International Journal of Emerging Technology and Advanced Engineering

Website: www.ijetae.com (ISSN 2250-2459, ISO 9001:2008 Certified Journal, Volume 4, Issue 1, January 2014)

Design of 3-Phase BLDC Motor for Electric Vehicle

Application by Using Finite Element Simulation.
Nishtha Shrivastava1, Anil Brahmin2
1
M.E. Electrical Department, Shri Shankaracharya Technical Campus, SSGI, Bhilai.
2
Associate Professor, HOD, Electrical Department, Shri Shankaracharya Technical Campus, SSGI, Bhilai.
Abstract— This paper presents the design and simulation of Hub drive offers some useful properties. In addition to
3-phase double layer coil BLDC motor for Hybrid (HEV) and general advantages of EVs over conventional vehicles like
Electric Vehicles (EV) using ANSYS software. Two 15 kW regenerative braking, being silent and pollution free, the
brushless dc machines (BLDC) which is located inside the rim hub wheel drive has some additional merits such as;
of the wheels (hub drive system) are designed to produce
improved maneuver capability, improved road handling,
rated torque and power to drive Electric Vehicles. Two
configuration of BLDC motor based on different number of higher stability control, redundancy to ICE, and torque top
slots and poles combination are simulated and compared for up capability when vehicle is under HEV modes of
producing optimum rated torque. 2D FE static magnetic operation. This paper presents the design and 2D finite
analysis is carried out using ANSYS/Emag. Distribution of element static magnetic analysis of BLDC motor for a hub
electromagnetic field in BLDC motor is also analyzed using drive system using ANSYS/Emag.
ANSYS/Emag.
II. FINITE ELEMENT METHOD
Keywords— BLDC motor, Permanent Magnet (PM),
ANSYS Electromagnetic(Emag), Electric Vehicle(EV) The finite element formulations used in ANSYS
electromagnetic analyses are derived from Maxwell’s
I. INTRODUCTION equations for electromagnetic fields. 2D Finite Element
Method (FEM) begins by dividing the domain area in finite
Electric cars have several benefits over conventional
elements (Triangular or quadrilateral). The finite element
internal combustion engine automobiles, including a
formulation for 2D static analysis is:
significant reduction of local air pollution, reduced
greenhouse gas emissions from the onboard source of [K]{DU}k = {R} - {F}
power, depending on the fuel and technology used for {U}k+1 = {U}k + {DU}
electricity generation to charge the batteries and less
dependence on foreign oil. The governments have started to Where: [K] coefficient matrix,{U} nodal potential
provide more incentives and, private companies have vector, {DU}incremental nodal potential vector, {R}
concentrated on electric vehicle development projects [1]. applied load vector (current, voltage, or permanent
It is seen that, main attention was focused on series and magnets), {F} residual load vector, k iteration number.
parallel hybrid drives. Recently however, plug-in hybrids Two-dimensional magneto static field problems are
(PHEV) and all electric vehicles (EV) seem receiving more solved by minimizing a nonlinear magnetic energy
attention. In all front wheel driven types, mechanical functional containing a vector potential (U = Az), resulting
differentials are used for rear wheels similar to in a set of simultaneous equations.
conventional Internal Combustion Engine (ICE) driven The finite elements method in ANSYS assures sufficient
vehicles. Driving each wheel separately by direct drive accuracy of electromagnetic field computation and very
electric motors without any differential has not been widely good flexibility when geometry is modeled and field
adopted. Mainly because of the difficulties of designing an sources are loaded. This tool includes three stages:
electric machine inside the rim and angular speed preprocessor, solver and postprocessor. The procedure for
limitations governed by vehicle wheels. Only few carrying out a static magnetic analysis consists of following
prototypes have been developed and few studies have been main steps: create the physics environment, build and mesh
published so far about hub-wheel driven HEVs and EVs [1, the model and assign physics attributes to each region
2, and 3]. within the model, apply boundary conditions and loads
In hub drive system, rear wheels are replaced by hub (excitation), obtain the solution, and review the results.
electric driven wheels powered by brushless dc motor
(BLDC) located inside the rim of the wheels.

