UNSW creates world’s fastest electric motor
Scalable design and components could be ready for EV applications in less than a yearA team of engineers from the University of New South Wales (UNSW) has created what is claimed to be the world’s fastest interior permanent magnet synchronous motor (IPMSM), which it says has the potential to increase the range of electric vehicles.
Capable of spinning at up to 100,000rpm, the prototype motor has a significantly higher power density than existing electric motors, which allows for a smaller unit that can therefore reduce the weight of the EV and extend its range.
“Every EV manufacturer is trying to develop high-speed motors and the reason is that the nature of the law of physics then allows you to shrink the size of that machine,” said project head Dr Guoyu Chu.
“And with a smaller machine, it weighs less and consumes less energy and therefore that gives the vehicle a longer range.
“With this research project we have tried to achieve the absolute maximum speed, and we have recorded over 100,000 revolutions per minute and the peak power density is around 7kW per kilogram.”
Chu added it would only take between six and 12 months to modify the new motor to an EV manufacturer’s specification with the team’s artificial intelligence-based machine design software determining the best design or configuration for the inputted speed or power density requirements.
Not only is the prototype more powerful and efficient than existing designs, it’s also more cost effective and sustainable on account of it only needing around 30 per cent of the rare earth materials.
There’s also said to be lower manufacturing costs as well.
“Most high-speed motors use a sleeve to strengthen the rotors and that sleeve is usually made of high-cost material such as titanium or carbon-fibre,” said Chu.
“The sleeve itself is very expensive and also needs to be precisely fitted and that increases the manufacturing cost of the motor.
“Our rotors have very good mechanical robustness, so we don’t need that sleeve.”
More than just a drive motor, the scalable nature of the prototype also lends itself to other applications, including air-conditioning compressors, precision CNC machines and as the integrated drive generators within aircraft engines.
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