A Practical BLDC Motor Design Procedure for Diver Propulsion Vehicle Applications

In this paper a practical approach for the design and construction of a brushless DC motor (BLDCM) for a diver propulsion vehicle (DPV) is presented. After evaluating the corresponding vehicle's characteristics, a three step process is proposed and followed. For economical reasons and rapid prototyping, an appropriate motor stator found in the market is utilized. Thus, the required B-H curve of the material is extracted experimentally in the first step, whose knowledge is necessary for the motor design phase. Secondly, considering the DPV's thrust requirements, a suitable propeller is studied, designed and selected which in turn leads to the BLDCM requirements for torque and speed. Having the stator geometry known, the outer rotor BLDCM theory is followed in the third step where, with the help of a custom developed software code, the remaining variables are calculated pertaining to the windings, rotor and permanent magnet parts. Finally, relevant results are shown by studying the motor topology using FEM.