published_or_final_version / Electrical and Electronic Engineering / Doctoral / Doctor of Philosophy

Brushless Doubly Fed Machines (BDFM) have potential advantages in variable speed generation and adjustable speed drive applications. The most significant of these advantages is a reduction in the power electronic converter rating, and therefore a reduction in overall system cost. Presently, efforts are being directed at optimizing the design of the BDFM and investigating areas of commercial feasibility. One possible aid in the investigation of design alternatives is finite element analysis. Finite element analysis is a numerical method for determining the field distribution in a dimensional model. Finite element techniques have been successfully used for some time in the design of induction, reluctance and permanent magnet machines. However, the characteristics of the BDFM require adjustment of the finite element design procedure used for conventional singly-fed induction machines. In this thesis, a three-dimensional finite element design procedure for modeling the BDFM has been developed. This design procedure avoids the difficulties previously associated with finite element modeling of the BDFM. The three-dimensional finite element design procedure developed in this thesis was used to model the 6/2 pole 5 horsepower BDFM laboratory machine. From the simulation results, the induced currents in the BDFM rotor bars were calculated. In the course of investigating three-dimensional finite element analysis for the BDFM, two different commercially available finite element analysis software packages were examined and tested. The first was Maxwell 3D Field Simulator produced by Ansoft Corporation, and the second was MSC/EMAS (Electromagnetic Analysis System) and MSC/XL by MacNeal-Schwendler Corporation. These two software packages are compared and their advantages and disadvantages/limitations are discussed. A tutorial for setting up and solving a three-dimensional BDFM model using MSC/XL and MSC/EMAS is presented. This goal of this tutorial is to guide a new user of MSC/XL and MSC/EMAS through the creation, setup, simulation, and analysis of a BDFM model. This tutorial contains condensed information included in the MSC/XL and MSC/EMAS program documentation provided by MacNeal-Schwendler. In addition, modeling techniques particular to the BDFM, which are not included in the program documentation, are described. This tutorial is applicable only to those individuals interested in learning how to use MSC/XL and MSC/EMAS in order to simulate a BDFM model. / Graduation date: 1995

published_or_final_version / Electrical and Electronic Engineering / Doctoral / Doctor of Philosophy

published_or_final_version / Electrical and Electronic Engineering / Doctoral / Doctor of Philosophy

In recent years, due to growing environmental awareness regarding global warming, green cars, such as hybrid electric vehicles, have gained a lot of importance. With the decreasing cost of rare earth magnets, brushless permanent magnet motors, such as the Interior Permanent Magnet Motor, have found usage as part of the traction drive system in these types of vehicles. As a design issue, building a motor with a performance curve that suits both city and highway driving has been treated in this thesis as a multi-objective problem; matching specific points of the torque-speed curve to the desired performance output. Conventionally, this has been treated as separate problems or as a combination of several individual problems, but doing so gives little information about the trade-offs involved. As a means of identifying the compromising solutions, we have developed a stochastic optimizer for tackling electromagnetic device optimization and have also demonstrated a new innovative way of studying how different design parameters affect performance.

Thesis (MScEng (Electrical and Electronic Engineering))--University of Stellenbosch, 2011. / Due to finite oil resources and its political and economical impact, a renewed interest in energy independence has compelled industry and government to pursue electric vehicle designs. The current worldwide research that is being conducted on drivetrain topologies for EVs, focus mainly on direct in-wheel drive, direct differential drive and fixed-gear differential drive topologies. Furthermore, the control strategy for these type of motor drives require a, so called, field-weakening operation in order to achieve acceptable performance characteristics for the vehicle. This thesis evaluates the use of a manual gearbox drivetrain topology and a radial flux air-cored permanent magnet (RFAPM) synchronous machine, without flux-weakening operation, as a traction drive application for EVs. For the purpose of this research study, a 2006 model Opel Corsa Lite is converted to a battery electric vehicle, and the Corsa is renamed to the E-Corsa. The Corsa is converted so that all the original functionality, boot space and space inside the vehicle are retained. The original 5-speed manual gearbox is used as drivetrain for the vehicle and a 40 kW, 70 Nm RFAPM traction drive is developed for the manual gearbox. A power electronic converter is designed for RFAPM traction drive and a Lithium ion (Li-ion) battery pack is used as energy source for the traction drive. The battery pack is mounted partially in the front and partially in the back of the vehicle to maintain an even weight distribution in the vehicle.

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