Electric vehicle manufacturers around the world have been looking to solve the range challenge of battery-powered vehicles. One option is to increase the size of the battery pack, but this also adds weight to the vehicle and creates more problems to solve. Another option is to reduce the weight of the electric motor. The high-speed rotating motor can be reduced in size, which not only reduces the weight, but also reduces the energy consumption, which can increase the electric vehicle range of the same battery pack.
Electric vehicle traction drives use traditional built-in permanent magnet synchronous motors (IPMSMs), which embed magnets in the rotor to generate powerful torque. Existing IPMSMs suffer from low mechanical strength due to thin iron bridges in the rotors, which limit their maximum speed. The researchers used a new rotor topology that not only improved the robustness of the motor, but also reduced the rare earth materials needed to produce the motor by 70 percent.
Using an artificial intelligence-assisted optimization program, UNSW researchers assessed electrical, magnetic, mechanical and thermal performance to optimize motor designs.
The team evaluated 90 design alternatives, then selected the top 50 percent of them to generate new designs, and repeated the iterative process until the desired best results were achieved. The last motor design was the 120th generation analysed by the program, which culminated in an absolute maximum speed of 100,000 revolutions per minute and a peak power density of 7 kilowatts per kilogram, double the existing high-speed record for laminated IPMSM and the fastest ever recorded. Fast IPMSM.
In addition to electric vehicles, the motor can be used in large heating, ventilation and air conditioning systems using high-speed compressors and high-precision CNC machine tools, or deployed inside aircraft engines as an integrated drive generator to power electrical systems.
The new motor also has significant cost advantages over existing technology, with most high-speed motors using a sleeve to strengthen the rotor, which is usually made of high-cost materials such as titanium or carbon fiber. The new rotors, on the other hand, have very good mechanical robustness, so no sleeves are required, and only about 30% rare earth materials are used, resulting in significantly lower costs, making high-performance motors more environmentally friendly and affordable.
According to spacesrobot.com:
Every electric vehicle manufacturer is trying to develop high-speed motors. The power output by the motor is equal to the speed multiplied by the torque. When the speed is high enough, the torque can be smaller. The design of this motor borrows the power of artificial intelligence. They evaluated 90 design alternatives, selected dozens of more potential alternatives to generate designs and iterated, and eventually developed the fastest motor. Of course, in real applications, it is not necessary to achieve such a high speed, and it can be adjusted to a suitable power and speed. The person in charge of the research also said that it only takes half a year to a year to adapt the motor according to the manufacturer’s requirements. This seems to be a result that is not too far away from application.
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