Design and Analysis of 42-V PermanentMagnet Generator for Automotive Applications

Contents

1.Introduction 2.Problem Description 3.General Design 3.1. Machine Topology 3.2. Description of the Design Algorithm 3.3. Temperatures 3.4. Armature Reaction 4.References

1. Introduction
1. ELECTRIFICATION

Electrification of the automobile was the challenge at the beginning of the

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20th century. At the turn of the century, there were more electric automobiles than gasoline powered automobiles in the U.S. In 1912 Charles Kettering introduced the first electrical system on a car (about 200W) making possible electric starting, lighting and ignition, forever changing the usefulness of the automobile. As we enter the 21st century, the same challenge resurfaces in light of the need to reduce emissions and dependency on foreign oil.Todays 2 kW platforms need to be replaced with the 20 kW or even 50 kW platforms on which a host of electrically generated functions will be enabled - some of which we have not even conceived. The mechanical powertrain will be augmented by rotating electric machines commutated by sophisticated power electronic controllers providing electrical power for more efficient systems such as electric power steering, electric passenger compartment heaters, electric coolant pumps, electrically active suspension, electric brakes, auxiliary power unit options and much more. There are two reasons why the automotive industry needs high power density, high efficiency, and affordable electromagnetic devices for its ever- increasing customer and society demands. First, the total amount of petroleum is limited and second, the air needs to be cleaner.Fuel efficiency is getting more important in relation to air pollution and the supply of fossil fuels in the next 10-20 years. The general worldwide trend in the automotive industry is to increase electrical power, while at the same time, the requirements for reduced fuel consumption and emissions are becoming more restrictive. The customers demand for safety, comfort, and quality of driving is another reason for explosive growth in electrical power generation capability of automotive electrical systems.

1.2 AUTOMOTIVE INDUSTRY TREND

During the last two decades, the electric motor applications have increased almost exponentially, due to of the advent of low cost and high performance electronics with an accompanying improvement in permanent magnetic materials.

Figure1 World vehicle sales comparison The automotive electrical/electronics market is expanding at a phenomenal rate. Every year there are 45 million more cars on the street. Figure 1 shows world vehicle sales comparison and forecast. It has been predicted that the world vehicle sales will be 50% higher in 2010 than in 1990. Figure 2 shows the number of electric motors applied in an automobile.

Figure2.Number of electric Motors in Vehicle Each vehicle has approximately 40-100 electromagnetic devices. In addition, there has been a substantial increase in the electronic content over the last two decades. Electric motors have also begun to play an important role along with energy storage devices in the future-vehicle industry such as the hybrid electric vehicle (HEV) and electric vehicle (EV). No matter what is the energy source for the HEV/EV, electric motor need to be there for propulsion.

The market value is estimated to reach $100 billion by year 2005, more
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than double its 1995 figure. According to the latest university and industry presentations, the vehicle electrical/electronics market is growing about 20 % annually.Even though the price of most electrical/electronics devices continues to decrease, their percentage of total vehicle cost is still predicted to rise steadily from about 20% to 25% by 2010. There are two major forces behind this increasing high efficiency: high power density, and affordable prices for electric motors in the automotive market to meet the requirements to increase fuel economy and consumer demands.

1.3 . MOTIVATION/BACKGROUND
Interest in higher voltage for automotive electrical systems has been increasing in the past couple of years. The interest has been driven by the need for increasing electrical power required for features and functions that would improve fuel economy and emissions, as well as customer comfort. Trade publication articles relative to higher voltage systems have appeared in August, September, and October of 1998, reflecting the increased interest in the subject. In 1989 the North American car companies were recognizing the need for higher voltage systems to meet their future power needs. SAE, at the urging of the Ford Motor Co., established the SAE Dual- High Voltage Committee to develop guidelines for application of such systems. An early result of the SAE Committee effort was the publication of an Information Report J2232 identifying the maximum voltage (48 volts) that should be considered from an electrical shock safety perspective. An SAE Paper was published reviewing the pros and cons of higher voltage. As the anticipated cost of the move to higher voltage became clearer, some of the enthusiasm for higher voltage began to wane. European car companies in 1996 began to be concerned about the future shortage of vehicle electrical power for the future. Mercedes led an effort to have MIT establish a Consortium of car companies, suppliers, and other stakeholders in vehicle electrical systems. Its goals are to identify the issues, potential solutions to the deal with the issues, and gain broader support in the industry for higher voltage systems. The European focus is on 12 - 36 volt (14 - 42 volt generator voltage), and this is the focus of the MIT Consortium effort. European car

companies currently have programs targeting 2001and 2002 for introduction of these 14 - 42 volt systems in passenger cars.