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 International Journal of Emerging Technology and Advanced Engineering
Website: www.ijetae.com (ISSN 2250-2459, ISO 9001:2008 Certified Journal, Volume 4, Issue 1, January 2014)
A motor designed for EV can be classified as direct
drive or indirect drive [6,7]. Direct drive excludes
transmission gears and mechanical differential including
the associated energy losses. An outer rotor configuration is
selected so that it can be coupled directly to the wheel hub.
The outer rotor design maximizes the shear force required
at the air-gap for a given torque. The motor is mounted
inside vehicle wheel rim and turns the wheel directly, so it
must be compact and have high torque [8].The
Fig-1 Finite element meshing, flux lines and B for SMPM machine.
specification of motor drive for electric vehicle is shown in
Table 1.
III. MATHEMATICAL FORMULATION
Finite Element Method is used to solve electromagnetic
field problems using Variational Calculus of Poisson’s type
from basic Magneto Static Maxwell equations. The
equations relate magnetic vector potential A, magnetic flux
density B and magnetic field intensity H to obtain the
Poisson’s equation. Maxwell’s equations are a set of
differential equations used to describe the properties of
electric and magnetic fields. The governing equation of the
magnetic field is represented by Maxwell’s equation in the
form of a magnetic vector potential as
Fig.2 Direct drive BLDC motor in the wheel rim and motor-generator
setup
TABLE 1
SPECIFICATION FOR THE IN-WHEEL MOTOR DRIVE.
Initially it is assumed no displacement of D=0
S.No. Parameter Value

1 Rated Power 15 KW
From Gauss Law for magnetism
2 Rated voltage 300 V
Where, B is magnetic flux density
The quantities B and H can be related as follows 3 Rated Torque 135 Nm

B=µH 4 Rotor Type Outer

Where, µ is magnetic permeability.
5 Torque constant 2.62 Nm/A
For non-linear materials, the permeability is a function
of B: µ= 6 Voltage constant 2.62 Nm/A

The Magnetic Flux density can also be expressed in 7 No load speed 1320 rpm
terms of magnetic vector potential (A) as
B= ×A 8 Rated speed 1070 rpm

Where, A is magnetic vector potential [2]. 9 Efficiency 94.3%

IV. DESIGN SPECIFICATION OF PMBLDC MOTOR 10 No. of Phases 3

In hub drive system the exterior rotor (ER) configuration

is implemented [1]. The motor is embedded into the wheel
rim of EV as shown in fig. 2.
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 International Journal of Emerging Technology and Advanced Engineering
Website: www.ijetae.com (ISSN 2250-2459, ISO 9001:2008 Certified Journal, Volume 4, Issue 1, January 2014)
V. DESIGN OF BLDC MOTOR Winding Layout
The parameters selected for the design of BLDC motor Fractional slot winding is used. Layout of double layer
for above specification of hub drive system in electric lap winding is given in table-3.
vehicle are shown in Table 2. TABLE 3
TABLE 2 WINDING LAYOUT FOR 36 SLOTS 3 PHASE BLDC MOTOR

S.No. Parameter Value Slots 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9

