respectively

Analysis and design of innovative magnetic wedges for high efficiency permanent magnet synchronous machines

The global decarbonization targets require increasingly higher levels of efficiency from the designers of electrical machines. In this context, the opportunity to employ magnetic or semi-magnetic wedges in surface-mounted permanent magnet machines with fractional-slot concentrated winding has been evaluated in this paper, with the aim to reduce the power losses, especially in the magnets. Since an analytical calculation is not sufficient for this evaluation, finite element methods with two different software have been employed, by using a model experimentally validated on a real motor. The effects of wedges with different values of permeability and different magnetization characteristics have been evaluated on flux density, back electromotive force, and inductances, in order to choose the more suitable wedge for the considered motor. Furthermore, a new wedge consisting of different portions of materials with different magnetic permeability values is proposed. The effects of both conventional and unconventional magnetic wedges were assessed to optimize the motor performance in all working conditions

Soft Magnetic Composites in Novel Designs of Electrical Traction Machines

Nowadays, the manufacturing of electrical machines based on electrical steel laminations has been well established worldwide. Compared with the electrical steel, the soft magnetic composites (SMC) shows magnetic isotropy and lower eddy current losses. Thus, it becomes an important impulse promoting the development of new topologies of electrical machine. The application of SMC in the electrical traction machine for hybrid electrical vehicle or electrical vehicle has been researched in the work

Multi-phase Starter-Generator for 48 V Mild-Hybrid Powertrains

Transportation electrification has experienced a significant growth in recent years, and the electrification of the powertrain – namely hybridization – is considered the most viable solution seen by car manufacturers to achieve the challenging emission targets. Among the hybrid electrical powertrain topologies, the mild-hybrid configuration with the 48 V battery system offers the best ratio cost versus CO2 improvements. In particular, the 48 V technology does not require electrical shock protection whilst allows to leverage a variety of fuel saving functions such as electrical boost and regenerative braking. The thesis is focused on the electromagnetic and thermal design of a Belt-driven Starter Generator, BSG, for 48 V mild-hybrid powertrains. In the BSG layout, the starter-generator replaces the conventional alternator with a low impact on the engine compartment layout, even if a redesign of the belt tensioner is required. It is noteworthy to keep in mind that the electrical machine shall provide high starting torque and wide constant power speed range, both in motor and generator mode. Furthermore, the application imposes the adoption of low cost materials and the electrical machine is located in a harsh environment. As a consequence, the design is challenging from the electromagnetic, thermal and mechanical point of view. The novelties of the research lie in the 48 V automotive applications, by describing the practical difficulties to fulfill the design specifications through a suitable material selection, the identification of the cooling system and the available technological solutions. The first section of the thesis reports results from a literature review on electrical machine for mild-hybrid application aiming to highlight different criteria for the selection of the electrical machine. In this context the advantages in terms of fault tolerance and stator current splitting of multiphase drives are investigated. Furthermore, in this section the required performances and the constraints imposed by the specific application are analyzed. Among the different motor technologies, a dual three-phase induction machine having two stator winding sets shifted by 60 electrical degrees is selected as a suitable candidate. The second part of the thesis reports electromagnetic and mechanical issues addressed during the design stage, with special focus on stator winding layout, pole number and rotor slot. The adopted six-phase machine uses a four-layer bar stator winding that has been demonstrated as a good solution to improve the slot fill factor and thermal behavior. In addition, the thesis reports a comparison supported by experimental tests between open and closed rotor slots solutions; the focus is to maximize the machine electromagnetic performance according to the mechanical limits imposed by the rotating speed. Finally, predicted and measured performance of the prototypes are reported and discussed for validation purposes. The third part of the thesis deals with the thermal assessment of the BSG with particular emphasis on accurate winding temperature prediction as well as the cooling system selection. Since the stator-winding region is very sensitive to thermal issues and is usually attributed as being the main heat source within the machine body, its thermal modeling is of major importance. In these regards, a simplified stator winding thermal model was developed for the temperature prediction during transient condition. Moreover, considering that the driving cycle is characterized by time variable loss distribution, an effective cooling system must be mandatorily adopted together with high temperature class insulation material. In this context, the development of heat extraction through forced convection is experimentally investigated on the BSG prototype. As a main outcome of this research activity, it has been demonstrated the feasibility of the proposed design solution with respect to electromagnetic and thermal requirements

