In-wheel motor design for electric vehicles

Abstract

In this work, an in-wheel electric motor prototype has been designed for experimental purposes. The in-wheel motor (hub motor) can be used in electric cars with 4-wheel independent drive configuration. Within every wheel, there can be one "direct-drive in-wheel motor" to generate the necessary torque per wheel. Unlike conventional "central drive unit" systems, torque as well as the power and speed can be supplied to each tire independently. The difference in this work is the design of a direct drive electric motor which is able to carry transverse loading acts on a tire. The type of the motor is called inverted configuration or outer rotor structure in the literature. The electric machine designed in this work is a switched reluctance machine. First, a 3D solid model was created. Necessary strength analyses have been done. Simultaneously, electromagnetic FEA has been done, and, when it is necessary, either of the designs were modified until it converged to a set of consistent dimensions for both mechanic and electromagnetic design. Lastly, the results of the electromagnetic analysis were embedded into a hybrid simulation model in order to check the coherency between the design and the analysis. The results were coherent