AC Machine Design Fundamentals

Through a building-block teaching approach, you will develop a basic understanding of AC electric machine design. By learning the core concepts of electromagnetic laws for machine design, magnetic circuit calculations, loss mechanisms, analytical design techniques, and other essential topics, you will improve your skills, and ultimately, your work. Recent developments in AC electric machine design also will be covered in this course.

• Engineers involved in the design, specification, and integration of components and systems that require an understanding of AC machine design. 
• Electrical and mechanical design engineers
• System engineers and integrators
• Project engineers and program managers
• Technical leaders

Attendees should have a bachelor’s degree in engineering or a related science, or the equivalent amount of industrial experience.

Introduction to AC Machine Design

• Induction, PM, synchronous and switched reluctance

Sizing Laws: the influence of size

Power Sizing Equations

• Electric and magnetic loading
• Shear stress

Winding Types

• Full pitch and fractional windings
• Fractional pitch windings
• Distributed and concentrated windings
• Fractional slot windings

Magnetic Circuits

• Permeance and reluctance
• Multiple circuit paths
• Magnetic circuits with airgaps

Electric and Magnetic Materials

• Permanent magnet types
• Copper and aluminum
• Steel types
• Skin depth

Main Flux Path Calculations Using Magnetic Circuits

• Main magnetic circuit of an induction machine
• Effective gap and Carter''s coefficient
• Effective length
• Reluctance calculations

Leakage Reactance Calculations

• Slot leakage inductance
• Zigzag and differential leakage inductance
• Skew and end turn leakage inductance

Calculation of Machine Losses

• Eddy current and hysteresis losses
• Friction, windage, and copper losses

Testing and Parameter Characterization

Thermal Analysis and Cooling Systems

• Conduction, convection, and radiation
• FEA, CFD, lumped-parameters equivalent-networks
• Fan ventilation, liquid cooling

Manufacturing Topics

• Laminations, cores, windings, frames, assemblies
• Material and manufacturing tolerances

Vibrations and Noise

• Electromagnetic forces; harmonic components
• Mechanism of transmission
• Mitigation measures

Machine Design Examples

"Back of the Envelope" Calculations to Automated Optimal Computer Design

Finite Element Analysis

• Fundamentals
• Examples

Special Topics—How to Design Machines for Self-Sensing

Ayman El-Refaie

Ayman M. EL-Refaie received the M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in electrical engineering from the University of Wisconsin– Madison in 2002 and 2005, respectively. Since 2005, he has been with the Electrical Machines and Drives Laboratory, General Electric Global Research Center, NY, USA as a Principal Engineer and Project Leader. He is the author of more than 50 journal, and 85 conference publications with several others pending. He holds 45 issued U.S. patents with several others pending. His research interests include electrical machines and drives. Since January 2017 he became the Thomas and Suzanne Werner Endowed Chair in Secure and Sustainable Energy at Marquette University. He is a Fellow of the IEEE

Dan Ionel

Dan M. Ionel, PhD, FIEEE, is currently Chief Engineer for Regal Beloit Corp., and Visiting Professor at the University of Wisconsin in Milwaukee. After completing post-doctoral research in the SPEED Laboratory, University of Glasgow, UK, Dr. Ionel worked in industrial R&D for large corporations in the UK and the US, most recently as Chief Scientist for Vestas. His design experience covers a wide range of electric machines and drives for various applications with power ratings between 0.002 hp and 10,000 hp. Dr. Ionel published more than 100 technical papers, including two winners of Best Paper Awards from the IEEE Industry Applications Society Electric Machines Committee, and holds more than 30 patents. An IEEE Fellow, he is the Chair-Elect of the IEEE Power and Energy Society Electric Motor Sub-committee, Chair of the Milwaukee IEEE Power Electronics Chapter, and Editor-in-Chief of the Electric Power Components and Systems Journal.

Thomas Jahns

Dr. Thomas M. Jahns received his bachelors, masters, and doctoral degrees from MIT, all in electrical engineering.

Dr. Jahns joined the faculty of the University of Wisconsin-Madison in 1998 in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering.  He served for 14 years as a Co-Director of the Wisconsin Electric Machines and Power Electronics Consortium (WEMPEC), a world-renowned university/industry consortium in the electrical power engineering field.  Since 2021, he is the Grainger Emeritus Professor of Power Electronics and Electrical Machines.

Prior to coming to UW-Madison, Dr. Jahns worked at GE Corporate Research and Development (now GE Global Research) in Niskayuna, NY, for 15 years, where he pursued new power electronics and motor drive technology in a variety of research and management positions. His current research interests at UW-Madison include integrated motor drives and electrified propulsion for both land vehicles and aircraft.

Dr. Jahns is a Fellow of IEEE.  He received the 2005 IEEE Nikola Tesla Technical Field Award “for pioneering contributions to the design and application of AC permanent magnet machines”.  Dr. Jahns is a Past President of the IEEE Power Electronics Society.  He was elected to the US National Academy of Engineering in 2015 and received the IEEE Medal in Power Engineering in 2022.

Darren Tremelling

Darren Tremelling, Ph.D. is currently a Principal Scientist in ABB Corporate Research.

After completing his doctorate in WEMPEC, University of Wisconsin - Madison, Dr. Tremelling has worked in ABB Corporate Research. His research experience covers a range of electric machines for various applications with power ratings between 1 [kW] to 7 [MW].

Bulent Sarlioglu

Bulent Sarlioglu is a Jean van Bladel Associate Professor at University of Wisconsin—Madison, and Associate Director, Wisconsin Electric Machines and Power Electronics Consortium (WEMPEC). Dr. Sarlioglu spent more than 10 years at Honeywell International Inc.’s aerospace division. As a staff system engineer, he earned Honeywell’s technical achievement award and an outstanding engineer award. Dr. Sarlioglu contributed to multiple programs where high-speed electric machines and drives are used mainly for aerospace and ground vehicle applications. Dr. Sarlioglu is the inventor or co-inventor of 20 US patents and many other international patents. He published more than 200 journal and conference papers with his students. His research areas are motors and drives including high-speed electric machines, novel electric machines, and application of wide bandgap devices to power electronics to increase efficiency and power density. He received the NSF CAREER Award in 2016 and the 4^th Grand Nagamori Award from Nagamori Foundation, Japan in 2019. Dr. Sarlioglu became IEEE IAS Distinguished Lecturer in 2018.  He was the technical program co-chair for ECCE 2019 and was the general chair for ITEC 2018.  He is serving as a special session co-chair for ECCE 2020.

Hao Huang

Dr. Hao Huang is the Retired Technology Chief of General Electric Aviation’s Electrical Power Division. Prior to retirement in 2020, he was responsible for providing technical direction, innovation strategies, and multi-generation product roadmaps for the GE aircraft electrical power division. He has been constantly leading and contributing innovations and inventions of aircraft electrical power technologies. Dr. Huang is a NAE Member, IEEE fellow, and SAE fellow. He received his Ph.D. Degree in Electrical Engineering from the University of Colorado at Boulder, Boulder, Colorado, USA in 1987. He has 33 years of experience in Aircraft Electrical Power Systems, Power Generations, Engine Starting, Power Electronics and Controls, and Electric Vehicle Drives. He has 80 US patents including several pending, and has published a number of papers. Dr. Hao Huang is the recipient of 2019 IEEE Transportation Technologies Award.