Optimal Design of Modular High Performance Brushless Wound Rotor Synchronous Machine for embedded systems

This thesis is dedicated to the design and the optimization of modular brushless wound rotor synchronous machine for embedded systems. This machine is constructed based on POKIPOKITM structure with integrated drive electronics. Finite element analysis based optimization becomes more popular in the field of electrical machine design because analytical equations are not easily formalized for the machines which have complicate structures. Using electromagnetic analysis to comparatively study different modular brushless wound rotor synchronous machines and therefore, to select the structure which offers the best fault tolerant capability and the highest output performances. Firstly, the fundamental winding factor calculated by using the method based on voltage phasors is considered as a significant criterion in order to select the numbers of phases, stator slots and poles. After that, 2D finite element numerical simulations are carried out for a set of 15 machines to analyze their performances. The simulation results are then compared to find an appropriate machine according to torque density, torque ripple and machine efficiency. The 7phase/7-slot/6-pole machine is chosen and compared with a reference design surfacemounted permanent magnet synchronous machine in order to evaluate the interesting performance features of the wound rotor synchronous machine. In the second design stage, this machine is optimized by using derivative-free optimization. The objective is to minimize external volume under electromagnetic, thermal and mechanical constraints. Given that an accurate finite element analysis for machine performance takes a long time. Moreover, considering that the average torque can be obtained by simulating the model with only four rotor positions instead of one electric period, optimization strategy is proposed to reduce computational time and therefore, obtain a fast convergence ability by defining relaxed problems which enable minimizing the external volume of the machine under only several constraints such as average torque, torque ripple and copper losses. By testing relaxed problems, two different optimization methods (NOMAD and fmincon) are compared in order to select an appropriate method for our optimization problem. Using NOMAD method based on Mesh Adaptive Direct Search, we achieve optimal results which satisfy all of the constraints proposed. In the third design stage, all constraints are validated by 3D electromagnetic and thermal simulations using finite element and computational fluid dynamics methods. The 3D results show that the average torque obtained is lower than the desired value. By increasing the length of the machine, a new corrected machine is thus obtained. It can be observed that the iron losses obtained in 3D are higher than that in 2D due to the leakage flux in the end-winding. Then, the machine temperature is analyzed by using ANSYS Fluent. Note that the surface temperature is higher than that calculated in the optimization and the coil temperature is 8.48°C higher than the desired value (105°C). However, some dissipation by the shaft and the bearings of the machine are expected to reduce the machine temperature. Finally, a machine prototype is built and some experimental tests are carried out. The results show that the electromotive force has a similar waveform compared to 3D prediction and the difference of the measured and predicted maximum static torques is small