1.4 BENEFITS OF HIGHER VOLTAGE

There are tangible benefits to the vehicle using higher voltage systems. Among them are: Current for high power loads is reduced in proportion to the increase in voltage. In the 36-volt system the currents will be reduced by a factor of 3. Overall system efficiency is increased by the reduction in current, which improves fuel economy and reduces emissions. Wiring systems are reduced in size and weight. The size and cost of power semiconductors are reduced at lower currents. Higher voltage enables the use of new features and functions that require high power: Starter Alternator, like ISA (fuel economy and emissions improvement) Electric power steering (fuel economy and emissions improvement) Electric air conditioning compressor (fuel economy and emissions improvement) Electromagnetic engine valve actuation (fuel emissions improvement) economy and

Damping of torsional vibration in the engine (improved operator comfort and engine reliability) Electric water pump (fuel economy and emissions improvement) Electrically heated catalytic converter Steer by wire (reduced system complexity) Brake by wire (reduced system complexity) Electric turbocharger (improved performance and higher efficiency) Active suspension system (passenger comfort) Mobile office (operator convenience

1.5 ISSUES to HIGHER VOLTAGE

The major down side is cost:The cost of the system, and the cost of making a large change to exiting production vehicle systems. The tendency is to view the cost of the higher voltage system in its relation to todays system cost, but this is not realistic. One has to view the cost of higher voltage systems in relation to the cost of meeting the new regulation (emissions and fuel economy) goals with alternative methods. The bottom line is that the regulatory requirements must be met.

1.6 ELECTRIC MOTOR TECHNOLOGIES

In this section, the three most common electric motor technologies and the power electronic devices with control circuits in vehicle applications are discussed. The three motors are the permanent magnet (brushed and brushless type) motors, induction motors, and switched reluctance motors. Among those three motor configurations, the permanent magnet motor type is more widely applied in the vehicles because of its merits. An electric motor is a well-known device that converts electrical energy to mechanical energy using magnetic field linkage. An electric motor consists of two major elements: (1) a fixed stator with current-carrying windings or permanent magnets, (2) a rotating rotor which, provides a magnetic field produced by additional current- carrying windings or attached permanent magnets between the rotor and stator magnetic fields. Modern electric motor advances have resulted from developments and refinements in magnetic materials, integrated circuits, power electronic switching devices, computer modeling and simulation, and manufacturing technology, rather than by fundamental changes in operating and control principles. The dramatic improvements in permanent magnet materials and power electronic devices over the last two decades have led to the development of brushless permanent magnet motors that offer significant improvements in power density, efficiency, and noise/vibration reduction. Also, because there is no electrical sparks, there is less radiated noise. A. Brush Type Permanent Magnet Motor
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There are two types of permanent magnet motors: brush and brushless. Todays vehicle applications almost exclusively use brush type permanent magnet motors. The brush permanent magnet motors have four general characteristics that cause them to be useful for vehicle application: 1) desirable torque versus speed, 2) simple control of torque and speed, 3) high electromagnetic power density, and 4) inverters are not required. Nevertheless, there are six general characteristics that detract from more wide applications in the automotive industry: 1) friction between the brushes and the commutator, 2) brushes and commutators require maintenance, 3) current is supplied to the armature through the brushes and commutator, 4) brushes and commutators are open and produce sparking, 5) cooling of a DC motor is difficult, and 6) switching of large currents is required for control of DC motors. The brushless motors are becoming stronger candidates over traditional brush type motors for the following reasons: higher efficiency, higher powerdensity, better heat dissipation, and increased motor life. In addition, brushless motors experience no losses due to brush friction and they deliver higher torque compared to a brushed type motor of equal size and weight.

