Design and Performance Analysis of an Outer Rotor Brushless DC Motor for Single-Phase Integrated Charger

Due to huge demand for deployment of electric vehicle, battery chargers are in huge demand. Traditionally, chargers are of two types: on-board and off-board. In recent years, integrated on-board chargers have attracted attention of researchers as they utilize components of the propulsion system (i.e. motor and it’s associated converter) for charging purpose. In case of such type of chargers, the motor is not only being used for propulsion mode but also it’s windings are utilized as grid filter during charging operation. Therefore, design of the motor should not only consider performance enhancement during motoring but also should examine other performance parameters in charging mode (e.g. maximizing winding inductance to satisfy current quality requirements and nullifying core flux density). This work deals with design of an outer-rotor permanent magnet brushless-dc motor (PMBLDC) which can be applied as an integrated charger for two-wheeler application. The effect of number of slots and magnet thickness on these performance parameters has been investigated in details through analysis and simulation using Finite Element software (i.e. ANSYS MAXWELL 2D) and their corresponding results have been reported. Amongst all, the best design has been selected based on an overall performance score.