FINAL REPORT:

ELECTRIC VEHICLES

BHA3622 MECHANICAL DESIGN

SEM I 2021/2022

NAME: CARLJOHARI HUSSEIN ARIFF BIN HUSSEIN

METRIC ID: HB19026
SECTION: 01
LECTURER: ASSOC. PROF. DR. FADHLUR RAHMAN BIN
MOHD ROMLAY
E-MAIL ADDRESS: [email protected]
 Electric Vehicle: A Design Study to Improve Efficiency in EV
Powertrains.
Carljohari Hussein Ariff Bin Hussein

Student, Faculty of Mechanical & Automotive, Universiti Malaysia Pahang

Abstract
In this paper, various key points in choosing the most efficient motor technology and the rotor design of a
permanent magnet synchronous reluctance motor (PM SynRM) are introduced and their effects are studied.
However, the study of design of the motor housing would not be included because it is considered applicable
with the design and strength properties of the housing we have today. The Finite-element approach has been
utilized to show the effects of these parameters on the developed rotors in terms of stress and strain..

I. Introduction greater focus on renewable energy, and the

possibility to reduce transportation's influence on
An electric vehicle is a vehicle that is propelled by climate change and other environmental
one or more electric motors. It can be powered by challenges. Electric vehicles are one of the 100 best
a collector system that uses electricity from outside current ideas for combating climate change,
the vehicle, or it can be self-powered by a battery according to Project Drawdown.
(sometimes charged by solar panels, or by
converting fuel to electricity using fuel cells or a
generator). Road and rail vehicles, surface and
underwater watercraft, electric airplanes, and Incentives to encourage adoption were first
electric spacecraft are all examples of electric provided in the late 2000s, especially in the United
vehicles. States and the European Union, resulting in a
booming market for electric vehicles in the 2010s.
Electric vehicles (EVs) originally appeared in the Increased public awareness and structural
mid-19th century, when electricity was one of the incentives, like as those included in the COVID-19
favored means for motor vehicle propulsion, pandemic's green recovery, are expected to
providing a degree of comfort and ease of operation significantly boost the electric car market.
that gasoline cars could not match. For nearly a Governments should do more to accomplish
century, internal combustion engines were the climate targets, according to the International
primary propulsion system for cars and trucks, but Energy Agency, which stated in 2021 that
electric power was still widely used in other vehicle regulations for large electric cars
types, such as railroads and smaller vehicles of all
types. should be implemented. Electric motors are
mechanically simple, achieving up to 90% energy
conversion efficiency over a wide range of speeds
and power outputs, and can be precisely controlled.
EVs have witnessed a comeback in the twenty-first They can also be used in conjunction with
century because of technology advancements, a regenerative braking systems, which can turn
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movement energy into stored power. This can be EV component technologies and provide a
utilized to reduce braking system wear (and, as a certification mechanism for suppliers.
result, brake pad dust) as well as the total energy
required for a journey. For start-and-stop city
driving, regenerative braking is extremely useful. The International Electrotechnical Commission
(IEC) and the International Organization for
Standardization (ISO) both publish global
Unlike internal combustion engines, they may be standards that are then translated into supranational
accurately controlled and give high torque from and national versions. The next sections of this
stationary to moving, and they don't require several article outline the standards and the areas in which
gears to meet power curves. Gearboxes and torque they are most useful.
converters are no longer required.

