Design and Technology Solutions for HighEfficiency High-Speed Motors

F. Luise*, A. Tessarolo**, S. Pieri*, P. Raffin*, M. Di Chiara*, F. Agnolet*, M. Scalabrin*

* Ansaldo Sistemi Industriali, Motor Generator and Drives R&D, Monfalcone, Italy ** Industrial Engineering and Information Technology Dept., University of Trieste, Italy

Abstract Over the last few decades an increasing sensitivity has been spreading towards energy saving technologies. In particular, as far as electric drives are concerned, a strong demand for high efficiency motors has been raising in many industry sectors. This paper describes the development of an innovative high-efficiency solution for highspeed motors targeted for industrial turbomachinery applications in the 500-1000 kW power range at 10000-15000 rpm. The technology presented features a slotless stator and a magnetically-levitated Halbach permanent-magnet rotor. A full-scale motor prototype is being manufactured for the assessment of the proposed technology. Design optimization techniques, based on genetic algorithms and multi-disciplinary analysis tools, have been employed in the prototype design stage to maximize motor efficiency and performance figures. A multilevel cascaded-cell converter with optimized voltage output is under parallel development for motor supply. Prototype full-power and full-speed qualification tests are planned to take place within the current year to demonstrate the effectiveness of the design and technology presented in this paper. Index Terms Design optimization, Genetic algorithms, Halbach array, Magnetic bearings, Permanent magnet motors, Slotless motors, high speed motors, Variable speed drives.

I.

INTRODUCTION

ver the last few decades a demand for improved efficiency in energy conversion systems has been steadily growing [1]. In addition to the almost-daily increase in the energy bill, fuel price and service fares, a generally strengthened sensitivity towards efficiency issues is also due to the actions taken by United Nations and European Community at a global level [2], [3]. They clearly reflect the awareness that efficiency issues are not only a technical matter, but strongly impact on worldwide social and financial balances, that non-renewable sources are limited, polluting and directly responsible for climate changes, and that the struggle for fossil fuels control is a source for conflicts and strained relations among countries. In a world scenario where energy demand increases while fossils reserves shrink, the price of energy is deemed to grow. Thus the importance of saving and rationally using energy gets more and more importance as time passes. It is a matter of fact that the electromechanical energy conversion plays a primary role in the industrial field, both in the case of electric to mechanical energy conversion (use of motors and electric drives), and in the case of mechanical to electric energy conversion (electric power generation). In other terms, a growing importance is being attached to the efficiency of electromechanical equipment, including rotating electric machinery and power electronics. The economic importance of an efficiency improvement is not uniformly spread over industrial sectors. In some industries, in fact, the use of more efficient energy conversion systems is expected to have remarkable impacts, both in terms of energy saving and in terms of increased profits. A typical example is offered by the industrial
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sectors where turbomachinery (high-speed compressors and turbines) are heavily employed on a continuous-duty basis (7 days per week, 24 hours per day). Similar applications can be found the oil & gas industry, pipelines, gas distillation plants, air blowers and turbo-expanders [4]-[9]. For these applications several high-speed electric motors rated 500 1000 kW at 10 15 krpm are needed [7]-[9]. From the above premises and according to market forecasts, a larger and larger demand will spread in the next future for electric drives with the mentioned power and speed ratings and capable of guaranteeing a significant efficiency improvement with respect to the systems currently in use (these are primarily based on induction machines and surface-permanent magnet machines, [8][13]). The predicted economic savings which may originate from reduced energy consumption are such to justify large R&D investments as well as higher market premiums for future high-efficiency drive solutions. In addition to the high-efficiency specifications, other demanding requirements are usually imposed by the final application: firstly, a high reliability level and fault tolerance features so as to prevent costly process stops due to faults or for maintenance; secondly, very low torque ripple, cogging torque and electromagnetic forces so as to avoid turbomachinery resonance issues as well as fatigue stresses. This paper presents an innovative design for high-speed electric motors conceived for maximized efficiency and optimal performance. The proposed design is being implemented in a full-scale prototype that is presently in the manufacturing stage and that is going to be tested in the next few months. Prototype design targets and methodology are outlined in the paper along with the main technologies used and the testing procedures planned for its final qualification. II. IDENTIFICATION OF TARGET PERFORMANCE FIGURES FOR
PROTOTYPE DESIGN

