Design of Inverter Driven Induction Machines

Daniel M. Saban, PE PhD saban@ieee.org

Overview
The induction machine problem
Stakeholders & design drivers Analysis & synthesis challenges Design rules-of-thumb & constraints

Optimization and/or synthesis

Common tools Selected approaches Inverter system consideration

Opportunities
2

Induction machine
Stakeholders and their perspectives
Customers Sales & Marketing Manufacturing Engineering & Operations Application Engineering Product Development

Opportunities
Materials: improved and exotic Manufacturing processes and process control Design, analysis and optimization tools

Size & Topology

3

Induction machine
Temperature is everything
Material limits (life)
Insulation system Bearing system

Material dependencies (performance) Cooling system Rules-of-thumb in design

Cost is everything
Operating cost: efficiency, power factor Initial cost: better material, more material

Quality is everything Performance is everything?

4

IM analysis challenges
Non-linear: saturation, core losses Winding harmonics Rotor/Stator slotting & skewing Material property variation (lot-to-lot) Dimensional variation & shift Manufacturing/assembly variation Rotor resistance End-leakage (consider frame) High-frequency impedance (bearing currents)

Proximity & Skin Effect

Fundamental current injected into conductors 1 turn per coil; 4.0 kW loss/pole 4 turns per coil; 2.5 kW loss/pole

Slot Ripple Eddy Current

Current Sheet used to simulate total air-gap flux density No current injected into conductors Loss is due to induced eddy currents Used to analyze effect of wire transposition and aspect ratio

IM design synthesis
Clean sheet
Single application Product family

Existing laminations Brute Hp vs. finesse

IM design synthesis challenges

Knowns
Full stator slots High conductivity conductors Small gap?

Unknowns
Rotor & stator aspect ratios Slot shape details Discrete values only
Pole count Discrete wire sizes, non-linear cost function Winding details: number of turns, coils, pitch Integral numbers of slots, rotor/stator Lamination material, grade, thickness

Rules-of-thumb
Stator current density
620 A/cm2 to 1 kA/cm2 Highly dependant on cooling system Revise after thermal modeling

Peak flux density of stator teeth, yoke

~1.7T, ~1.6T Revise upward for more power density Revise lower for higher efficiency

Rotor current density Gap flux density: 0.5T to 0.8T

10

Common Design Constraints

Rotor OD Stator OD Stack length Machine construction Cooling system

11

IM design iteration
design constraints mfg constraints

matl props

objectives

LP

FE

Manual Iteration

12

IM design tools
In-house
Typically only lumped parameter (LP) May be tied to manufacturing or operations Some special versions of commercial software

Commercial
LP: PC-IMD (SPEED), VICA (support?) LP+FE: PC-IMD/FEA (SPEED), RMxprt (Ansoft) MCM: ?? FE: Magnet (Infolytica), (Flux, Maxwell) Ansys/Ansoft System simulation: Matlab/Simulink, Simplorer (Ansoft), Easy 5
13

IM design optimization
design constraints mfg constraints

matl props

objectives

stand input file

stand output file

LP
geom trans

MCM

FE

addl output files

Optimization engine
14

IM design optimization
Inverter driven machines
Pole count is now a free variable Stator & Rotor lamination design optimization can be decoupled Skewing penalizes machine

Finesse approach
Size machine, ignore details & discrete values Create response surface & narrow search space Optimize rotor and stator separately Second pass takes into account discrete values Requires dedicated code

Key design points: torque corner point, max speed, max torque Best motor will deliver maximum torque for maximum drive current
15

IM-Inverter system optimization

Max torque-speed envelope (output)
different than constant torque/power/slip power factor and efficiency variations

Optimal motor leakage

Harmonic ripple current Chopping frequency Fundamental AC current Peak transistor frequency

16

Opportunity
Simple tools
When to apply vs. other technologies (IM vs. PM) Rough sizing: stack length, stator od, rotor od Fit of test data for lamination family, or single design

Models of different manufacturing techniques/defects Stray load loss - rotor/stator harmonic interaction Stator conductor eddy currents; large copper crosssection, high frequency Vehicle to adapt academic work into industrial setting
Open source Widespread use Extensible framework 17