B. Brushless Type Permanent Magnet Motor

Electronically commutated, brushless permanent magnet motors are however, becoming prime movers in vehicle propulsion, industrial drives, and actuators as a result of improvements in permanent magnet materials, advances in the power electronic devices, and power integrated circuits in the last two decades. Not only have there been gradual improvements in Alnico and Ferrite (ceramic) alloys, but the rapid development of rare-earth magnets, such as samarium-cobalt (Sm Co) and neodymium-boron-iron (Nd B Fe) around 1980, have provided designers with a significant increase in available field strength. This new high density, brushless, permanent magnet motor system provides a very high torque to inertia ratio. Figure 3 shows radial and axial field permanent magnet motors.

Figure3.Schematics of radial field and axial field permanent magnet motors C. Permanent Magnet Materials Figure 4 summarizes the four most common permanent magnet materials used today by motor manufacturers. In most cases, the higher remanence with higher coercivity in a permanent magnet is desired by motor designers. The alnico magnet provides a fairly high remanence flux density but a low coercive force. When the coercive force is low and two opposing magnetic poles are in proximity of each other, the magnetic poles can weaken each other and there is a possibility of permanent demagnetization by the opposing field.

Figure 4 Demagnetization Permanent Magnet Materials

Characteristics

of

Unlike an alnico magnet, the ferrite magnet has a low flux density, but a high coercive force. It is possible to magnetize the ferrite magnet across its width as a result of this high coercive force. Ferrite magnets are most widely used in electric motors because their material and production costs are low. The cost of a typical ferrite magnet material at this time is about 6-8 times lower than the Nd B Fe. Nonetheless, output power to weight ratio is 1.22, ferrite, vs. 1.36, Nd B Fe. This means that the ferrite magnet motor will be about 20% heavier for the same output compared with the Nd B Fe magnet motor. Another measurement is an output power
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per unit cost of active material. It is predicted that the output power per unit cost is about 4 times lower for ferrite magnet motor compared to the Nd B Fe magnet motor. Delco Remy uses the ferrite and Nd B Fe magnets for different starter motor applications. Rare-earth magnets have both high magnetic remanence, and high coercive force.Since the initial cost is high, these permanent magnets are used in applications such as high performance and high-energy density motor applications.For a given volume, the flux density is twice that of the ferrite, leading to a larger torque production. Nd B Fe magnetic materials are superior to any other magnetic material now on the market. The only disadvantage of using an Nd B Fe magnet, as opposed to an Sm Co magnet, is that the high- energy density Nd B Fe permanent magnet has a maximum operating temperature of 100 to 150 degrees C, as compared to 200-300 degrees C for Sm Co, alnico, and ferrite. 2 Conclusions The automotive industry trend and prediction of the future electrical systems using permanent magnet materials is presented. The higher power density of electrical systems requires more powerful and affordable permanent magnet materials for the near future devices. Todays 2 kW platforms need to be replaced with the 20 kW or even 50 kW platforms on which a host of electrically generated functions will be enabled - some of which we have not even conceived. The three major motor configurations and enabling technologies that support more electrical systems to vehicle application are presented. Special focus is given to the three current specific vehicle applications such as the starter motors, alternators, and integrated starter/alternator system. In recent years the demands for higher electrical power, as well reduced fuel consumption and emissions, are placing pressures on the electrical system that are pointing to the need for alternative technologies to meet the needs of the future. There are some methods of reducing fuel consumption and emissions that could use 3 to 4 times more power, but current high volume alternators cannot be modified to deliver this amount of power. The ISA system is a candidate technology to provide the necessary paradigm shift to meet this future needs. Low cost materials, affordable power electronics, multi-functional control circuits, and advanced manufacturing technologies will expand more