For the purpose of prototype design and manufacturing some target requirements were to be established in the concept design stage. The selection of target requirements took into account a variety of typical applications, for which not only the steady-state performance and ratings, but also the overload capability and dynamic specifications had to be considered. The first challenge was actually to identify not a single well-defined steady-state operating point, but rather an operating region of interest. In this perspective, the ratings reported in Table I define a basic operating point located in the center of the region identified as interesting for drive operation. In Table I, terms rated, maximum and peak are used with the following meaning: rated indicates a steady-state operating point where the drive must be capable of working indefinitely; peak refers to a shorttime overload; maximum refers to a steady-state operating point where the drive must be capable of working for a

given period of time depending on the cooling system effectiveness.

TABLE I RATED, MAXIMUM AND PEAK MOTOR PERFORMANCE DATA

Speed (rpm) Torque (N m) Power (kW) Efficiency (%)

Rated 10000 602 630 98.5

Maximum 13500 710 1000 98

Peak 15000 1500 2200 96

Thanks to magnetic levitation, the spinning rotor never touches the surrounding surfaces: the construction is totally oil-free and no part is subject to wear, which leads to getting the maximum efficiency and reliability together (Fig.1). Furthermore, important on-line monitoring and diagnostic functions are offered by state-of-the-art magnet bearings along with the possibility to correct residual rotor unbalance or unexpected thermal deformations [15]. B. Slotless stator and Halbach rotor technologies As concerns motor active parts, in the attempt to attain the superior performance and efficiency targets mentioned above, the decision was made of deviating from the standard technology for similar applications, which is based on solid-rotor induction motors and conventional surfacemounted permanent-magnet machines [7]-[13]. The technology selected was that of a permanent magnet, radial flux, slotless-stator machine with a rotor magnetized according to a Halbach array [18], to be supplied by a multilevel cascade converter (Fig. 2).

The efficiency is meant as the ratio between the mechanical power delivered to the shaft and the electric power drawn from the supply source. A further requirement is that the motor has to withstand large mechanical and thermal fatigue stresses due to cyclic and overload operation; moreover the rotor shall have a subcritical behavior in the whole speed range with an adequate separation margin with respect to the first bending critical speed [14]. An electric motor meeting the aforementioned requirements is extremely challenging from a technical viewpoint, to such a degree that its characteristics may sound quite impossible to achieve to motor designers: due to materials physical properties and technology limits, an industrial realization may appear even unfeasible. Actually, in the attempt to assess the practical feasibility of an electric motor meeting the mentioned requirements, it was decided to design the prototype using innovative technologies as discussed in the next Section. III. MAIN TECHNOLOGY SELECTION A. Rotor magnetic levitation The very preliminary analysis revealed that, in order to reach rotor dynamics stability in the whole speed range, active magnetic bearings, providing rotor magnetic levitation, were necessary [15]. In fact, the rotor diameter was subject to upper constraints due to the maximum admitted centrifugal stresses and to the need for keeping a subsonic peripheral speed. With such diameter limitations, reaching the desired torque values implied a rotor length for which, with standard passive bearings, the first bending mode would have fallen within the speed range. This could not be accepted as the rotor would have undergone serious stress while passing through the critical speed in either acceleration or deceleration. The decision was then made of equipping the prototype with three active magnetic bearings (AMBs), two providing the radial force for rotor levitation and one generating the axial thrust required by the coupled equipment.

Fig. 2. Axial motor section and flux lines produced by a Halbach rotor in the free air.

Fig. 1. Rotor critical speed map with active magnetic bearings suspension.

