Design, Modeling, and Testing of a Novel Inductor for Electric Vehicles: Iron Nitride Soft Magnetic Composites

New technology for electric vehicles (EVs) must meet the requirements of higher energy usage, lower costs, and more sustainable source materials. One promising material for EV power system components is iron nitride (IN) soft magnetic composites (SMCs) because of their competitive magnetic properties and high abundance of the source materials. As part of an ongoing program at Sandia National Laboratories, this project focused on using computer modeling to optimize the prototyping process for an iron nitride SMC toroidal inductor to reach a target inductance of 600 μH. Four inductors with different combinations of wiring (26 AWG and 20 AWG) and vol% loading of iron nitride (65 vol% and 50 vol%) were fabricated at Cal Poly and characterized using an LCR meter. These inductors were also modeled using COMSOL Multiphysics™ with the Magnetic Fields module. The inductance data from the experiment and the model show that the 65 vol% IN prototypes and models agree with about 8% difference, while the 50 vol% IN samples show about a 9% difference between the prototype and the model. These results suggest that the model can predict inductance with both accuracy and precision with low confidence for the given sample size of four. An additional parameter of AC resistance is studied but the AC resistance results from the inductors and from the model generally do not agree closely, suggesting that the current model used in the project does not fully capture the mechanisms behind AC resistance of the inductor. With the focus of the project on inductance, the percent difference results of less than 9% across the four inductors that were tested increases confidence in the model’s predictive capabilities for inductance only. Using the inductance results from both the model and experiment, the final suggested inductor design is a 65 vol% core with 150 windings of 20 AWG wire that is 8 cm across and 1.5 cm tall to reach the inductance goal of 600 μH based on analysis using the optimized COMSOL™ model

CCU TEA and LCA Guidance 2023 – A Harmonized Approach

The Global CO2 Initiative hosted the 2023 TEA/LCA Workshop on Harmonizing CCU Assessments on May 16-18. This fifth workshop in the series was planned and conducted by the International CCU Assessment Harmonization Group with members from the USA (GCI at U-M, NETL, NREL, ANL), Canada (NRC), Germany (RIFS, formerly known as IASS), Switzerland (ETH Zürich), and Japan (NIAIST). This team works to advance transparent and uniform assessments of CCU technologies and products. These workshops have traditionally engaged a broad audience in breakout sessions to debate, resolve, and define key issues with assessments in CCU. Note that occasionally, it makes sense to include border aspects and include assessments of CO2 sequestration into the discussions. Hence, in some sections, the mention of CCUS is included. The focus topics for 2023 had been selected to address social aspects and standardization. 51 on-site and up to 265 remote attendees spent one-and a-half days in lively discussions. This report presents a summary of the breakout session discussions, key status descriptions, and open issues. We will take this as a starting point for a year of continued collaboration to advance LCA & TEA for CCU and for planning our next annual gathering on May 22 & 23, 2024 in Ann Arbor. We welcome suggestions and questions that can be submitted to [email protected] of Engineering, University of MichiganGlobal CO2 InitiativeGrantham Foundation for the Protection of the Environmenthttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/177527/1/20230518_TEA-LCA Workshop Report-doi.pdfedda1cab-631e-4ed3-880e-28ed1c223cc3Description of 20230518_TEA-LCA Workshop Report-doi.pdf : Report documentSEL