b'Engineer Innovation | Automotive & TransportationRising to the Challenge: Designing the Next Generation of Traction MotorsThe transportation industry is being transformed rapidly, driven primarily by the electrification of vehicles. One of the main challenges accompanyingSystemelectrification is designing the nextSimulationgeneration of traction motors for hybrid and electric vehicles (xEVs). The greatestTractionControl Loop Validation Test vericationconcern is that currently available tractionMotor Designmotors do not meet the performance characteristics required by future xEVs. WeDesign Validation SIL / HIL / MIL / NVH / Thermalcan summarize some of the main designand Optimizationchallenges as: Developing high power density tractionMulti-Physics AnalysismotorsEliminating or reducing the dependenceFigure 1: A typical traction motor design process V-cycleon rare earth permanent magnet based motorsinclude exploring what-if type scenarios asThe system level simulator should also be Increasing efficiency (~95 percent orwell, i.e., to consider the impact ofable to share model data and results with higher)changing the powertrain component sizesthe drive and the cooling system design Increasing the maximum speed rangeand configurations on the torque-speedtools. Essentially, the idea is to ensure that by several factors compared to currentenvelop of the traction motor.system level impacts of any design change limits may be assessed at all stages of the design Controlling or mitigating the Noise,Motors are typically represented by theirprocess seamlessly. Vibration and Harshness (NVH) levelsspeed-torque-efficiency maps or lumped Ensuring their robustness againstparameters (resistance, inductance, backMotor design initialization and manufacturing tolerances, system faultsemf, etc.) in 1D models. These maps and/ iterationsand environmental changes or their lumped parameters are used toOnce the performance requirements have calculate the well-to-wheel vehiclebeen set, the design process begins in Design and simulation tools will be one ofefficiency, the energy efficiency, theearnest. The main objective of this step is the key enablers for overcoming theseacceleration, the vehicle range, theto obtain a single or a few design challenges. To introduce their role on thegradeability and other system levelcandidates that satisfy the performance above mentioned challenges, we considerperformance parameters. Ideally, motorcriteria obtained from system level a typical motor design V-cycle. At each steprepresentations are available at varioussimulations. During this stage the of this process the modern designer needsfidelity levels that are temperatureengineers would usually use a template-an extensive set of simulation capabilities.dependent. They are obtained from thebased software containing a large number motor design tools shown on the V-cycle.of built-in motor topologies. This enables System level simulations and sizingIn any traction motor design process, the first step is to obtain the performance requirements. This usually depends on the powertrain configuration (parallel, series, hybrid, etc.), transmission system (single, multiple speed), cooling system (liquid cooled, spray cooling, etc.), machine drive system (single-multi level inverters and converters) and the vehicle type (pure electric or hybrid). Typically, engineers carry out 1D system level simulations to obtain the torque-speed envelop of theFigure 2: System level analysis of the NISSAN LEAF vehicle including its IPM motor using required machine. This step may alsoSimcenter Amesim92'