Reliability-Oriented Design of Inverter-Fed Low-Voltage Electrical Machines: Potential Solutions

Yatai Ji, Paolo Giangrande, Vincenzo Madonna, Weiduo Zhao and Michael Galea
Additional contact information
Yatai Ji: Key Laboratory of More Electric Aircraft Technology of Zhejiang Province, University of Nottingham Ningbo China, Ningbo 315100, China
Paolo Giangrande: Power Electronics, Machines and Control Research Group (PEMC), University of Nottingham, Nottingham NG72RD, UK
Vincenzo Madonna: Leonardo Aircraft Division, Innovation Management, 10138 Turin, Italy
Weiduo Zhao: Key Laboratory of More Electric Aircraft Technology of Zhejiang Province, University of Nottingham Ningbo China, Ningbo 315100, China
Michael Galea: Key Laboratory of More Electric Aircraft Technology of Zhejiang Province, University of Nottingham Ningbo China, Ningbo 315100, China

Energies, 2021, vol. 14, issue 14, 1-25

Abstract: Transportation electrification has kept pushing low-voltage inverter-fed electrical machines to reach a higher power density while guaranteeing appropriate reliability levels. Methods commonly adopted to boost power density (i.e., higher current density, faster switching frequency for high speed, and higher DC link voltage) will unavoidably increase the stress to the insulation system which leads to a decrease in reliability. Thus, a trade-off is required between power density and reliability during the machine design. Currently, it is a challenging task to evaluate reliability during the design stage and the over-engineering approach is applied. To solve this problem, physics of failure (POF) is introduced and its feasibility for electrical machine (EM) design is discussed through reviewing past work on insulation investigation. Then the special focus is given to partial discharge (PD) whose occurrence means the end-of-life of low-voltage EMs. The PD-free design methodology based on understanding the physics of PD is presented to substitute the over-engineering approach. Finally, a comprehensive reliability-oriented design (ROD) approach adopting POF and PD-free design strategy is given as a potential solution for reliable and high-performance inverter-fed low-voltage EM design.

Keywords: physics-of-failure; reliability-oriented design; partial discharge; thermal degradation; inverter-fed machine (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Q Q0 Q4 Q40 Q41 Q42 Q43 Q47 Q48 Q49 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/1996-1073/14/14/4144/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/1996-1073/14/14/4144/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jeners:v:14:y:2021:i:14:p:4144-:d:591315

Access Statistics for this article

Energies is currently edited by Ms. Agatha Cao

More articles in Energies from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().