Rotor Design Optimization of Squirrel Cage Induction Motor - Part I: Problem Statement

Marfoli, Alessandro; Di Nardo, Mauro; Degano, Michele; Gerada, Chris; Chen, Wenliang

Abstract

Squirrel cage induction motor is the most widely adopted electrical machine in applications directly fed by the main grid. The analysis, design and optimization of this machine topology has been addressed by a considerable amount of literature over the last century. Although its wide adoption, the induction motor design, especially when carried out in an automatic fashion, still presents significant challenges because the accurate prediction of the performance requires time-consuming finite element analysis. This work proposes a systematic approach to perform the design optimization of a squirrel cage induction motor focusing on the rotor slot geometry, being this the major player in defining the torque-speed characteristic. Structured as a two-parts companion papers, this first part presents an innovative performance evaluation methodology which allows a very fast estimation of the torque and efficiency behaviour preserving the results' accuracy. The proposed performance estimation technique is assessed against experimental tests carried out on an off-the-shelf induction motor. The selection of the performance indexes to be optimized is justified in detail along with the description of a generalized rotor parametrization which allows a comprehensive exploration of the research space.

Citation

Marfoli, A., Di Nardo, M., Degano, M., Gerada, C., & Chen, W. (2021). Rotor Design Optimization of Squirrel Cage Induction Motor - Part I: Problem Statement. IEEE Transactions on Energy Conversion, 36(2), 1271-1279. https://doi.org/10.1109/tec.2020.3019934

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Acceptance Date: Jul 29, 2020
• Online Publication Date: Aug 7, 2020
• Publication Date: 2021-06
• Deposit Date: Dec 17, 2020
• Publicly Available Date: Jan 14, 2021
• Journal: IEEE Transactions on Energy Conversion
• Print ISSN: 0885-8969
• Electronic ISSN: 1558-0059
• Publisher: Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 36
• Issue: 2
• Pages: 1271-1279
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1109/tec.2020.3019934
• Keywords: Electrical and Electronic Engineering; Energy Engineering and Power Technology
• Public URL: https://nottingham-repository.worktribe.com/output/5154652
• Publisher URL: https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/9178995
• Additional Information: © 2020 IEEE. Personal use of this material is permitted. Permission from IEEE must be obtained for all other uses, in any current or future media, including reprinting/republishing this material for advertising or promotional purposes, creating new collective works, for resale or redistribution to servers or lists, or reuse of any copyrighted component of this work in other works.