Since the stator core has no teeth (slotless stator [16]), the winding is composed of coils directly attached on the inner stator bore surface. Each coil includes a number of series connected turns made of litz wire [17], i.e. constituted by a bundle of twisted small-section wires connected in parallel. The use of litz-wire winding leads to minimize copper losses due to skin effects and to a possible unequal current distribution among parallel-connected conductors [17]. Such copper loss minimization is essential to achieve the targeted efficiency figures especially in presence of high-frequency voltage supply from a Pulse-Width Modulation (PMW) voltage source. The rotor features a sequence of surface-mounted Samarium-Cobalt permanent magnets having different magnetization directions so as to constitute a Halbach array [18]. Permanent magnets are retained by a high tensile strength sleeve made of carbon fiber composite to withstand centrifugal forces. Actually, the technology is not radically new, since there are common points with some high-speed flywheel energy storage systems [19]. The real challenge undertaken through the prototype realization is yet to demonstrate that such technology can be also adopted for industrial applications and implemented under the relative performance and reliability constraints. The Halbach magnetization concept (originally developed in particle physics applications) was selected for several reasons, the main being the possibility it offers of a

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deep air-gap flux injection with contained inter-pole flux leakage. This basic choice originates from the belief that combining low-amplitude armature reaction with a strong quasi-sinusoidal excitation field leads to a smooth magnetic interaction at the air-gap, resulting in reduced rotor eddy current phenomena and high transient overload capabilities [18]. It is known that an electric machine equipped with a slotless stator cannot be as power (or torque) dense as one featuring a slotted stator [18]. Actually, the benefit of using a slotless design does not relate to motor compactness but to the reduced losses, the small reactance values and the practically absent cogging torque. Low phase inductance values are especially desirable if the machine is to be operated in generating mode as an alternator connected to a rectifier system because, in this case, they lead to small terminal voltage variations with the electric load. Furthermore, a small phase reactance in a permanent magnet machine also implies a small sub-transient reactance, which is beneficial in terms of machine stability (resiliency to pole-slipping phenomena) in presence of sudden and heavy torque overloads. Finally, a small inductance means a relatively weak armature reaction field compared to permanent-magnet field, which reduces rotor demagnetization risks during overloads; the only real drawback remains related to the short circuit current limitation. Cooling technology The stator cooling system is based on a forced fluid aluminum sleeve directly embracing the stator and the end windings, which are cast and retained with a thermally conductive epoxy compound. The easiest way to cool a high-speed rotor is to use forced air convection (hydrogen would be more effective but also more expensive due to the difficulty of keeping a sealed motor frame in presence of magnetic bearings). Since the fluid friction even in the preferred slightly sub-sonic conditions accounts for an important portion of motor losses, cooling the rotor with an axial air flow inside a diminished-pressure chamber contributes to reduce friction losses, to increase efficiency and to contain rotor temperature. With a contained air flow, also the power consumption due to auxiliary fans is positively limited. The selected cooling method also allows for the magnetic bearing rotors cooling (Fig. 3). C.

qualifications, in fact, a relatively standard two-level converter, rated 690 V, will be used based on off-the-shelf components and with a maximum output frequency of 450 Hz. To reach the highest dynamic performance capabilities a two-pole magnetic resolver will provide motor control with a rotor position feedback and, in order to withstand a sudden regenerative deceleration, the converter will be equipped with an active front-end grid-side stage. A deeper insight into the power electronics and control features to be implemented for final motor supply will be possible once the actual prototype performance and characteristics will be assessed through the qualification process. Currently, the basic idea being developed for power electronics includes a 1.4 kV multilevel converter topology [20] characterized by several cascaded cells per phase, so that to achieve a quasi-sinusoidal voltage output (Fig. 4).

Fig. 4. Example of voltage and current waveforms obtained from a cascaded-cell multilevel converter.

The absence of important harmonics in the supply voltage is essential to guarantee low core and eddy current losses in the motor, to avoid the use of expensive and bulky sinusoidal filters and to achieve low torque ripple amplitudes at motor shaft [20]. IV. DESIGN THROUGH OPTIMIZATION ALGORITHMS The challenges related to the selected motor configuration are noticeable and involve the adoption of new configurations, new materials and out-of-the-standard bearings: these issues enhanced a strong need for innovative, dedicated computation techniques. The materials introduced (such as sintered ceramics, carbon compound composites) and the technical solutions worked out (such as the litz-wire winding retention, the stator and rotor cooling) have been developed, tested and qualified in cooperation with several specialized suppliers. As regards the design methodology, the extremely large number of design variables to be selected and the demanding targets to be attained led to employ a fullystochastic design optimization algorithm technique supporting multi-objective optimization [21], [22]. The use of a dedicated stochastic design optimization environment [22] made it possible to combine electromagnetic, structural, thermo-fluid and rotor-dynamics calculations together at each design iteration step. One of the main design object pursued in the optimization process was the power loss reduction; loss components taken into account for this purpose are: air friction, copper losses, core losses, AMBs losses and power supply, air-cooling fan consumption, additional losses due to the eddy currents induced in stator and rotor non-active parts, additional losses caused by the PWM supply.