Standard Name
EVs operate quietly and smoothly, resulting in less ECE R10 Electromagnetic
noise and vibration than internal combustion Compatibility
engines. While this is a desired feature, it has also ISO 20653 IP Rating
raised concerns that pedestrians who are blind, ISO 6469-3 Electrical Safety
elderly, or very young are at risk due to the absence ISO 16750-3 Mechanical Loads
of the customary sounds of an oncoming car. Many ISO 16750-4 Environmental Loads
nations have mandated warning sounds when EVs IEC 60034-1 Performance Rating
are moving slowly, up to the point where regular IEC 60349-4 Motor Characteristics
motion and rotation noises from road, suspension, Table 1: Example of standards & regulations that EV motor
electric motor, to become audible. Electric motors, suppliers must comply.
unlike internal combustion engines, do not require
oxygen; this is advantageous for submarines and
space rovers. III. Design Procedure.
A. Comparison of Motor Technologies.
II. Standards and Regulations Used for EV The major purpose of this comparison is to look
Motors. into the advantages and disadvantages of the
motors in order to present an overview of how the
With old and new entrants taking different prevalent technologies might be replaced with
approaches to electric vehicles, it's vital that cutting-edge Synchronous Reluctance Motor
standards are set to ensure that EV technologies are (SynRM) which is an AC machine that has
reliable. Failures in the car's electronics and permanent magnets on the rotor or does not. It
charging infrastructure could result in fatalities for differs from closed loop controlled, permanent
the occupants and other people involved, as well as magnet brushless DC machines (BLDC) in that
rescuers. For peace of mind and to avoid accidents, torque ripples cannot be eliminated as easily as they
batteries, controllers, plug connectors, switches, can in commonly used BLDC machines.
and cables must operate safely and reliably.
Consumer confidence, safety, and supplier
compliance will all benefit from regulatory
The distinction is on the rotor: inductance motors
frameworks that establish benchmarks for diverse
(squirrel cage after attaching end discs) use copper
or aluminium bars, while SynRM uses flux barriers
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(air pockets). Permanent magnets can be inserted
into the air spaces of the SynRM rotor to create a
machine known as PM aided SynRM or PM
SynRM. For two reasons, high efficiency is
achieved, due to the lack of rotor bars and end
discs, there is no copper loss and there is a large
inductance differential between the d- and q-axes
(Ld-Lq) due to flux barriers and motor torque that
is linearly proportional to it (Ld-Lq).
It's worth noting that in some applications, such as
pumps, fans, and conveyors, Induction Motors
(IMs) are the most common motors, which, under
fixed voltage and fixed frequency operation,
induction motors do not have a high starting toque Table 2: Comparison of motor technologies.
like DC series motors. However, utilising other
control approaches such as FOC or v/f methods,
this characteristic can be changed. The maximum By comparing the values in Table 3, it is clear that
torque is available at the start of the motor when the PM SynRM rotor is 43 percent lighter than the
these control methods are used, which is excellent induction motor rotor due to the absence of a
for traction applications. Because squirrel cage copper bar and end ring. It will have a faster
induction motors require less maintenance, they dynamic response and better transient operation as
last longer. Induction motors can be constructed to a result of this. These results are for a stack length
have a 92-95 percent efficiency. of 4 inches, but because the PM-torque SynRM's is
around 25% higher than the rated torque of the
An induction motor has the disadvantage of reference induction machine, we can reduce the
requiring a complex inverter circuit and being stack length to 3 inches and the output torque will
difficult to operate. SynRM is expected to be the same as the induction machine. The amount
eventually replace them. As a result, the SynRM of material used in PM SynRM will be reduced by
must maintain low costs while increasing 25%.
efficiency in order to persuade businesses to
replace IM drives with new technology. Similarly,
while the PMSynRM benefits from the ferrite-
magnet, the technology must retain performance
comparable to PMSM to draw the attention of
manufacturers.

Table 3: Comparison between IM and PM SynRM.

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B. Motor Selection.
This selection matrix is done on an intention to
highlight the consideration taken for each type of
motor before final decision of selection is made. To
finalize the selection, a scoring system has been
carried out. The score is given based on the
research that has been done stated in Chapter II of
this paper and the factors stated in Table 2 and 3.

Figure 1: Design of motor body made with Solidworks.

Table 4: Motor Selection Matrix.

C. Design of Motor Housing.

In the process of designing the motor housing, Figure 2: Design drawing made with Solidworks.
many of the design hues are inspired through
adapting existing housing designs and applying the
D. Design of Motor Rotor.
same manufacturing process for said component.
Aluminum alloy has been the widest material used This part of the process is started off by taking a
in motor housing. This is no surprising, as it has common rotor stator design from a SymRM to
many advantages, such as easily machining, strong, understand the name of parts of the stator.
high light-to-weight ratio, aesthetic, durability, as Moreover, the first phase of the design process
well as recycle characteristic. Those features make comprises of a draft of the initial design for the
stator. It is done in order to understand the
it to be an idea option for motor housing material.
placement of the permanent magnets (PM).
Furthermore, phase 2 of the rotor stator for the PM
SymRM design is more realistic and relevant to
challenge the limitations to the designs of other PM
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SymRm in the markets today. This design will soon Moreover, this design as seen in Figure 5 is a much-
enter the FEA phase to be tested whether it is detailed design working towards a working model.
worthy for production. More slots are added for the application of
permanents magnets that are going to be used to aid
the synchronous motor. The design of the slots are
a combination of two types of stators, namely
stators without PM and chevron shaped rotor slots.
This design is to further improve surface area of
which the permanent magnets for more efficient
rotating magnetic field (RMF). However, this
design is to be simulated in a FEA software and
would probably have a cogging effect if put into the
real world.

