A W H I T E P A P E R F R O M A N S Y S , I N C .

Overcoming the Challenges of Hybrid/Electric

Vehicle Traction Motor Design
By Zhangjun (Zed) Tang, Ph.D.
Lead Engineer, ANSYS, Inc.

Hybrid electric vehicles (HEVs) and electric vehicles (EVs) have been rapidly gaining traction in the global
automobile market by providing high fuel efficiency and near-zero emissions at increasingly affordable prices.
Many automobile original-equipment manufacturers (OEMs) are working on new HEV and EV designs; one
of their greatest challenges is designing traction motors, which, in most cases, are interior permanent magnet
(IPM) synchronous machines. Minimizing electrical and magnetic losses is critical to deliver maximum range
and fuel efficiency to consumers. At the same time, engineers need to consider structural, thermal and
electromagnetic issues that play a crucial role in vehicle performance, reliability and cost.

OEMs face the challenge of solving these issues quickly

to squeeze through tight market windows in the rapidly
evolving HEV and EV markets. Integrated multiphysics
simulation technology helps to address these challenges by
enabling engineers to rapidly evaluate — prior to physical
prototyping — functionality, performance and cost of a wide
range of design alternatives. This approach makes it possible
to optimize traction motor design performance in a fraction of
the time and cost required by traditional design methodology.
By leveraging advanced state-of-the-art simulation, automotive
organizations can gain a significant competitive advantage in
the race to replace conventional powertrain technology.

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 BACKGROUND
Automotive OEMs are engaged in a global contest to

I
build mass-market HEVs and EVs. A number of key
technological advantages make these vehicles
attractive to auto customers; these same factors are n the past, R&D teams
enabling manufacturers to resolve a variety of
sometimes-competing demands, from government
regulations to eco-friendliness to affordability —
regularly spent 10 to 15
with the end result penetration in a wide range of
automotive markets. years developing a new
First, electric motors are highly efficient; in HEVs and
EVs, they convert 75 percent of the energy contained
ICE powertrain, but
in their power sources — batteries, ultra-capacitors
and fuel cells — into tractive power for the wheels. today’s consumers and
In comparison, internal combustion engines (ICEs)
convert only 20 percent of the energy stored in the
gas tank into tractive power. The rest is lost in various regulators are pushing
mechanical and electrical losses.
the global automotive
Secondly, EVs emit no tailpipe pollutants. Moreover,
renewable energy power plants that are targeted to
provide the bulk of energy for EVs — such as nuclear, industry to develop
hydro, solar and wind-powered plants — do not
generate significant pollutant emissions either.
HEVs and EVs within a
Third, electric motors generally offer faster
acceleration and quieter operation than similar-sized much shorter time frame.
IC engines. EVs provide better handling and
passenger comfort. Meanwhile, technological
advancements in areas such as material science and
nanotechnology are reducing vehicle cost and weight
and increasing the life of batteries, thus making HEVs
and EVs more affordable.

The basic design of the electric motor has not changed since it was invented almost two centuries ago. But EV
and HEV traction motors have some special requirements that set them apart from conventional electric motors.
For decades, automotive OEMs have invested relatively little to address these special requirements because the
ICE was so widely used and accepted. Today, with the interest in new traction motor design, there is a surge in
R&D activities in this area.

DESIGN CHALLENGES
The electric motor design determines how much electrical energy (which the battery provides) is transformed
into physical energy used to turn the wheels of the vehicle. Therefore, maximizing efficiency is one of the most
important challenges in motor design. Minimizing electrical magnetic losses is critical, since any loss leads
directly to shortened battery run time. The loss also generates heat, which must be removed from critical
components — possibly resulting in further energy losses, via fans and cooling flow modifications. Copper
loss and lamination core losses must be determined at a wide range of operating conditions, such as speed
and current.