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electrical systems in the future vehicles. The actual power demand in an automobile is in the range of 1.2 to 1.5 kW. The automotive electric system in use for the last 30 years is based on the claw pole alternator also known as the Lundell machine. This is a three-phase synchronous generator equipped with a field winding and brushes. Its output voltage is applied to an ac/dc converter. The output voltage of the system is controlled by regulating the field current of the machine. Thus, no control is needed for the converter, usually a six-diode bridge rectifier. Despite the relatively low performance of the Lundell machine, this system was for many years the best compromise between efficiency and cost. With new loads being added to the automotive power system, it is estimated that by 2005 the power demand of a typical car will be in the range of 2.5 to 3 kW. Examples of such loads are electric air conditioners, electric steering systems, electric brakes, or high-energy discharge lamps. At this level of demand, the system based on the Lundell machine and the unique 12-V dc bus voltage becomes inefficient. The losses in the alternator are significant and the increased currents require thicker wiring harnesses. The cost of the system increases while the performance drops. Considering the concern for improved fuel economy and reduced emissions, the need for an electric system with improved efficiency is apparent while the increase in cost can now be justified with energy savings. With the new level of 42 V as standard level voltage, automotive companies have started to examine the design of the electrical system and loads to ensure the transition. Various solutions for the future power system are examined in [6] and [7]. Recent advancements in permanent-magnet (PM) materials technology and the affordable price of the high-energy magnets make the PM machine an attractive solution. This project presents the design methodology of a three-phase PM synchronous alternator. The design algorithm as well as an equivalent magnetic circuit model of the PM machine called the "reluctance model" is presented. Input data and results are shown. . The rated voltage and current of the machine assume the load voltage of 42 V and take into account the topology of the converter used. A new generation of high-efficiency alternators is ready to join the 42-volt revolution. Providing power for the upcoming 42-volt electrical systems will be an equally new generation of alternators. Finally, the Lundell-type alternator that has reliably and cheaply served the industry for nearly 40 years will be

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replaced by machines that are up to 20% more efficient and far quieter than today's units. It's about time. Power-sapping options such as heated seals, quick-defrost glass and electric steering require charging systems that deliver their maximum rated output at very low engine rpm. The Lundell alternator can't handle those increasing electrical loads, experts say, particularly at idle speeds. And as our cover story notes, the electrically-powered brakes, water pumps, suspensions, heated catalysts and advanced powertrains now in development will demand far better charging capability. "Electronic and electronic-hydraulic valve actuation is one thing driving our charging system work," notes Tobias Heiter, a development engineer in Bosch's alternator, starter and power supply division based in Toluca, Mexico. "So is Europe's 3.0L/100 km fuel efficiency goal. These cars will have start-stop engines that shut off at every traffic light, further taxing the charging system." All the major alternator suppliers are readying more efficient machines, with 90% to 100% of their rated amperage available at idle. So are small, independent R&D firms such as Aura Systems, in El Segundo, Calif., and Ecoair Corp. in New Haven, Conn., whose alternators are in test at numerous OEMs. The output characteristics of these machines, many of them liquid-cooled, also enable vehicle batteries to remain in the charge mode dining operation. This is welcome news to automakers, which spend millions annually in "maintenance-free" battery warranty costs. The variety of promising technologies now in development includes: * "Enhanced" Lundell-type alternators. The Lundell's present advantage is cost: its inductive-type, claw-pole design makes it cheap to produce. "But it can deliver power only at higher rpm," notes Jean Botti, director of the customer solution center at Delphi Energy and Engine Management in Flint, Mich. Replacing the diodes -- "non-thinking" semiconductors -- with smart power MOS-FETs allows higher power at lower rpm. This is seen as a technology for the short-term, say most experts. * Permanent magnet designs. These are more efficient than the inductivetype. Botti predicts permanent magnet machines in production by 2002-3. * Switch-reluctance designs. Considered to be an optimum design for efficiency, this design operates with two crossed, magnetic fields. It's fairly cheap to manufacture, but developers report sudden output spikes during

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operation, which create signal noise. This problem is being addressed using control electronics and altered romp-up strategies. * Direct-drive alternators. Eliminating belt drive has many advantages, including less vibration and engine power loss. "We're working on alternators driven by a reduction gear from the car's gearbox with at least one customer," says Bosch's Heiter. * Direct-drive alternators. Eliminating belt drive has many advantages, including less vibration and engine power loss. "We're working on alternators driven by a reduction gear from the car's gearbox with at least one customer," says Bosch's Heiter.

