Comparative Review and Finite Element Analysis of Energy Efficient Motors

Abstract

Electric machines and drives are being utilized extensively in the transportation sector. Moreover, Due to resource scarcity and environmental costs, the cost of power generation has been increasing over the past few decades. Electric motors use a significant portion of the electric energy used in industry, and conventional motors are designed for costeffectiveness and longevity, not energy efficiency. Therefore, the design and development of motors with increased energy efficiency are gaining worldwide attention. These new motors can provide the same output power with compact size and reduced losses. They are designed with rare/ expensive materials, higher copper in the windings, optimized air gap, and reduced fan losses. The energy-efficient motor drives will likely remain limited to specialized applications where high efficiency and reliability are demanded. Usually, in these applications, motor drives are supplied from onboard batteries, like in electric/hybrid vehicles, ship propulsion, electric air-crafts, and so on. The research has been ongoing for the last decades to investigate and analyze various issues concerning the design, development, and use of energy-efficient machines as a replacement to the conventional three-phase machine. This paper, therefore, classifies the specialized motors based on their energy efficiency as per International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC) standards. The advantages and disadvantages of machines with different flux orientations are highlighted. A comparative analysis is also presented for available energy-efficient motors, including Permanent Magnet Synchronous Motors (IPM and SPM type), BLDC motor, Switched Reluctance motor, and Synchronous Reluctance motor. The design and simulations are carried out using Ansys Maxwell software.