Design considerations in induction motors for ship thruster propulsion

This paper proposes a shape optimization procedure to design a three phase squirrel cage induction motor. For the purposes of the analysis, on a first step, preliminary motor design using classical analytical techniques is employed. On a second step, the parameterization of the design and extended sensitivity analysis of the stator and rotor geometrical parameters using Finite Element (FE) models is performed. Finally, the calculation of the per-phase equivalent circuit of variable parameters, incorporating the results of the FE model, enables the comparison of the results produced by the two methods. The procedure is applied to the design of an induction motor for ship thruster propulsion.