Fractional slot concentrated winding PM synchronous motors for transport electrification applications

Moving towards electrification of transport including electric vehicles (EV), more electric aircraft (MEA), and electric ships offers a crucial way in dealing with global carbon emissions and climate change. Electric motors are a key enabling technique in these applications, but their increased use is associated with requirements of extreme power/torque density, excellent fault-tolerance, high efficiency, and good manufacturability. The main goal of this thesis is to study permanent magnet electric machine winding theory to determine the suitable electric machine winding topologies for different applications. Two separate vehicle transport applications are investigated, including an EV traction motor and a novel modular electromechanical actuator (EMA) for MEA. The study of the EV traction motor involves the investigation of methods for reducing the significant stator MMF harmonics in fractional slot concentrated winding (FSCW) electric machines, and the development of novel FSCW topologies while keeping the benefits of easy manufacturing and the non-overlapping characteristic of concentrated windings. The novel FSCW topologies can be extended to multi-phase FSCW motors. A traction motor equipped with a novel 24 slots, 14 poles FSCW topology and interior PM (IPM) rotor is developed for evaluation. The performance under normal and fault conditions is fully explored and validated with simulation and experimental results, which demonstrates the applicability and strong potential of the proposed 24 slots, 14 poles IPM motor in fault-tolerant traction motor applications. The second topic focuses on modular fault-tolerant EMAs for aircraft actuation systems which can meet a diverse range of requirements. The architecture and design considerations of the actuator system are firstly determined considering reliability, fault-tolerance, and weight. The modular EMA scheme consisting of a direct-drive rotary motor and mechanical screw is identified. A dual 3-phase 24 slots, 22 poles FSCW motor with a surface-mounted permanent magnet (SPM) rotor is developed and evaluated in terms of electromagnetics, thermal management, and fault-tolerance. Experimental results of the modular EMA motor prototypes agree well with predicted results. All this confirms the applicability and satisfactory implementation of the modular EMA motor for aircraft actuation system applications

Fractional slot concentrated winding PM synchronous motors for transport electrification applications

Moving towards electrification of transport including electric vehicles (EV), more electric aircraft (MEA), and electric ships offers a crucial way in dealing with global carbon emissions and climate change. Electric motors are a key enabling technique in these applications, but their increased use is associated with requirements of extreme power/torque density, excellent fault-tolerance, high efficiency, and good manufacturability. The main goal of this thesis is to study permanent magnet electric machine winding theory to determine the suitable electric machine winding topologies for different applications. Two separate vehicle transport applications are investigated, including an EV traction motor and a novel modular electromechanical actuator (EMA) for MEA. The study of the EV traction motor involves the investigation of methods for reducing the significant stator MMF harmonics in fractional slot concentrated winding (FSCW) electric machines, and the development of novel FSCW topologies while keeping the benefits of easy manufacturing and the non-overlapping characteristic of concentrated windings. The novel FSCW topologies can be extended to multi-phase FSCW motors. A traction motor equipped with a novel 24 slots, 14 poles FSCW topology and interior PM (IPM) rotor is developed for evaluation. The performance under normal and fault conditions is fully explored and validated with simulation and experimental results, which demonstrates the applicability and strong potential of the proposed 24 slots, 14 poles IPM motor in fault-tolerant traction motor applications. The second topic focuses on modular fault-tolerant EMAs for aircraft actuation systems which can meet a diverse range of requirements. The architecture and design considerations of the actuator system are firstly determined considering reliability, fault-tolerance, and weight. The modular EMA scheme consisting of a direct-drive rotary motor and mechanical screw is identified. A dual 3-phase 24 slots, 22 poles FSCW motor with a surface-mounted permanent magnet (SPM) rotor is developed and evaluated in terms of electromagnetics, thermal management, and fault-tolerance. Experimental results of the modular EMA motor prototypes agree well with predicted results. All this confirms the applicability and satisfactory implementation of the modular EMA motor for aircraft actuation system applications