Winding Reconfiguration Analysis of Permanent Magnet Electric Vehicle Motor for Improved Performance Using MagNet Software

Electric mode of transportation is increasing faster in the automobile sector for various benefits. Electric vehicles are propelled by means of a motor as an IC engine for conventional vehicles. Nowadays Permanent Magnet (PM) motors are most widely used in EVs. These PM motors are operated by the interaction of an electric current and a magnetic field within a wire winding. Motor windings are conductive wires wrapped around a magnetic core that allow electricity to pass and generate the magnetic field needed to spin the rotor. A minor customization in winding methodology and configuration highly influences the motor performance. This work aims to study and develop Brushless DC (BLDC) motor winding reconfiguration techniques. The analysis is performed on a 250 W, 48 V, 415 rpm BLDC hub motor. The targeted motor is structurally configured as 54 slots and 60 poles with star ended concentrated winding. The reconfiguration is solely concerned with the stator winding limited to its rated current. The winding reconfiguration technique is performed by using Magnet software. The flux enhancing method and field weakening method are proposed and compared to the case motor’s default winding. The simulation results of flux enhancing method improves the torque from 5.8 Nm to 9.7 Nm, and the field weakening method improves the speed from 415 rpm to 518 rpm. The purpose of this research is to enhance the motor torque and speed by changing flux value while maintaining the ampere turns constant.