1 Outer diameter of the rotor core [mm] 406.4 Angle 0 80 160 240 320 400 480 560 640

2 Inner diameter of the rotor core [mm] 361 Phase R B’ Y B Y’ R Y R’ B

3 Outer diameter of the stator core [mm] 359 R B’ R’ B Y’ B’ Y R’ Y’

4 Inner diameter of the stator core [mm] 251

VI. MOTOR DESIGN EQUATION
5 Magnet thickness [mm] 8 T= (Nph-1) Kw Nt D L Bg i
E= ( Nph-1) Kw Nt D L Bg ω
6 Air gap [mm] 1
Where, T=Torque ,Nm, E=Emf, Nph = No. of phases,
7 Length of motor [mm] 178
Kw=winding factor, Nt = No.of turns, D= Diameter of rotor,
L=Length of motor, i=Current magnitude, ω= Rotational
speed, Bg= Magnetic flux density.
The motor is designed for 205/55 R 16 wheels, mostly
used in vehicles. Thus outer diameter is fixed. The air gap VII. ANALYSIS AND SIMULATION OF ERPMBLDC
is chosen in such a way that the machine works reliable MOTOR USING ANSYS/EMAG
under common operating conditions in every operating
point. NdFeB are used as permanent magnet materials, A. Pre-Processing
which is mainly made of Neodymium Iron and Boron, with 2D geometric model is generated as shown in fig 3 as
excellent Energy Product and high Coercive Force. per the specified geometric dimension of BLDC motor
The choice of the number of poles depends upon many mentioned in table 2. 8 noded 2D element (PLANE 53) is
factors, some of which are as follows: used to create fine mesh for the region defined by stator,
1) Magnet material and grade. rotor, magnets, coils and air as shown in fig. 4 and
2) Interior-rotor vs. exterior-rotor vs. axial-gap rotor. corresponding materials properties (permeability and
3) Mechanical assembly of the rotor and magnets. coercitivity ) are assigned to the elements.
4) Speed of rotation.
5) Inertia requirements.
If a rotor is to be designed using embedded slab
magnets, there are several possible configurations. All the
possible pole-numbers which will operate with stator
laminations having slot-numbers from 3 to 48, for
2,3,4,5,and 6 phases has been explored in detail by T.J.E.
Miller [10], that have been generated with the aid of a
special computer program. Based on this guideline, the
stator and rotor pole combinations are taken for 36 number Fig-3 2D geometry model of 36S/16P BLDC motor
of slots, two configurations are selected, one with 24
number of poles and other with 16 number of poles. B. Processing
Electromagnetic torque is evaluated for both the Flux parallel boundary condition is applied to outer
configuration using Maxwell’s stress tensor approach in nodes of the rotor. Excitation (current density load) is
ANSYS. 2D static magnetic analysis is carried and the applied to the coil as per winding layout configuration.
results are compared. Solution is obtained by using ANSYS/Emag solver.
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 International Journal of Emerging Technology and Advanced Engineering
Website: www.ijetae.com (ISSN 2250-2459, ISO 9001:2008 Certified Journal, Volume 4, Issue 1, January 2014)
C. Post Processing
The electromagnetic flux distribution and the flux
density is plotted and analysed at each elements and nodes
as shown in fig 5. Torque on rotor is evaluated using
Maxwell stress tensor approach for each incremental
rotation of 30 degree and shown in fig. 5.
Simulation of BLDC motor is carried for the two
configuration and results are shown below.

VIII. SIMULATION RESULT OF CONFIGURATION I- BLDC

MOTOR WITH 36S/24P Fig-6 Graph between Torque (Nm) and rotation angle (degree) for
BLDC motor with the combination of 36 slots and 24 36S/24P BLDC motor
numbers of poles is simulated and output is shown in fig-5
& 6. Figure 4 shows the model with 2d mesh elements. IX. SIMULATION RESULT OF CONFIGURATION II- BLDC
Figure 5 shows the flux distribution in BLDC motor. When MOTOR WITH 36S/16P
the motor is turned on, i.e. stator coils are excited and the Fig-7 shows the model with 2d mesh elements. Fig-8
rotor is mechanically rotated, a holding-torque curve is shows the flux pattern for 16 number of poles. Fig-9 shows
produced as shown in fig 6. In first step phase R is turned absolute magnetic flux density variation in Air gap. A
off, keeping other phases excited. The holding torque (Nm) closed circular path is created between air-gap and graph of
curve is plotted by rotating the rotor by varying the angles flux density is plotted on the path. 0.8T flux density is
from 00- 3600 in step of 300. Similar curve is obtained for observed as shown in Fig-9.
other two phases also and combined graph is shown in
Fig-6.

Fig-7 2D Mesh elements of 36S/16 P BLDC motor

Fig-4 2D Mesh elements of 36S/24P BLDC motor

Fig-8 Electromagnetic Flux distribution in 36S/16P BLDC motor

Fig-5 Electromagnetic Flux distribution in 36S/24P BLDC motor

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 International Journal of Emerging Technology and Advanced Engineering
Website: www.ijetae.com (ISSN 2250-2459, ISO 9001:2008 Certified Journal, Volume 4, Issue 1, January 2014)

Fig-13 Combined Graph between Torque (Nm) and rotation angle

(degree) for 36S/16P BLDC motor
Fig-9 Flux density distribution in air gap

Holding-torque evaluated by turning off one phase and X. CONCLUSION

keeping other phases excited are plotted in Fig-10 to 12. Finite element simulation of 3 phase BLDC motor for
and combined graph is shown in Fig-13. electric vehicle applications is carried out using ANSYS
for the two configurations of 36S/24P and 36S/16P. It is
observed from the above graphs that the rated torque
requirement is achieved from configuration- II (36S/16P) .
With reduced number of poles high speed of rotation can
be easily achieved.
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Website: www.ijetae.com (ISSN 2250-2459, ISO 9001:2008 Certified Journal, Volume 4, Issue 1, January 2014)
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