Finite Element Modeling of Electric Motor for System-Level Simulation

This Master’s Thesis was developed at POWERTECH Engineering S.r.l. in a joint collaboration with Gamma Technologies LLC and GARRETT Motion France SAS. This research focused on conducting an exploratory and methodological study of an early release of a new software tool called GT-FEMAG. This tool was originally developed by ProFEMAG AG, and was recently acquired by Gamma Technologies LLC. Since then, the tool has been further developed collaboratively. The aim of the development is to improve the 2D Finite-Element modelling of electric motors, and enable easy integration into the GT-SUITE toolchain. The first part of this project provides a comprehensive review of the automotive industry’s context and a broad summary of electric vehicle applications. The second part begins with an extensive description of the tested tool, followed by the modeling of a real electric motor in order to obtain its performance maps. Next, the integration of the motor into a vehicle model is illustrated. The obtained results are analysed and interpreted in two aspects. Firstly, the analysis focuses on the performance maps of the standalone motor model. Secondly, a comparison is made between the original vehicle model, along with its original motor efficiency maps, and the integrated GT-FEMAG model. Finally, the conclusions address the potential of this new tool and suggest possible next steps that could follow this thesis project.