Figure 3: Example of a common SynRM Motor Rotor

Stator.

In this first phase of the design process as shown in

Figure 4, the approach is to replicate the design of
rotor stator from an existing model. This design
was taken inspiration from a SynRM rotor stator
but has been toned down in terms of design
complexity because this model is for understanding
the components of the stator and this design is Figure 5: Phase 2 of PM SymRM rotor design made with
Solidworks.
made to reduce torque ripple during a simulation.

E. Stress-Strain Analysis.
The vital steps that need to be taken to carry out the
analysis is to declare the material of the rotor. With
much research going into the component, it has
been decided that steel would be the best. In this
software, AISI 304 has been chosen as the material.
The second step towards completing this analysis
is by deciding the external loads that are included
Figure 4: Phase 1 of PM SymRM rotor made with as the parameter. Centrifugal force is the
Solidworks. specialization for this analysis. The amount of
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centrifugal force of this study is at 20000rpm,
which is a fair operating condition for a
conventional EV Motor.
Next is using the connections advisor to further aid
this simulation to acquire the uttermost accurate
result. Bearings are used for this component
because being that it as a rotor, it will act in a
rotational manner when simulated. Furthermore, is
creating the mesh before the study was ran. For the
mesh, this component is using a blended curvature-
based mesh because it consists of intricate and
complex design for the permanent magnet slots and
used 29 Jacobian Points.
Figure 7: Static nodal stress simulation with Solidworks.

Figure 8: Static strain simulation with Solidworks.

Figure 6: Mesh created with Solidworks.

Once the component has ran through the

simulation, it can be seen that little to none strain
throughout the component. The results indicate that
the maximum von Mises stress occurs at the ribs of
rotor flux barriers, and the referenced model
deteriorates the stress condition of ribs.

Figure 9: Static deformation simulation with Solidworks.

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F. Thermal Simulation. to investigate the developments of these systems is
upward. The latest PM SynRM drive packages are
The thermal model aims to calculate the applied in the industry and more potential is
temperature in the different parts of the machine. projected for these systems. In the future, it is
The main objective of this model is disregarding hoped that a better analysis can be carried out in
the machine candidates (during the optimization order to draw out a better result.
process) which do not fulfill the temperature
constraints. In the software, unfortunately the
simulation is considered a fairly unsuccessful one
due to the fact that no changes could be seen in VI. References.
the model. i. R. Vartanian and H. A. Toliyat, "Design
and comparison of an optimized permanent
magnet-assisted synchronous reluctance motor
(PMa-SynRM) with an induction motor with
identical NEMA Frame stators," 2009 IEEE
Electric Ship Technologies Symposium, 2009, pp.
107-112, doi: 10.1109/ESTS.2009.4906501.

ii. A. Boglietti and M. Pastorelli, "Induction

and synchronous reluctance motors comparison,"
2008 34th Annual Conference of IEEE Industrial
Electronics, 2008, pp. 2041-2044, doi:
10.1109/IECON.2008.4758270.

Figure 10: Thermal simulation with Solidworks. iii. Heidari H, Rassõlkin A, Kallaste A,
Vaimann T, Andriushchenko E, Belahcen A,
Lukichev DV. A Review of Synchronous
IV. Discussions. Reluctance Motor-Drive Advancements.
Sustainability. 2021; 13(2):729.
1. A simpler design of slots will allow creating
mesh before simulation easier without needing to
simplify model for meshing.
iv. Bonthu, Sai Sudheer Reddy, et al. "Design
2. The slot design determines the strength of the of permanent magnet assisted synchronous
rotor when put under simulation. reluctance motor with external rotor architecture."
2015 IEEE International Electric Machines &
V. Conclusion and Future Work.
Drives Conference (IEMDC). IEEE, 2015
This study briefly investigated the opportunities for
modeling and design improvements in PM SynRM.
The literature review shows a notable advancement v. Niazi, Peyman, et al. "A low-cost and
in the PM SynRM drive systems towards high efficient permanent-magnet-assisted synchronous
efficiency, low cost, and environmental concerns. reluctance motor drive." IEEE Transactions on
In this sense, the PM SynRM drive offers a Industry Applications 43.2 (2007): 542-55
sustainable system. The study shows that the trend
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