Fig. 3. Air flow streamlines in a periodic angular sector of the airgap; the radial and thrust AMBs cooling air channels are on the left.

D.

Variable-frequency converter technology Presently, the focus is mainly on the motor prototype under construction. For the purpose of prototype
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Fig. 5. Block diagram for the design optimization process.

A high-level block scheme for the optimization process is depicted in Fig. 5. The central block is a combination of finite-element (FE) and analytical procedures that link the space of design variables (input data) to the space of the performance features (output data). The input data are the variables which can be adjusted throughout the optimization. At each iteration step, the optimizer uses a genetic algorithm to change the design variables so as to drive the performance figures in the direction of objective function enhancement. The process obviously considers also some constant data and constraints as inputs. Looking at the list of functions performed by the core calculation program which links input and output data, it can be seen how such program implements a multi-physics approach to the motor analysis, accounting for electrical, magnetic, mechanical, thermal, fluid-dynamic aspects, and for their interactions as well. The active magnetic bearings have been sized on the basis of the rotor characteristics maintaining a given magnetic pressure, and targeting the achievement of both the necessary stability in crossing the rigid modes and a predefined rotordynamic separation margin. In general a multi-objective optimization process requires defining the design variables (i.e. the set of quantities from the space of the variables whose values are allowed to vary throughout the process), the constraints (i.e. a set of equalities or inequalities which need to be satisfied for the design to be feasible or acceptable) and the objective functions to be minimized or maximized. Apart from a starting blind phase (the so called Design Of Experiment, DOE) in which the variables are randomly selected, the optimizer performs the weighted launch of every new set of calculations (generation) based on the trends and gradients inferred from the performance of the previous generations. Each individual (a single evaluated design configuration) whose performance is bettered by a younger one is simply dismissed but the relative gradient of variables is kept in memory for further use. In this way while the generations are renewed, the performance evolves towards the given objective and the single variables move towards the optimal design set. In particular, the optimization program which was used features a multi-objective (MO) potentiality, i.e. allowed for more than one objective function to be specified (efficiency and production cost in this instance); it is based on a genetic algorithm (GA) approach, that numerically mimics the natural selection process in the evolution of animal and

vegetal species. During the process the input variables (whose set acts as the genome in chromosomes) are changed on the basis of three main GA operators (mutation, crossover and selection) so as to improve the fitness functions. The individuals being generated throughout the optimization can be located in a Cartesian plot having the two objectives (efficiency, cost) as the two axis scales, as shown in Fig. 6. The best individuals are those located close to the Pareto frontier. This is defined as the set of individuals for which any change in the genome leading to enhance a fitting function causes the other fitting function to worsen. In this instance, the Pareto frontier is the set of motors for which a cost decrease implies a power loss increase and vice versa. Since variables and performance spaces have, in general, a dimension higher than 2, the output data analysis is not trivial and requires smart display and filtering tools; for example in Fig. 6 the explored designs are represented by bubbles. The diameter of each bubble is proportional to the winding temperature that characterizes the corresponding design, while the bubble color indicates at what point of the optimization process the relevant design has been generated (blue bubbles indicate designs generated at the beginning of the optimization while red bubbles indicate designs generated at the end of it). Furthermore, a vertical dashed lines separates the designs into two regions characterized by efficiency values respectively higher or lower than 98.2%

Fig. 6. Example of bubble diagram representing some of the explored designs in the objective function space.