2. Problem Description
The objective of this research is the design of a three-phase PM synchronous alternator supplying 2.5 kW and 42 V to the dc loads. The speed of the alternator is in the range of 1800-18 000 r/min. The requirement is that the machine should provide rated power and voltage at idle speed (1800 r/min). The converter topology of this system consists of an uncontrolled bridge rectifier and a buck converter, as shown in Fig. 1:

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Fig. 1. Uncontrolled six-diode bridge rectifier and buck converter. This solution provides good efficiency and convenient control. At high speed, the switch of the buck converter is turned on and off such that the voltage is stepped down to the required level. A fully controlled rectifier alone could have been used if the speed range of the application had not been that wide. As there is no control of the output voltages of the PM generator, the magnitude and frequency of the voltages increase with speed. Consequently, the firing angles of the switches must be reduced to achieve voltage regulation. Voltages and currents in the system become very pulsating at high speeds and the high rms value of the current drives the losses in the machine and converter to an unacceptable level. In an uncontrolled rectifier, each diode is conducting for 120 electrical degrees and the problem of the pulsating currents is reduced. Moreover, the LC structure of the buck converter represents a filter by itself; consequently, the voltage and current waveforms are improved. The main disadvantage of this scheme is the relative low power density of the buck converter due to use of L and C elements in comparison with the other circuits that only use semiconductors for power conversion. The proposed system was analyzed based on the assumption that the rectifier operates under constant load current. Under these conditions, the output voltage

Vs is given by(1) where Vrms is the rms phase voltage of the machine and Vr and V are the resistive voltage drop on the switches and the voltage loss due to current commutation, respectively. By assuming common values for the voltage drops, the required rms voltage of the generator can be computed. The currents on the ac side are imposed by the rectifier operation and are rectangular. The rms value of the current and the apparent power of the machine can be found by using the power balance of the system at steady state.

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3. General Design
3.1. Machine Topology The rotor structure of the machine addressed in this paper is the surfacemounted magnet type as shown in Fig. 2. The main advantage of this topology is that all of the magnetic flux produced by the magnets links the stator, and therefore, takes part in energy conversion. The design uses arc magnets glued on the rotor to prevent them coming off at high speeds.

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Additional magnet retention can be provided using wire wrapping, stainless steel, or mylar sleeve. The winding is distributed so that the output voltage of the machine is close to a sine wave. Fig. 2. Machine structure.

3.2. Description of the Design Algorithm The initial design starts with a set of data : Apparent Power S=3*10^3 [V] Phase voltage Vrms = 20 [V] Irms = 50 [A] Phase current pf = 0.854 Speed n = 1800 [rpm] Power wave factor kp = 0.554 Current wave factor ki = 1.224 Staking factor(factorul de umplere al pachetului de tole) kst =0.94; Slot filling factor ksf =0.4 Windind factor kw = 0.9 Airgap length g = 0.8*10^-3 Remanent flux density Br= 1.16 [T] Bsat= 1.7 [T] No. of pole pairs p = 2 No. of slot/pole/phase q = 2 Permeance coeff PC = 6 Recoil permeability of the magnet miu_r = 1.14 Total ampere loading /patura de curent A = 16698 [A/m] No of slots Ns= 24
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Stator diameter D= 90*10^-3 [m] tau_p = %pi*D/(2*p); tau_s = (%pi*D)/Ns; Frequency f=60 [Hz] upper= tau_s*0.6 lower=tau_s*0.5 The design starts with a set of initial data that includes the material data of the magnet, iron, and conductors. The number of pole pairs p and the number of slots/pole/phase q are user defined between minimum and maximum bounds. For each set of (p, q), the distribution, short-pitching, and skewing factors(kd, ksp, ks) are computed

The winding factor kw is The rotor diameter D and the slot depth da are iterated between their minimum and maximum specified. The nature of the application requires minimum machine volume. By examining the expression of the air-gap power (6) , minimum volume is obtained when the product of the electric and magnetic loading(ABg) is maximized where the power and current waveform factors kp and ki:are given by (7) and (8)

The maximization of the product Bg A is a complex problem because the attempt to increase one term results in the decrease of the other. For example, an increase of the air-gap flux density Bg in the machine requires wider tooth in order to avoid saturation. Consequently, the space allocated for conductors and the ampere loading A are reduced. One of the results presented in [10] is used to define
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the stator structure that will produce a minimum volume machine. In most electric machine applications, 0.5s., < ws < 0.6s, and In this analysis, we will make the approximation of equal slot and tooth width The next task is to determine the pole pitch coverage coefficient of the magnet n,m and the radial length lm that conducts to this structure. The radial length lm and C are

lm=4.23 mm and C=0.79 The air-gap length g is usually determined by mechanical constraints and is a given data. The permeance coefficient (PC) represents the slope of the air-gap line in the second quadrant of the B-H plane. This is a measure of the capacity of the magnet to withstand demagnetization and must be carefully chosen. According to [5], a permeance coefficient of 5 ~ 20 guarantees a successful design. The lowest value was adopted in order to minimize the magnet cost. The value of the flux density in the air gap, Bg, is

Bg=0.83 T Fig. 3. Magnetic equivalent circuit of the PM machine.