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 The traction motor must also recharge the battery during
operation — via regenerative braking — as well as when the

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battery is low. Motor efficiency is critical to this role as well.
Any losses mean that energy captured from the decelerating
vehicle is not fully absorbed into the battery. aximizing
Reliability is a crucial selling point for automobile customers;
it is also a critical element in controlling warranty costs and
efficiency is one of
brand image. Traction motors must operate consistently under
a number of extremes: hot and cold temperatures, severe the most important
vibrations, hard-duty cycles and rough road conditions. In an
HEV, the traction motor is exposed to high temperatures
produced under the hood. These and many other variables
challenges in
must be addressed during the motor design process.
motor design.
At present, the majority of traction motors used in HEV/EV
applications are IPM synchronous machines. A number of
other machine types can be considered — induction machines
(IMs) and switched-reluctance machines (SRMs), for example. Although these have been in use for many years,
they must be redesigned to provide optimal performance in HEV and EV applications.

In traditional motor development, such as a three-phase induction machine or DC brush, new designs can be
created simply by scaling existing designs up or down and using the same (or similar) controller and power
electronics. But traction motor design is much more challenging because of the many unknowns, uncertainties
and new procedures to consider:
• Should you use an IPM, IM or SRM design?
• If you choose an IPM design, where do you position the magnets, and how many do you need per pole?
• What design configuration will generate enough torque and speed but as little torque ripple as possible?
• How do you configure the motor to provide the best combination of PM torque and reluctance torque?
• Should the stator have a solid or stranded winding design?
• Should the windings be concentrated or distributed?
• Should you use single- or double-layer rotor magnet placement?

Examples of some of these design alternatives are shown in Figure 1.

Figure 1. Types of electric machines

A magnetic circuit-based motor design
package — RMxprt™ from ANSYS —
provides a template for 19 different
types of machines. This tool quickly
generates an initial design that can
be imported to other higher-fidelity
simulation tools.

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 The IPM has both reluctance torque and permanent
magnet (PM) torque. Therefore, the best individual
IPM design and the best individual controller/power

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electronics design don’t necessarily form an optimized
system. For example, if an engineer plugs a Toyota-
ultiphysics- designed IPM into a GM-designed controller and power
electronics, it is very likely that the system won’t work.
based simulation- Even if it works, the combination will result in poor
performance. In the HEV/EV world, a perfect
combination of motor/controller/power electronics is
driven development absolutely essential for making a design competitive
by achieving high performance targets.

makes it possible In HEV/EV traction motor design, R&D teams must

address structural and thermal considerations along
to rapidly evaluate with electromagnetic design constraints. For example,
the small bridges used to contain rotor magnets must
be structurally strong enough to hold the rotor together
hundreds of when spinning at high speeds. But from an electro-
magnetic perspective, the bridges must be as small as
alternatives within possible to minimize their effect on the magnetic field.

There are similar tradeoffs in thermal design. The

multiple domains, power delivered to the wheels as well as the power
needed to recharge the battery travel through the
conduct what-if power electronics. Even the slightest power loss there
creates a large amount of heat. The heat must be
carefully managed and dissipated under a wide range
studies, predict of operating conditions, from desert to subzero
winter conditions, to avoid damage to the power

vehicle behavior electronics and nearby components. Therefore,

engineers must accurately calculate electric losses
and identify/design heat dissipation paths to ensure
in real-life driving effective cooling.

LIMITATIONS OF CONVENTIONAL
scenarios, and DESIGN METHODS
Obviously, design decisions involve a complex series
optimize of tradeoffs. Automotive development teams must
consider an enormous number of alternatives to find
the one that will succeed in the marketplace. To arrive
final designs. at a highly optimum design today, leading HEV and EV
OEMs typically study hundreds of thousands of design
alternatives for motor magnetics. There are so many
different options that OEMs have neither the time nor
the money to build and test prototypes of even a fraction of them. In the past, R&D teams regularly spent 10 to 15
years developing a new ICE powertrain, but today’s consumers and regulators are pushing the global automotive
industry to develop HEVs and EVs within a much shorter timeframe.

