TY - GEN
T1 - Solid High-Speed Synchronous Reluctance Rotor Enabled by Multi-Material Additive Manufacturing
AU - Newman, Dante
AU - Faue, Patrick
AU - Nishanth, F. N.U.
AU - Rankouhi, Behzad
AU - Pfefferkorn, Frank E.
AU - Thoma, Dan J.
AU - Severson, Eric
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© 2023 IEEE.
PY - 2023
Y1 - 2023
N2 - Synchronous reluctance (SynR) motor technology is promising to realize rare-earth material-free electric machines. However, structural challenges limit operation speed and subsequently power density compared to machines with rare-earth permanent magnets. This paper proposes and investigates multi-material additive manufacturing (MMAM) as a key-enabler to realize power-dense SynR machines. It does so by guiding magnetic flux through a solid rotor component by selective placement of magnetic and non-magnetic materials to enable high-speed operation. To validate this concept, samples are manufactured using a MMAM process and experimentally characterized to assess the structural and magnetic properties that can be expected for the proposed rotors. The data is then used in a multi-physics modeling framework to explore the design space of new MMAM rotor concepts. The simulated results in this paper reveal that MMAM technology can enable a 4x increase in rotor speed, resulting in 400 % power density improvements. The MMAM rotors achieved tip speeds of approximately 300 m/s and rotational speeds over 55 kRPM at comparable efficiencies to conventional designs, despite the presence of existing MMAM geometry restrictions. This study ultimately demonstrates that MMAM technology has the potential to enhance SynR machine operation speed and power density, making it a valuable option for high-performance applications.
AB - Synchronous reluctance (SynR) motor technology is promising to realize rare-earth material-free electric machines. However, structural challenges limit operation speed and subsequently power density compared to machines with rare-earth permanent magnets. This paper proposes and investigates multi-material additive manufacturing (MMAM) as a key-enabler to realize power-dense SynR machines. It does so by guiding magnetic flux through a solid rotor component by selective placement of magnetic and non-magnetic materials to enable high-speed operation. To validate this concept, samples are manufactured using a MMAM process and experimentally characterized to assess the structural and magnetic properties that can be expected for the proposed rotors. The data is then used in a multi-physics modeling framework to explore the design space of new MMAM rotor concepts. The simulated results in this paper reveal that MMAM technology can enable a 4x increase in rotor speed, resulting in 400 % power density improvements. The MMAM rotors achieved tip speeds of approximately 300 m/s and rotational speeds over 55 kRPM at comparable efficiencies to conventional designs, despite the presence of existing MMAM geometry restrictions. This study ultimately demonstrates that MMAM technology has the potential to enhance SynR machine operation speed and power density, making it a valuable option for high-performance applications.
KW - 3D printed electric machines
KW - additive manufacturing
KW - multi-material additive manufacturing
KW - optimization
KW - power density
KW - synchronous reluctance
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85182919296&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1109/ECCE53617.2023.10362787
DO - 10.1109/ECCE53617.2023.10362787
M3 - Conference contribution
AN - SCOPUS:85182919296
T3 - 2023 IEEE Energy Conversion Congress and Exposition, ECCE 2023
SP - 3965
EP - 3972
BT - 2023 IEEE Energy Conversion Congress and Exposition, ECCE 2023
PB - Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers Inc.
T2 - 2023 IEEE Energy Conversion Congress and Exposition, ECCE 2023
Y2 - 29 October 2023 through 2 November 2023
ER -
