Multiphysics Design of Brushless DC Motors Using Co-MANCs Soft Magnets

JOSEFINA M SILVEYRA; PATRICIA XU; VLADIMIR KEYLIN; VINCENT DEGEORGE; ALEX LEARY; MICHAEL MCHENRY

Orlando

Congreso; 2015 TMS Annual Meeting & Exhibition; 2015

Electric motors are the largest end use of electricity in USA.  Advances in power electronics and development of rare-earth permanent magnets (PM) have promoted the use of PM motors, which achieve high power densities and efficiencies. But rare-earths are at supply risk. Fe-based amorphous soft magnets have much lower losses than silicon steels, allowing higher switching frequencies without unacceptable heating. The motor can thus rotate at higher speeds, leading to smaller machines with smaller PM. But their brittleness makes them difficult to machine. Novel Co-based nanocomposites have been recently proposed [1] to overcome the brittleness problem, while keeping good magnetic properties at high frequencies and temperatures. We predicted a Parallel Path motor ~70% smaller and with 80% less NdFeB when steel was replaced by Co-nanocomposites. Here, we report the advantages of Co-nanocomposites in brushless DC motors, evaluated 3D multiphysics finite element analyses.