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 Traditionally, engineers widely used textbook-based linear equations for electric machine design. But this
approach is not suitable for IPM concepts. IPMs have high saturation, especially in the bridge area on the
rotor, as shown in Figure 2. A three-dimensional simulation such as finite element analysis (FEA) is required
to capture nonlinear effects of such high saturation. The analysis must be accurate, since HEV/EV traction
motors need to utilize the limited energy in the battery pack as efficiently as possible. Simple linear equations
do not provide the required level of accuracy.

Figure 2. Finite element analysis accurately accounts for nonlinearity and local saturation of a rotor and stator. Maxwell®
electromagnetics field simulation software from ANSYS uses the finite element method to solve static, frequency-domain and
time-varying electromagnetic and electric fields. A key benefit of the software is its automated solution process in which users
need only specify geometry, material properties and the desired output. From this point, Maxwell automatically generates an
appropriate mesh for solving the problem.

Multiphysics simulation software solves this problem via virtual prototypes that enable engineers to understand
how a design will perform — without the need for physical hardware. Real-life scenarios can be accurately
simulated, including the effects of and interactions between fluids, structural mechanics, thermal physics
and electromagnetic forces. Engineers can then easily adjust the design based on the simulation results.
With such a process, design alternatives can be generated faster and systems can be optimized upfront in the
cycle, avoiding surprises and problems that might occur in the later stages of product development.

MULTIPHYSICS SIMULATION: ELECTROMAGNETIC EFFECTS

In developing the motor/generator, a design team first focuses on the electromagnetics of the electric machine.
Initial CAD drawings and related engineering specifications of the assembly provide entry data for electronics
design optimization software: defining the main elements of the motor/generator including magnet materials,
coil configurations, number of turns, air gaps and more.

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 These outputs, in turn, provide data for electromagnetic field simulation software, which computes the torque
profile of the machine — that is, how the torque ramps up over time for driving the vehicle in motor mode as well
as the electrical resistance in stopping the vehicle in regenerative brake mode. Vehicle weight is brought into
the analysis to determine acceleration as well as stopping time for various scenarios. Based on output results,
the team modifies the design by changing any basic design parameters (magnet size, for example) to balance
machine performance against its size, weight and cost.

MULTIPHYSICS SIMULATION: THERMAL, STRUCTURAL AND FLUID EFFECTS

The computed torque output is used further in a structural mechanics solver for computing mechanical stresses,
loads, deformations, and vibrations of the physical parts of the powertrain, including the driveshaft and gearing.
Vibration analysis is important because traction motors can be a prominent source of noise in EVs. Additionally,
a fluid dynamics solver helps in studying thermal management issues, mapping energy losses, and determining
heat distributions in the motor/generator assembly.

MULTIDOMAIN SIMULATION
Putting two or more individually optimized components together does not make an optimized system. This is
particularly evident in HEV and EV traction motor design, in which the motor must be designed and optimized
as part of a larger system that includes power electronics, controller and other components. Therefore, a multi-
domain system simulation program is essential for designing a high-performance product that incorporates
electrical, thermal, electromechanical, electromagnetic, controller designs, etc. Such technology must tie the
different physical analyses together to arrive at a coherent, optimized electric powertrain. Figure 3 shows the
design flow that can be achieved with such a multidomain system simulation program.

Figure 3. Systematic integrated simulation approach for motor and drives systems
Simplorer® software from ANSYS is a multidomain system simulation program used for
designing high-performance systems that include electrical, thermal, electromechanical,
electromagnetic, controller designs, etc. Simplorer ties all these different physical analyses
together to ultimately optimize the whole electric powertrain as one coherent system.
This figure shows the resulting design flow.

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 The traction motor is part of the larger system that includes an insulated-gate bipolar transistor (IGBT)
inverter, cable/busbar and mechanical load, which all must be modeled in a single integrated simulation
(Figure 4). Using electronic thermal current tools, engineers specify the geometry of the major heat sources in
the powertrain system, such as the IGBTs and current-carrying parts of the motor/generator. Each heat source
is applied individually at major points of interest in the system with air circulation and conducted thermal energy
taken into consideration. The software then processes this data and generates a thermal model that determines
overall temperature profiles of each IGBT. The software also provides temperature-dependent performance
variables, such as energy drained from the batteries to ensure that heat levels do not exceed specified limits
and adversely affect IGBT performance.

