Title: Comparative study of PMSMs and PM-less motors for electrical-vehicle traction

Supervisors: Yves Mollet (Yves.Mollet@ulb.ac.be), Johan Gyselinck Permanent-magnet synchronous motors (PMSMs) are a common choice for electrical-vehicle (EV) traction because of their efficiency and compactness. However, the latter quality implies the usage of rare-earth PM material, and in particular NdFeB, which poses significant concerns of scarcity, cost and supply security. Many car manufacturers are therefore studying alternative machine types which have no or cheap PMs. The Master thesis comprises the following tasks (for 1 or 2 students):

• Analysis of the Nissan Leaf motorisation (with a PMSM, see figure below-left), as a reference;

• Magnetic modelling of PMSMs, Synchronous Reluctance machines (SynRMs) and PM-assisted-SynRMs (see figure below-right);

• Heat-transfer modelling; • Comparative study of these 3 machine types.

References: • Widmer, James D., Richard Martin, and Mohammed Kimiabeigi. "Electric vehicle traction motors without

rare earth magnets." Sustainable Materials and Technologies 3 (2015): 7-13. • Dorrell, David, Leila Parsa, and Ion Boldea. "Automotive electric motors, generators, and actuator drive

systems with reduced or no permanent magnets and innovative design concepts." IEEE Transactions on Industrial Electronics 61.10 (2014): 5693-5695.

• Burress, Tim. "Benchmarking of competitive technologies." Oak Ridge National Laboratory (2012). http://energy.gov/sites/prod/files/2014/03/f10/ape006_burress_2012_p.pdf

Managed by UT-Battelle for the U.S. Department of Energy

Technical Accomplishments (16)

22

• 2012 Nissan Leaf motor – 48 stator slots with 8 poles

– Similar to Lexus LS 600h design

– Published ratings:

� 80 kW

� 280 Nm

� 10,390 rpm

• 9,655 rpm needed for 90 mph

12.997 cm

(5.12”)

Stator O.D.: ~ 19.812 cm (7.8”)