Where Carter's factor kc and the magnetic leakage coefficient kml are described by (14) and(15)

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kc=1.17 kml=1.01 Tooth width tt is given by

tt=0.006 mm and to get minimum volume, this must be half of the stator slot pitch. After inserting (13), (16) is nonlinear in am and is difficult to solve. The value of am is found iteratively. An initial value is chosen for am and the air-gap flux density and the tooth width are computed. Condition (10) is checked and am is adjusted until this is met. The method mentioned before ensures that the machine stator is well dimensioned in terms of saturation and minimum resulting volume. The magnet radial length can then be computed using (11). Once am and Bg are set, the dimensions of the stator yoke yt and rotor core yrt are found

yt=0.014 yrt= 0.013 The outer diameter of the machine OD is

OD=0.122 mm The expression of the air-gap flux density (13) was derived based on the magnetic model presented in Fig. 3, where the iron reluctances Rr and Rs are neglected. In this stage, the flux density can be updated to take into account the mmf drops on the iron as the magnetic circuit was already established. This
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procedure is based on Ampere's law and the assumption that the flux lines travel on the average path. Iron magnetization characteristic is modeled using "spline" interpolation. An updated value Bg-nonun is obtained. The flux density in the teeth, stator yoke, and rotor core of the machine are recomputed, and will be used to determine core losses. Power balance is used to determine the machine length L. For a generator

Pgap=2813.44 Pcooper= 4.514D+09 Pcore=162.59 Pout=2562 The ampere loading in (6) can be put as

A= 1.212D+14 mm^2 and the current density J in the conductors is

J= 1.212D+08 A two-layer winding has been used in this design. This solution is the most used in ac machines. The number of coils perphase Ncoii3 is Ncoils=15.737 The number of turns per coil N is an important parameter of the design in terms of machine loading and back electromotive-force (emf) production. Increase of N results in a high electric loading of the machine that requires a reduced length. N is iterated and (21) is solved each time to find the machine lengthL. The copper losses and the core losses as well as the air-gap power are a linear function of L. Thus, a set of designs is obtained. The diameter of the conductor in the winding is found by

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dc= 0.0007 mm The friction and windage losses are considered in order to compute the efficiency. The expressions for losses (in Watts) are given by Gieras et al. [2]

Pw=3.059 W A large set of possible designs is obtained at this stage. Various constraints can be used to select the design that best fits the application. For the case of the PM alternator, the design with the maximum efficiency was selected. 3.3. Temperatures One of the biggest disadvantages of the NdFeB magnet is the dependance of its remanent flux density with temperature.The temperature coefficient of Br is negative (in the range of 0.07-0.13%/C), thus, the accuracy of design can be influenced. The electric resistivity of the conductors and the copper losses are also a function of temperature. An analytical thermal model to allow the computation of the magnet and winding temperatures is usually difficult to develop and involves many uncertainties. The model structure as well as thermal parameters of the materials used can easily conduct to severe errors. Reference [10] considers that a reasonable assumption for the magnet and winding steady-state temperature is

3.4. Armature Reaction The design method presented neglects armature reaction. The effect of the stator currents on the magnetic field of the machine is generally very small in PM machines. The low recoil permeability of the magnets and their long relative length make the stator field see an increased air gap. Typically, the magnitude of the armature reaction flux density is no bigger than 10% of that produced by the magnets.

4.References
[1] K. J. Binns and D. W. Shimmin, 'The relationship between performance

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characteristics and size of permanent magnet motors," in Proc. 1995 Elect. Mach. Drives Conf., pp. 423^27. [2] J. F. Gieras and M. Wing, Permanent Magnet Motor Technology, Design and Applications. New York: Marcel Dekker, 1997. [3] D. C. Hanselmann, Brushless Permanent Magnet Motor Design. New York: McGraw-Hill, 1994.

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