Figure 4. Multidomain simulation

The traction motor is just one componet of a larger system. The motor, insulated-gate bipolar transistor
inverter, cable/busbar and mechanical load are all modeled in a single integrated simulation conducted with
system-level Simplorer software from ANSYS. The technology intergrates with other tools such as ANSYS®
Icepak® for electronics cooling, Q3D Extractor® for parasitics, Maxwell and RMXport for electomagnetics,
and ANSYS® Mechanical™ for structral analysis.

From this temperature profile, engineers can utilize the thermal–structural analysis capabilities of an FEA-based
structural solver to determine the resulting thermal stresses. Electronic design analysis tools are applied to
calculate electromagnetic forces acting on motor/generator components to determine deformations and
mechanical stress distributions on the structure. Engineers can then modify the structure to eliminate stress
concentrations and excessive deformation or, conversely, to lighten regions that were overdesigned.

A COMMON SIMULATION ENVIRON MENT

Throughout the electromagnetics and mechanical development processes, a common simulation platform
coordinates the actions and exchanges of data between the various physical simulations — all those many
computations performed for different load scenarios and in comparing various design alternatives. This
multiphysics cosimulation process is efficient only when the software runs together through a single unified
environment with a smooth flow of data between programs.

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 In Figure 5, a common simulation platform is used to simulate a typical multiphysics problem in traction motor
design. The end goal of this simulation is to find out the stress/deformation on stator lamination and coils as
input for vibration/acoustic noise or fatigue analysis. The geometry is common for both structural and thermal
analysis. The magnetic solver computes electromagnetic losses and magnetic force. Losses from the
magnetic solver are automatically mapped into the thermal solver as thermal loads on an element-to-element
basis to compute the temperature profile. This temperature profile is then automatically mapped into the
structural solver to compute thermal–mechanical stress.

At the same time, the magnetic component of the force is mapped from the electromagnetic to the structural
solver. The engineer can apply any additional force directly within the structural solver. The final simulation
simultaneously takes into account all the loads that would act on the motor under real operating conditions,
thereby simulating the motor’s performance with real-life accuracy. Once one such simulation is completed,
the common simulation platform allows engineers to change the geometry and update all simulations in
different physics in a highly automated way — without having to set up each simulation again.

Figure 5. Typical multiphysics traction motor design problem in common simulation platform
ANSYS is the only simulation technolgy provider that has industry-leading tools for all physics required for traction
motor design: electromagnetics (Maxwell), electrical circuit (Simplorer), structural mechanics (ANSYS Mechanical) and
computational fluid dynamics (ANSYS®CFD™). All these tools work together seamlessly within the ANSYS® Workbench™
platform, which is a single, unified environment that hosts all these tools and provides smooth sharing of data between them.
As a control dashboard, ANSYS Workbench provides a project schematic view that ties together the entire simulation
process, guiding the user with ease through the high-end, tightly interconnected multiplysics analyses. The platform also
provides bi-directional CAD connectivity, automated meshing, a project-level update mechanism, pervasive parameter
management and integrated optimization tools.

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 HIGH-PERFORMANCE COMPUTING
Figure 6 shows a plot of IPM torque output vs. load angles and currents. For each current, output torque peaks
at one particular load angle. To optimize the motor and drive design, this load angle and current should be used
to drive the motor to achieve maximum torque within a given geometry. To derive this type of curve, at least 494
combinations need to be simulated — which doesn’t include potential changes in geometry, motor speeds and
material properties at different operating temperatures. This example shows that hundreds of thousands of
designs must be simulated to optimize a typical IPM design.

Figure 7 shows how the simulations of thousands of such design variations can be sped up drastically by
employing high-performance computing (HPC) with a distributed solve option (DSO).

Figure 6. IPM torque output vs. load angles

and currents, used to maximize output torque
at different load angles and currents

Figure 7. Distributed solve technology reduces time-to-market.