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(selected as the minimum acceptable value). The design representation through bubbles of different colors and sizes enables one to observe that the evolutionary trend throughout the optimization process is to generate individuals located closer and closer to the Pareto frontier portion, with increasingly higher efficiency and increasingly lower winding temperature. To select the most suitable design for the prototype to be manufactured, the choice had to be made among dozens of designs included in the Pareto frontier. To simplify this

Fig. 9. Magnetic core insertion in the aluminum enclosure.

Fig. 7. Example of parallel coordinates diagram representing the designs included in the Pareto frontier.

In this diagram, design variable and objective function values are reported along vertical coordinate axes. Each design is then represented as the set of segments connecting the design variable and objective function values that characterize that particular design. In this diagram, a range of interest can be fixed by the designer along each vertical scale so that only the designs whose segments intersect such ranges are displayed. This enables to refine the search for optimal design configuration by considering only those designs which satisfy some given conditions in terms of design variable and objective function ranges. For example just limiting the minimum efficiency to 98.2% or the maximum windings temperature to 130C, a large number of designs (>80%) become unfeasible and disappears, thus simplifying the selection. As a result of this process, the final design is similar to the blue line reported in Fig. 7. V. PROTOTYPE MANUFACTURING AND QUALIFICATION

The prototype qualification will be performed on a dedicated test bench, a sketch of which is provided in Fig. 10. Moving from the left to the right, Fig. 10 illustrates the motor under test, the torque-meter (little blue box), the gear-box and the DC generator that will be used as a load (2 MW, 1600 rpm). The generator terminals will be connected to an external resistor bank.

Fig.10. Sketch of the bench being prepared for the prototype qualification.

The prototype is presently in the manufacturing stage. A picture of a ready-for-assembly circumferential Halbach magnetized array is provided in Fig. 8. Similar arrays will be mounted along the axial direction so as to cover the whole rotor surface (the axial segmentation and nonconductive coating of permanent magnet allows for rotor eddy-current loss reduction).

The described test-bench will allow a prototype test operation up to 14000 rpm speed and 900kW power with steep load variations. The measurements devices which will be used to monitor the motor input (electrical) power and its output (mechanical) power allow for an absolute error lower than 700W both on the mechanical and on the electrical side. This will provide sufficient accuracy for a reliable direct measurement of motor losses (and efficiency). A set of sensors will allow on-line temperature monitoring of both the stator and the rotor active parts for a comprehensive temperature field insight. VI. ESTIMATION OF DRIVE POTENTIAL The prototype is specifically intended to assess the electromechanical power conversion efficiency which can be achieved with the described motor technology. Motor testing will provide insight into all the physical phenomena which are somehow difficult to control even by means of computational techniques due to their interdisciplinary, nonlinear and three-dimensional nature. However, analyses and calculations (to be confirmed by experimental results) lead to expect that the motor will be intrinsically flexible and adaptable to wide power and speed regions: at the expense of a slight efficiency reduction, it should in fact be possible to extend the power capability

Fig. 8. Self-sustaining SmCo Halbach magnet ring ready for being mounted on the prototype rotor shaft.

The heath-shrink insertion of the stator core inside the fluid-run enclosure is visible in Fig. 9.
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range. One promising applications which can be predicted at this stage regard direct-drive turbo-expander machinery. After prototype detailed design completion, the optimization design tools implemented for its design (Fig. 5) could be effectively employed to explore the limits and potentials of the chosen motor technology, based on a slotless stator and magnetically suspended Halbach rotor. Some preliminary results of such analysis are shown in Fig. 11, which illustrates the speed and power ranges which can be covered with a 4-pole slotless Halbach motor along with the relevant efficiency values. In the figure, the highest efficiency value is 98.7% (red region) and lowest value is about 97.0% (light blue region).

[6]

[7]

[8] [9]

[10] [11] [12] [13]

[14]

[15] Fig.11. Provisional power-to-speed capability of 4-pole slotless Halbach motor configurations with AMBs.

VII.

