Advanced Electrical Machines for Electric Vehicle and Aerospace Applications

The electrification of transportation plays a key role to achieve net-zero emission goals. This requires high-performance sustainable electric machines. There has not been a clear study to design high-performance EMs while minimizing their carbon footprint. In recent years, employing new materials like carbon nanotubes (CNTs), and soft magnetic composites in electrical machines has been studied. This research presents a study on future opportunities and challenges in the electrical machine industry employing new materials in EM designs. A commercial 1-kW, 4-pole, 3-phase surface permanent magnet motor is selected as a case study of the effect of replacing laminated steels with SMC, and copper with CNT yarns. The benchmark motor is experimentally tested to verify the finite-element method model. The benchmark motor is optimized to compare the optimum design performance with the designs using new materials. The results show that employing new materials resulted in higher power density designs and with sufficiently high CNT conductivity, can achieve comparable efficiency.