MULTI-PHYSICS OPTIMISATION OF A HIGH SPEED COPPER ROTOR INDUCTION MOTOR FOR A TRACTION APPLICATION USING A METAMODEL BASED APPROACH

Abstract

The electrification of vehicles is seen as a central option to tackle the societal challenges of climate change and energy conservation. To minimise the impact on our environment and natural resources, car manufacturers are opting for a smart, green and integrated transport system that requires highly efficient and compact drivetrain solutions. This is a complex task for motor designers in view of the multiple objectives and constraints that involve both mechanical, thermal and electromagnetics effects. Powerful multidisciplinary design procedures are therefore necessary to get accurate and comprehensive results in a computationally efficient way. This paper aims to present the optimisation of a high speed copper rotor induction motor for a traction application using Motor-CAD and optiSLang software. The main goal of the research is to design a rare-earth free magnet motor for the next generation electric powertrains, while ensuring the industrial feasibility for mass production at low manufacturing costs and providing higher performance than current technologies. The selected approach combines cutting edge sensitivity analysis, metamodeling and optimisation techniques in order to provide an optimum design with respect to given specification. The motor is optimised first electromagnetically, then thermally, while the mechanical behaviour from a rotor stress point of view is evaluated at the end of the process.