The source-to-wheel efficiency of today's electrified vehicles already far surpasses the efficiency of strictly gasoline vehicles. As sources of electricity become cleaner and more efficient, and as gasoline becomes more scarce, the need for transporation electrification is increasingly economically and environmentally driven. The automotive industry primarily makes use of permanent magnet synchronous machines (PMSMs) and induction machines (IMs), the latter has the cost advantage of containing no rare earth metals. This thesis studies two different induction motors for electrified powertrain applications using a novel optimization algorithm to create efficiency maps and compare the efficiencies of the two motors. Induction motors are difficult to banchmark due to their complicated control schemes. Each point in their operating range can be achieved with an infinite number of current/slip combinations and therefore has infinite potential efficiencies. The proposed algorithm limits the number of simulations needed to benchmark an induction machine, and provides a clear and unbiased way to compare machines based on losses at their most efficient current/slip combinations over their entire operating range. The proposed algorithm is able to calculate losses within 5% error of simulation values for both machines. The first motor studied makes use of stranded windings and geometry parameters from the Tesla Motors patents. The efficiency map created has a peak efficiency of 96% and corresponds closely to an efficiency map for a similar motor found in literature. The second motor makes use of copper bar windings, which are easier to manufacture and have lower material costs. Bar windings, typically have lower resistance and stator copper losses at low speeds, but higher effective resistance and stator losses at high speeds due to eddy effects. The motor modelled was intended simply to compare the stranded and bar windings, and to see the advantages and disadvantages. For this reason, no other changes are made to the winding layout or motor geometry, including changes that would reduce the eddy effect. The resultant efficiency map has a peak efficiency of only 90%, performing worse than the stranded wound motor across most of its operating range. At very low speeds, under 1000 rpm, the efficiency of the bar wound machine is better than that of the stranded machine. The bar wound machine also has the advantage of being over 80\% efficient everywhere. The author suggests that future research focus on applying the proposed benchmarking algorithm to stator bar motors designed to limit eddy effects. Strategies include changing the slot opening shape, increasing the number of stator bars, and moving the stator bars away from the air gap. / Thesis / Master of Applied Science (MASc)
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:mcmaster.ca/oai:macsphere.mcmaster.ca:11375/22334 |
| Date | January 2017 |
| Creators | Koke, Hannah R |
| Contributors | Emadi, Ali, Mechanical Engineering |
| Source Sets | McMaster University |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Thesis |
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