Efficient development of electric machines

As electrification progresses and the use of inverter-fed electric motors increases, manufacturers and developers face new challenges. Ever-shorter development cycles, coupled with constantly rising demands for efficiency or torque density, require innovative approaches in the multidomain development of electric machines. A promising solution lies in the creation of integrated simulation-driven design workflows that enable the automated generation and evaluation of various designs. At Fraunhofer IFAM, specific methods and demand-driven design workflows are being developed to quickly create designs for electric machines and evaluate them in light of manufacturing and materials science innovations.

Complexity in the development of electric machines

The development of electric machines is complex in many ways. On the one hand, high requirements must be met, such as those related to efficiency, power density, or cost. On the other hand, the development of electric machines is a multi-domain problem. This means that multiple development domains must be considered in the design process to ensure the functionality of the electric machine and meet the requirements of the specific application. The designs for electric machines must be developed and analyzed from electromagnetic, thermal, structural, and rotor dynamic, as well as NVH (noise, vibration, and harshness) perspective. In addition to classical engineering disciplines, the ecological and economic dimensions of a design must also be considered. Furthermore, the constraints from manufacturing and assembly of the respective design must be taken into account.

Challenges of conventional design processes

In conventional design processes, as often found in the development of electric drives, these domains are addressed sequentially. Typically, design decisions are made in the electromagnetic domain and then passed on to the other domains for simulations and calculations to validate the design from the perspective of those other domains. If the designs prove to be unsuitable, parts or the entire design process must be restarted. This approach leads to manual, time-consuming communication, information loss, long design iteration cycles, and decisions based on individual domains rather than a comprehensive domain-wide perspective.

Efficient designs for electric machines through multidisciplinary design process chains

An efficient alternative is the use of multidisciplinary automated design process workflows (Multidisciplinary Design Automation, MDDA). Here, various simulation tools are integrated as needed to analyze and evaluate generatively produced models of the electric machine. Fraunhofer IFAM is researching methods that support the demand-driven creation of such design process chains, making it easier to adapt MDDA to one's processes. Another focus is to integrate the detailed design of innovative components, such as cast coils or additively manufactured windings. This allows to evaluate the component and its dependencies to the overall electric machine quickly and application-specific.

Further information on the field of “Electric Drives”