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Out of the general desire to simplify the mechanical Typical power-to-weight ratio of different motors
aspects of the project, it was decided that each of the types are given in Table 1. This parameter shows
rear wheels of the kart will be directly connected to how much power can be drawn from electrical
separate motor, which might add some complexity machine per one mass unit.
to the control but also allow great many further
features, for example the implementation of an Table 1. Motor kW/kg ratio
electronic differential, which might not be especially
Special PM DC AC Special
important for a small kart, but it is an obvious part of
purpose DC series Squirrel- purpose
any full size car.
PM DC excited cage AC
1. Parameters of the Drive System
0.3 0.14 0.09 0.17 0.75
Any equipment (not only electrical) is estimated
from the point of view of its supply, load and
specific features. In the context of choice of electric According to Table 1. and the approximate power of
drive the supply is an autonomous electrical energy the motor, the probable weight of the motor is
source, load is estimated through its mechanical assumed to be about 20 kg. This gives a total weight
parameters (weight, top speed, acceleration and for the kart of around 200 kg.
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1.3. Top Speed 2. Electrical Drives
As it was mentioned above one of the main goals is With the different parameters selected, the next step
to match the performance of the combustion engine. is to choose the drive system for the electric kart.
The top speed is chosen to be 60 km/h, in order to There is no definite best solution for an electric drive
show reasonable performance in comparison to system. So, different configurations of the drive
commercial karts, while still aiming to design a should be analyzed in respect to needed performance
model for academic research, which involves certain of the system.
safety limitations. The analysis includes DC motors with permanent
If the wheel diameter is known to be 0,29 m then the magnet and electric excitement, AC squirrel-cage
motor rotational speed can be calculated as: motors, AC permanent magnet synchronous motors
and suitable power electronic converter for each
V machine.
n= = 1099 rpm , (1)
πD 2.1. DC Machines
where n is the rotational speed of the wheel, V – the
DC machines are the oldest machines introduced in
top velocity and D is the wheel diameter. The
the market, but even though, they still show good
resulting velocity is less common for industrial
characteristics. DC machines can be driven with
motors, and for this reason it was decided to use a
simple and efficient circuits with low number of
gearing mechanism with a ratio of 3:1 which means
components, and are widely available.
the top speed of the motor should be 3297 rpm.
Downsides of DC machines are their relatively high
1.4. Power
maintenance needs (due to wearing out of the
The required power of the motor can be calculated brushes), their relatively high weight and the effect
from the parameters derived in the previous sections. of sparking of the collector can exclude them from
being used in many environments.
Assuming the kart is moving at constant maximal
acceleration, from 0km/h to top speed, the maximal The most common DC machine for vehicle
power can be calculated according to: applications is the series excited motor whose
characteristic curve is shown in Fig. 1. Such
W F ⋅s m⋅a⋅s characteristic curve can support an stable operation
P= = = , (2) of the motor at any mechanical load above 25% of
t t t
its nominal load. The motors torque is proportional
where m is the mass of the kart, a – the maximal to the squared current through the motor which is
acceleration of the kart, s – the distance passed important when handling overload situation.
during the acceleration to top speed and t is the time
that that acceleration took.
The time t is chosen to be 6 seconds following
M, n
empirical assessment.
The distance d can be calculated according to:
a ⋅t2
s = V ⋅t − (3)
2
Acceleration a can be calculated according to:
V
a= (4)
t
Combining equations (3), (4) and equation (2) gives:
Fig. 1. Characteristic curve of series excited DC
mV 2 motor
P= = 4,6 kW (5)
2t
Another DC machine architecture which is growing
In order to simplify the selection of the motor it was more popular due to improvements in magnets
decided to take this maximal power into account as technology is the permanent magnet DC motor
the rated value. Then the motor must be chosen with whose characteristics are similar to those of the
rated power higher than the calculated one in separate excitation motors (Fig. 2.). The permanent
equation (5) in order to over come possible magnet motor has some good properties in respect to
inaccurecies in the given parameters of different the series excited motor, such as a lighter weight and
elements in the kart and also losses in the system also a higher efficiency due to the lack of an electric
that are not apearing in the above calculations. excitation.
