Design & Development of Hub Motor for Electric Vehicle

Abstract

The vehicles powered with an internal combustion engine have been in presence for an enormous number of years. At present, major automobile companies are advancing their vehicles stocked with an internal combustible engine but, a substantial change is needed to enhance their fuel economy in order to decrease the usage of fossil fuels like petrol, gasoline, diesel, and kerosene. Electric vehicles (EV's) offers some boasting features like immediate torque (faster acceleration), silent and swift ride, and premium performance with lower fuel and maintenance costs. It has been distinguished as the most feasible remedy to essentially solve the hurdles related to the ICE vehicles. Electric Vehicles are increasingly becoming popular in city commuters due to its environment-friendly features and economic merits. The electric motor is an important element in electric vehicle (EV) as the performance of EV is highly influenced by the type of motor. An electric motor in EV should have high efficiency, compactness, high torque-current ratio and fast dynamic response. This project aims at the design and development of an in-wheel motor for EV application. The performance analysis of hub motor for EV using PM is fulfilled to obtain the design information and based on this design information finite element analysis (FEA) is carried out to validate analytical calculations. M19 (29-Gauge) soft magnetic material with a low loss component is used for stator core and rotor core. NdFeB type permanent magnet of grade (36/19) is a suitable selection as the emphasis is on efficiency and compactness as well as it is the strongest magnet and highest energy product. EV requires smooth torque for its operation. Hence, design improvement employing different techniques on the stator side as well as on the rotor side is carried out to minimize the cogging torque. The motor design was simulated by Infolytica MagNet finite element method (FEM) software.