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Abstract

With ever-increasing demand on energy conservation, there is fast growing interest in the technologies to improve the fuel economy for hybrid electric vehicles (HEVs), especially the exhaust gas waste heat energy recovery. Meanwhile, the use of solar energy in HEVs is also proposed to promote on-board renewable energy and hence improve their fuel economy. In this paper, an overview of on-board renewable energy sources is first presented. Then, a new thermoelectric-photovoltaic hybrid energy source is designed and implemented for HEVs. Finally, experimental results are given to verify the validity of the proposed system.

In this paper, a nonlinear varying-network magnetic circuit (VNMC) modeling method is developed for doubly salient permanent-magnet (DSPM) motors. The method is used to analyze the static characteristics of DSPM motors by specific permeance calculations, in which the interaction between the permanent-magnet field and the armature current field, as well as magnetic saturation, are taken into account. Two newly proposed DSPM motors (12/8-pole and 6/4-pole) are used as examples. There is good agreement between the results of the nonlinear VNMC modeling method and finite-element analysis. Moreover, the nonlinear VNMC method offers the advantage of calculating, effectively and efficiently, the static characteristics of DSPM motors having different dimensions, parameters, and conditions. Finally, the proposed method is verified by experimental testing of a 6/4-pole prototype.

Owing to the definite merits of high-efficiency and high-power density, the permanent-magnet (PM) brushless machines have been dominating the high-performance industrial applications. However, the problems of high PM material cost, fluctuating supply of rare-Earth materials and ineffective PM flux control have hindered the widespread applications of the PM brushless machines. In recent years, many attentions have been shifted to the magnetless candidates, while the focuses are mainly placed on the classical candidates. In this study, an overview of magnetless brushless machines including both the classical and advanced types is presented, with emphasis on their machine topologies, features and performances. In addition, the upcoming trend of these machines is reviewed and discussed.