Brushless traction PM machines using commercial drive technology, Part I: Design methodology and motor design

A concept design approach for the brushless PM traction motor, which has crucial constraints on volume envelope and on the drive, is presented. The considered motor drive is the three-phase DC/AC converter, which is commercially available on the modern market of the standard variable frequency drives. The features of the motor design procedure, which are imposed by the peculiarities of an automotive application and commercial drive technology, are given. The developed concept design procedure is applied to design of an 80-kW in-wheel hub motor of the hybrid truck that achieves wide constant power speed range. In this paper, which is one of the series of two, the description of the basic design steps and the concept design on the example of the surface-mounted PM (SPM) motor with concentrated armature winding are presented. The concept design of the motor includes electromagnetic, thermal and hydraulic analyses, which are conducted to define the motor performances and thermal conditions.