CONCLUSION

[16]

In this paper the development of a special technology and design solution for high speed motors has been described, assuming a target power of 500 1000 kW and a target speed of 10000 15000 rpm as the main requirements. In addition to power and speed requirements, a key feature being pursued is constituted by a very significant increase in motor efficiency (target efficiency values being around 98.5%). Also dynamic performances in terms of overload capabilities, resiliency to sudden load variations and rotordynamics stability have been taken into account. The technology selected features a slotless stator and a magnetically-levitated Halbach rotor. This solution is presently adopted in flywheel energy storage systems and the challenge undertaken is to prove its suitability for special industrial applications too. A full-scale prototype is presently under construction and will be tested in the next months. Qualification results will be reported in forthcoming papers to assess and review the design choices and the presented calculation techniques. VIII.
[1] [2] [3] [4]

[17]

[18]

[19]

[20] [21] [22]

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REFERENCES
Fabio Luise received his Laurea Degree and Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering in 1999 and 2003, respectively, from the University of Padova, Italy. He joined Ansaldo Sistemi Industriali Motors and Generators Business Unit in 2004 as a permanent-magnet machine designer. Since 2008 he is responsible for the Innovative Projects office: together with his team of specialists he is involved in the design and development of special electric machinery for a variety of applications, from high-speed motors to large low-speed high-torque generators. Alberto Tessarolo (M06) received his Laurea Degree and Ph.D. Degree in Electrical Engineering from the University of Trieste, Italy, in 2000 and from the University of Padova, Italy, in 2011, respectively. Until 2006, he worked in the design and development of large electric machines for high power applications with Ansaldo Sistemi Industriali Motors and Generators Business Unit. Presently, he is with the Industrial Engineering and Information

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F. Parasiliti, P. Bertoldi, Energy efficiency in motor driven systems, Springer, 2003. (2001, Dec.) Annual energy outlook 2002 with projections to 2020. Energy Inf. Admin. (EIA), U.S. Dept. Energy. [Online]. Available: http://www.eia.doe.gov/oiaf/archive/aeo02/pdf/0383(2002).pdf. (2002, Nov.) Annual Energy Review 2001. Energy Inf. Admin. (EIA), U.S. Dept. Energy. [Online]. Available: http://tonto.eia.doe. gov/FTPROOT/multifuel/038401.pdf. (2001, May) US natural gas markets: Recent trends and prospects for the future. Energy Inf. Admin. (EIA), U.S. Dept. Energy, Washington, DC. [Online]. Available: http://www.eia.doe.gov/oiaf/ servicerpt/naturalgas/pdf/oiaf00102.pdf. J. A. Oliver and M. J. Samotyj, Electrification of natural gas pipelineA great opportunity for two capital intensive industries,

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Technology Department of the University of Trieste, Italy, where he teaches the course of Electric Machine Design. His main interests are in the area of electric machine modeling and design. Stefano Pieri received his Laurea Degree in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Trieste in 2003 and his Ph.D. in 2006 from the University of Bologna, Italy. Until 2008 he worked as a CFD analyst in Danieli Research Center, then in 2009 he joined Ansaldo Sistemi Industriali Innovative Projects team as a fluid-dynamics and genetic algorithm expert. He is involved in the design of special retaining and cooling systems, and in the application of numerical optimization techniques. Piero Raffin received his Laurea Degree (w. honors) in Electrical Engineering in 2008 from the University of Trieste. He worked in Wrtsil marine engine automation and control systems before joining Ansaldo Sistemi Industriali Innovative Projects team, where he served as an electro-magnetic designer and software tools developer till 2012. Presently he is with Electrolux-Italy.

Massimiliano Di Chiara received his Laurea Degree in Mechanical Engineering (w. honors) from the Marche Polytechnic in 2010, Italy. He directly joined Ansaldo Sistemi Industriali Innovative Projects team as a rotordynamic and structural engineer. He is involved in the development of composites retaining systems and active magnetic bearings solutions. Freddie Agnolet received his Laurea Degree in Electrical Engineering (w. honors) in 2010 from the University of Trieste, Italy. He directly joined Ansaldo Sistemi Industriali Innovative Projects team; as an electro-magnetic and circuit analyst he is involved in software tools developing. Maurizio Scalabrin received his Laurea Degree in Electrical Engineering in 1998, from the University of Padova, Italy. He has been a free-lance consultant in the field of permanent magnet motors mechanical design for over 10 years. He joined Ansaldo Sistemi Industriali Innovative Projects team in 2011 as a special machines mechanical designer.

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