intelligent engineering

Intelligent Engineering Pushing the boundaries of propulsion

research at Newcastle University

About us: Electrical Power Research Group

Electrical Power Research Group



18 academics, including 6 in Singapore

20 research staff

~50 PhD students

>100 MSc students

Known for

• Innovative research

• Expertise across all areas of Electrical

Power research field

• Very close industrial collaboration

including Airbus, Dyson, Jaguar Land

Rover, Siemens and many others

Technical focus:

Power Electronics

Machines

Power Systems

• High power-dense converter topologies

• Thermal management

• Health monitoring of converters

• Enhanced power conversion solutions

• High-speed and integrated drives

• Fault tolerance and condition monitoring

• Real-time estimation and control

• Support the development of unusual machines • Increased speed, power and torque density

• Fault tolerance

• Reduced cost • Investigating new materials

• Smart Grids

• Energy storage

• Customer-led network revolution

• Security of supply


Drives and Control

Close Partnerships with Industry

3 Industry Research Centers on-site

Since 2005:

• 16 DTI / TSB / Innovate UK Projects

• 125 direct industry funded projects

• 10 KTPs

Electrical Power Research Group | Power Electronics Electrical Power Research Group

World-class facilities

Test equipment • State-of-art instrumentation

• Dynomometers

(up to 500kW and up to 100,000 revs/min)

• Chiller, environmental oven etc

Simulation hardware and software

• Matlab, Saber, PLECS, FE and CFD,

mechanical and thermal platforms

Manufacturing equipment

• Wire erosion machine

• SMD, PCB

• Balancing, magnetising and winding

machines

• Dedicated mechanical and electronic

workshops

• Centre for Advanced Electrical Drives

• Siemens Smartgrid Laboratory


Projects: Electrical Power Research Group


Underpinning Power Electronics

Recognised leadership in Electrical Drives

• £23m total project value, funded by UK Research Council

• Four Themes: Newcastle leads the drive theme.

Research topics:

• Integrated drives

• Use of fast switching devices

• Increased reliability

• High temperature operation

Electrical Power Research Group | Power Electronics

Ultra High Power Density

High speed, high power density

• 1.1 MW, 30,000rpm

• World-leading speed/power

• On the edge of the limit of material properties

• Integrated design of machine with converter

• In service as high speed turbine test bed

Collaborator: Torquemeters Ltd

Electrical Power Research Group | Machines


Solar Plane Propulsion

• Solar powered unmanned aircraft as a satellite

replacement

• Ultra high efficiency, low mass requirement

• Operation down to -70 degrees

• 2 week duration world record

Collaborators: QinetiQ, Airbus, Boeing

Electrical Power Research Group | Drives and Control

Aerospace actuators

Electrical Power Research Group | Drives and Control

Fault tolerant Machines and

Drives

•Leader in fault tolerance

•Use for flight critical applications

•Demonstrators built and then tested by

aerospace manufacturers.

Collaborators: Goodrich, Airbus, BAE

Systems


Real-time detection of power

module failures

•Received Award for best Innovation within

the Faculty

•Received Award for best business

practice from the Business Unit

•High number on publications

•Run several funded projects including

funding from InnovateUK and directly

industry sponsored projects

In-situ Health-monitoring of IGBT’s

High torque Density

Switched Reluctance Drive

System (HDSRDS)

Objective: Low cost HEV drivetrain with

single coolant loop

• Extending fundamental, research to the

market

• Novel low cost machine and drive

topology

• 6 phase SRM, 3 phase inverter

• The most torque dense Switched

Reluctance Machine ever reported

• Enabling single engine temperature

coolant loop

• Demonstrator truck


Low Cost Electric

Drivetrain (LCED)

Objective: beat existing BEV drivetrain

performance at much lower cost

• Considers the cost of the complete vehicle

drivetrain

• Very high drivetrain speeds

• Newcastle originated Segmental Rotor

Switched Reluctance Motor

• Compact, loss mass gearbox

• Use of new motor and gear materials


Evoque-E

Objective: replace rare earth magnets

with ferrite and copper with aluminium

• Ferrite motor matches performance of e-

machine in Nissan Leaf EV, but with >50%

cost reduction

• Patent discussions ongoing with partners

• Newcastle / JLR co-designed NdFeB

Motors will feature on JLR Evoque-E BEV

at LCV2015

• Ferrite motors will be fitted to BEV later in

2015


Town and Country 48V

Objective: 48V SRM hybrid electric drive

train

• Low voltage (48V) bus reduces insulation

cost and improves safety

• Low-cost retro-fit package. Attractive

solution for fleet operators

• Switched reluctance machine. No

permanent magnet material.

• Integrated motor/power electronics/control

package for maximum efficiency

• Feasibility of high-volume manufacture

and assembly, to strengthen exploitation

case


Electrical Power Research Group | Machines Electrical Power Research Group | Power Electronics

Volume reduction of passive components

Objective: reduce size and weight of

inductors in dc/dc converters

• Converter does not:

• use SiC or GaN as devices are still

too expensive

• use new magnetic materials as they

are unreliable

• operate at high switching frequency

as this produces higher losses

• Converter is making use of a radical new

design concept developed at Newcastle

University

• Size of inductor is reduced by 20%

capacitor

heatsinkinductor

otherswitches

25%~35%

The state-space averaging method The proposed control method

Kp

VrefVcom

V1

L1

L2

D2

S2

D1

S1

C

vc(t)

AVref(t)Vcom

Vref

S

V1

L1

L2

D2

S2

D1

S1

C

vc(t)

R

Breathing Heatsink

Objective: increase lifetime of power

modules

• cracks in solder layer and bond wire lift-off

are the most common power module

failures

• a new heatsink that cools each individual

chip was developed

• the unique cooling structure changes the

thermal impedance to the needs of each

individual chip

• this reduces the chip temperature swing

doubling the lifetime of the power module

• the use of liquid metal reduces also the

average chip temperature



Objective: reduce size and weight of

dc/dc converters

• 50kW battery charger without output filter

inductance

• High voltage gain 2kW dc/dc converter

eliminates classical cascaded dc/dc

converter

High Power Dense DC/DC Converter


Energy Management for Batteries

Objective: active voltage balancing

systems to increase battery reliability

• Implementation and development of an

active voltage balancing system based on

Hyperdrive’s existing technology

iEV CaB FAB

Project on Highly Integrated BMS

Start 1.10.2015

NEW !


Li-Ion Battery Cell Characterization

Objective: non destructive testing of

battery cells to form part of

manufacturing process

• No successful process current available

• Work is based on AC impedance analysis

techniques developed by CEAM fur use in

fuel cells

+13 other partners

Challenges Electrical Power Research Group


Tighter integration of machines

and Power Electronics Next Generation Integrated Drive

(NGID) - technology demonstrator

1. Use of un-packaged wide bandgap

devices, directly bonded to the machine

conductors.

2. Reduction of the size and volume of

passive devices due to increased

switching frequency.

3. Increased modularity within the

electrical machine, utilising new

construction methods, in conjunction with

higher power density through ultra-high

speed of rotation.

4. An integrated thermal design and

cooling system .

5. Improved EMC through very close

coupling of all components.


Drives

Converters

Components

Devices

Areas for future research

• Thermal Management is the key for Power Density – Improved modelling, materials,

devices and control

• Downsizing of passive components – E.g. PM-assist inductor

• Multifunctional system components – E.g. combined drive, charger and

battery management in one converter

• Enhanced system components – High gain DC/DC converters

– Modular structured converters/drives


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Questions?

http://www.ncl.ac.uk/eee/research/groups/power/



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