| Summary: | The adoption of four-wheel electric vehicles (EVs) in the automotive market has helped to alleviate the climate change issue. One of the most prominent but least explored areas is the electrification of trucks/lorries. Electrification of trucks has a vital role in achieving a cleaner environment as they consume more fuel than four-wheel passenger cars. Inherently having massive torque and power requirements along with huge field weakening range (four-five times base speed) makes this application extremely challenging and difficult to consider.
This thesis provides a thorough literature review on different machine topologies to identify the superior machine topology that suits the application. Permanent magnet assisted synchronous reluctance (PMa-SynREL) machines present a promising prospective to satisfy the application requirements. Structurally, PMa-SynREL machines are extremely pushed and needs multi-physics understanding. An 8-pole 48-slot machine is designed as an initial design to understand the multi-physics of the machine. Further, an investigation into the slot-pole effect on the motors performance and weight is covered. Finite element analysis (FEA) and optimization are performed to produce an ideal design with high electromagnetic performance, thermal limits within the required limitation and a mechanically safe rotor at high speed.
EVs use grid power to charge the battery, the traction motor is not normally engaged in the charging mode. The secondary goal of this thesis is to incorporate the traction motor in the charging circuit. This thesis presents a successful attempt to reconfigure the motor windings and exploit the motor inherent magnets. A 90-kW 36-slot 6-pole surface mount permanent magnet (SMPM) motor designed at the University of Nottingham (UoN) is used to practically reconfigure the motor windings and test a series of layouts to prove the simulation results. The layouts conducted in the laboratory present how the electromechanical device (traction motor) can be used as an inductor. The knowledge acquired from the experimental validation, shows how many switches are required to reconfigure the traction motor windings. The rotor behaviour is analysed for all layouts and a vibration meter is used in the experimental validation to capture the radial vibration.
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