30
Such choice is defined by the start-up characteristics
of synchronous motors.
M, n
2.3. Practical considerations
On the one hand the AC machines have better
efficiency and higher reliability. They are also less
expensive. This is especially evident on large power
rate motors. At the power rates discussed in this
article for the mentioned kart (under 10 kW), the
difference is getting less significant.
However, as can be seen in Table 2, even the
simplest power converter for AC machine has a
Fig. 2 Characteristic curve of a PM DC motor significantly higher part count and thus a more
complicated control and higher costs.
DC machines are available in low rated voltages
which are suitable for personal electric vehicles (like Table 2. Optimal number of switches needed per
the kart) that are likely to run on low voltage machine
batteries. Since the voltage source for the kart is, as
mentioned, most likely to be a DC voltage source, Voltage source Regenerative
then the use of a DC machine is much simpler. If matches rated braking DC AC
there is no need for regenerative braking then a motor voltage
simple buck-boost circuit, using only one switch, is
sufficient to control the motor. The control strategy Yes Yes 2 6
in this case is voltage PWM that is done through No Yes 4 7
commutation of the converter’s switch.
Yes No 1 6
The kart described in this paper includes
regenerative braking. Hence, a more sophisticated No No 1 7
circuit should be chosen (such as a full bridge
converter or split-pi converter). This will require
more switches and more complicated control, thus Table 2 is written under the following assumptions:
increasing the size and cost of the whole system. 1. An AC machine is a 3 phase one. This
2.2. AC Machines means a full bridge, consisting of 6
switches, is necessary for controlling the
AC machines are very common industrial machines. speed of the machine. Single phase AC
AC drives have no built-in mechanical commutation machines exist, however they are rare and
device like the brushes in DC machines. This almost less successful.
removes the need of maintenance and allows a
completely sealed package that allows working even 2. Changing the voltage source voltage can be
in hazardous environments. AC machines usually done with a simple step-up DC/DC
have slightly higher efficiency than DC machines converter which requires a single switch.
and also a better power-to-weight ratio (especially The number switches is taken as indicator for the
for high power rates). complexity and cost of the control circuit since it is
However, when they are fed from a DC supply and one of the more expensive components and
when there is a need for a good control over the definitely requires the most control effort.
motors speed, AC machines requires an inverter
3. Selected system
since their speed is controlled by the frequency of
the applied voltage not by its magnitude. The need Compiling all the parameters, a DC motor was
for an inverter is posing a complexity of the control chosen:
system and its cost as well as decreasing the overall
safety of the drive. • Manufacturer Mars Electric LLC
U
n
P I
References
1. M. Ehsani, Y. Gao, A. Emadi, Modern Electric,
Hybrid Electric, and Fuel Cell Vehicles
Fundamentals, Theory and Design, second
edition, CRC Press, 2010
Fig. 4 Split-Pi converters schematic 2. S. Leitman, B. Brant, Build your own Electric
A split-Pi converter was chosen since it gives all the Vehicle, second edition, McGraw-Hill
above qualities with minimal switch count (4). It has Companies, 2009
relatively simple design and high theoretical 3. B. S. Guru, H. R. Hiziroglu, Electric Machinery
efficiency of 96% [6]. Split-Pi is essentially a boost and Transformers, third edition, Oxford
converter followed by a buck converter. The circuit University Press, 2001
(Fig. 4.) allows bi-directional current flow which in 4. J. Dirba, K. Ketners, Elektriskās Mašīnas, RTU
turn allows regenerative braking [5] that suits the Izdevniecība, 2009
kart needs. 5. http://www.greenenergytechnologies.eu/
6. British Patent GB2376357B
http://en.academic.ru/dic.nsf/enwiki/11238610
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