Thousands of design variations can be simulated using Optimetrics™ and DSO technology using multicore clusters.
These packages perform parallel processing by creating and managing numerous simultaneous simulations, each
conducted on a separate set of computer cores, to drastically reduce the total simulation runtime. In this example,
a speedup factor of 43.2 is achieved by using 48 cores to solve 2,200 variations in parallel.

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 CONCLUSION
Automotive engineers face the challenge of designing extraordinarily complex next-generation electric powertrains
within demanding timeframes that cannot be met using trial-and-error prototype testing methods. Multiphysics-
based simulation-driven development makes it possible to rapidly evaluate hundreds of alternatives within multiple
domains, conduct what-if studies, predict vehicle behavior in real-life driving scenarios, and optimize final
designs. Today, engineers at leading HEV and EV manufacturers are using these tools to build strong competitive
advantage by designing high-performing traction motors and integrating them tightly with other vehicle systems.

For OEMs and suppliers to succeed in the fast-changing HEV and EV market, they need a simulation solution
with the required breadth and depth of multiphysics technologies that all work together in an integrated
environment.

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 ANSYS is the only simulation software provider with industry-standard mechanical, fluid dynamics, magnetics and
electrical tools for complete multiphysics simulation. Tools integrated on the ANSYS® Workbench™ platform that
are used extensively in HEV powertrain development include:

Simplorer™ multidomain system simulation software for design, modeling, analysis and optimization of high-
performance systems that include electrical, thermal, mechanical, electromechanical, electromagnetic and
hydraulic designs

Q3D Extractor® computational field solver for the calculation of frequency-dependent resistance, inductance,
capacitance and conductance parameters of electrical current-carrying structures for engineers designing printed
circuit boards, electronic packaging and power electronic equipment

HFSS™, a full wave solver for 3-D full-wave electromagnetic field simulation, providing electric and magnetic
fields, currents, scattering parameters and near- and far-radiated field results. From specified geometry, material
properties, and output type, the tool automatically generates an appropriate, efficient and accurate mesh for
solving the problem using the finite-element method.

Maxwell®, a low-frequency electromagnetic field simulation tool that uses the finite element method to calculate
static, frequency domain and time-varying electromagnetic and electric fields for designing and analyzing
electromechanical and electromagnetic devices such as motors, actuators, transformers, sensors and coils

RMxprt™, which speeds the design and optimization of rotating electric machines such as motors and generators.
Templates for specific machines enable users to easily create models, assign materials, calculate machine
performance, make initial sizing decisions and perform hundreds of what-if analyses in a matter of seconds.

ANSYS® Icepak®, computational fluid dynamics software for thermal management of electronics systems that
predicts heat flow and thermal transfer at the component, board or system level. Simulations include fluid flow and
all modes of heat transfer (conduction, convection and radiation) for both steady-state and transient thermal flow.

SIwave™, which analyzes entire PCBs and IC packages for performing complete signal- and power-integrity
analysis from DC to beyond 10 Gb/s. The tool extracts frequency-dependent circuit models of signal and
power-distribution networks directly from electrical CAD layouts.

ANSYS® Mechanical™, a comprehensive solution for structural linear, nonlinear and dynamics analysis including
stress, deflection and vibration. A complete set of element behaviors, material models and equation solvers are
provided for a wide range of engineering problems as well as thermal analysis and coupled-physics capabilities
involving acoustics, piezoelectric, thermal–structural and thermal–electric analysis.

ANSYS® CFD™, a product suite that offers a wide range of general-purpose and application-specific modeling and
fluid flow analysis capabilities. Modeling capabilities are included to represent fluid flow, turbulence, heat transfer,
laminar-to-turbulent modeling, incompressible-to-fully-compressible, and isothermal analysis for stationary and
rotating devices.

ANSYS® Multiphysics™, a wide-ranging set of engineering analysis tools for simulation of complex coupled-
physics behavior. Solver technology addresses a wide range of physics disciplines including structural mechanics,
heat transfer, fluid flow and electromagnetics within the open and adaptive ANSYS Workbench framework.

For more information, visit www.ansys.com/Industries/Automotive/Application+Highlights/Electric+Powertrain

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