The requirements on vehicle industry are constantly getting stricter, especially when it comes to emissions. At the same time cars, trucks and buses are needed for our way of living. This have forced companies to be as ecient as possible in their way of using fossil fuels for travelling and transport. To increase the eciency companies investigate all possible fuel savings to decrease their carbon footprint as much as possible. One area of savings that is not that obvious to many people is the alternator. Several percent of the total energy used by a vehicle are needed to operate the alternator. With a typical alternator eciency of 70% considerable savings can be achieved. This thesis that concern alternator eciency was carried out at Scania in Södertälje, Sweden. The goal of the thesis is to construct a mathematical model of an alternator. The model is supposed to consider all losses in the alternator and together with the output power give an eciency model of the alternator at different speeds and loads. A great part of the project has been dealing with the magnetic losses. The magnetic losses have been modeled as an equivalent circuit with the load angle as a central piece. The equivalent circuit is built up by the fact that the alternator used in the vehicles is a salient pole alternator. The equivalent circuit describes a voltage equation where the voltage drop over the magnetic inductance is described. From that relations between the signals in the alternator and output signals can be written. The alternator model is then used together with data recorded from different buses all over the world, this to be able to investigate how the alternator contributes to the fuel consump- tion depending on the way that the buses are driven. The result of this thesis is a mathematical model that describes the losses in the alternator for different load cases and speeds.

This work presents development system LabVIEW and the possibility to create virtual measuring devices. Particular realization of virtual measuring device within the frame of this work is applied on measurement of basic characteristics of claw-pole alternator. The structure and the principle of function of this alternator is described in brief. Created virtual measurement device is described in detail. The entire block scheme, that is the source code for LaBVIEW development system, is attached only in electronic form. The printed version contains front panel of the device and almost all the structures of block scheme.

L'alternateur à griffes est l'alternateur le plus utilisé dans l'industrie automobile. Afin d'augmenter sa puissance volumique, une solution classique consiste à utiliser des aimants NdFeB entre les griffes. Ces dernières années, le prix des aimants NdFeB a beaucoup augmenté remettant en question leur utilisation. Ce contexte implique de trouver de nouvelles solutions techniques permettant de conserver la même puissance volumique sans utiliser d'aimant NdFeB. Dans le cadre de ces travaux de thèse la solution proposée consiste a utiliser des matériaux magnétiques doux nobles tels que les FeCo (AFK18, AFK1 et AFK502). De part leur coût élevé, nous avons limité leur utilisation au noyau de l'alternateur même si leur utilisation au rotor est également évaluée. Ces travaux s'appuient sur une démarche de dimensionnement multi-niveaux (modèle reluctant et modèle éléments finis) ce qui apporte un bon compromis temps de calcul/précision. Une série d'études a été réalisée avec dans un premier temps, l'identification d'une géométrie de noyau favorable à l'utilisation de noyau en FeCo. Dans un second temps, une étude compare les courants batteries en fonction du FeCo utilisé au noyau avec une optimisation du rotor. Ensuite une étude présente le dimensionnement complet de l'alternateur (optimisation du rotor et du stator avec une étude sur le nombre optimal de paires de pôles) avec un noyau en AFK502 ce qui d'identifier le gain maximal en courant batterie apporté par l'utilisation d'un noyau en FeCo. Pour finir, une dernière étude compare les courants batteries en fonction du FeCo utilisé au rotor avec une optimisation du rotor et du stator. / Claw-pole alternators are often used in automotive industry. Permanent magnets like NdFEB are currently integrated to increased the power density of claw-pole machine. However their higher price brings into question their usage. This tight context implies finding new technical solutions to keep the same power density without NdFeB magnets. The solution adopted consists to evaluate the potential of gain with different soft magnetic materials and more especially FeCo family (AFK18, AFK1 et AFK502). Their higher price imposed us to use FeCo just at the core of the alternator but we have also evaluate their usage at the rotor. This work is based on an adapted design methodology including two modeling level (magnetic equivalent circuit model and finite element model) in order to obtain a good compromise between time computation/accuracy. Several studies have been made with, as a first step, the identification of new core geometry customized for FeCo core. As a second step, a study comparing output current according to FeCo used at the core is presented, rotor is optimized only. As a third step, is exposed the global optimization of the alternator with an AFK502 (rotor and stator optimization with a study on the optimal poles pairs number) in order to identify the maximum output current gain with an FeCo core. Finally, the last study compare output current according to FeCo used at the rotor, rotor and stator are optimized .

Les procédés de fabrication, du fait de leurs imperfections, conduisent à des dispersions des dimensions par rapport au nominal ainsi qu’à une variabilité de celles-ci d’un produit à un autre. Pour les machines électriques, ces imperfections peuvent conduire à des excentricités entre le rotor et le stator ou à des déformations de la surface intérieure du stator (défaut de forme). Dans la littérature, les travaux se focalisent surtout sur l’étude des effets néfastes dus à l’excentricité et pas sur les défauts de forme. De plus, ces travaux sont souvent basés sur une approche déterministe négligeant la variabilité qui peut apparaitre dans le cas de la production de masse. L’objectif de la thèse est donc de mettre en place une méthodologie basée sur une approche probabiliste permettant de quantifier l’effet des imperfections des procédés de fabrication sur la géométrie d’une machine électrique et d’en évaluer l’impact sur les performances. Pour cela, une campagne de mesures dimensionnelles a été effectuée sur 50 machines électriques permettant de caractériser les principaux défauts comme l’excentricité et la déformation de la surface intérieure du stator. Des modèles probabilistes de ces défauts ont été proposés permettant de prendre en compte leur variabilité. L’utilisation d’un modèle numérique de la machine électrique combiné avec des techniques d’approximation creuse ont permis d’évaluer l’influence de ces défauts sur les grandeurs d’intérêt comme la FEM ou le couple. / Due to their imperfections, manufacturing processes lead to deviations on the dimensions which are not equal to their nominal value and as well as a variability on the dimensions from one product to another in the case of mass production. For electrical machines, these imperfections can cause an eccentricity between the rotor and the stator or shape default like the deformation of the inner surface of the stator. In the literature, research focuses mainly on the study of detrimental effects due to the eccentricity but not on shape default. In addition, this research is often based on a deterministic approach neglecting the variability that can arise especially in mass production. The aim of the thesis is to develop a methodology based on a probabilistic approach to quantify on the performances of an electrical machine the effect of imperfections of manufacturing processes on the geometry. First, a campaign of measurements was performed on 50 electrical machines for characterizing the main defaults such as the eccentricity and the deformation of the inner surface of the stator. Probabilistic models of these defaults have been proposed for taking into account their variability. A numerical model of the electrical machine combined with sparse approximation techniques were used to quantify the influence of these defaults on quantities of interest such as EMF or torque.