Thursday, March 28, 2024

By MIT, an electric 1 MW motor to electrify aviation

The electric motor created by MIT engineers to power even large size aircrafts has the power of 1 megawatt. The motor might also be paired with a conventional jet engine to create a hybrid propulsion system. Until now, in fact, only small full-electric aircrafts have taken off, whereas to electrify larger and heavier jets, like airliners, megawatt motors are needed. The 1-megawatt motor developed by MIT might be a fundamental step towards this direction. For fully electric applications, the team provides the motor can be coupled with a source of electricity such as a battery or a fuel cell. Therefore, the motor could transform the electric energy into mechanical work to power the propellers of an aircraft. The electric machine might also be matched to a conventional turbofan jet engine to operate as hybrid drivetrain, providing electric propulsion during some flight phases. Zoltan Spakovszky, T. A. Wilson Professor of Aeronautics and Astronautics at MIT declared: No matter what we use as an energy carrier (batteries, hydrogen, ammonia, or sustainable aviation fuel) independent of all that, megawatt-class motors will be a key enabler for greening aviation”. The professor added: “This is hard engineering, in terms of co-optimizing individual components and making them compatible with each other while maximizing overall performance. To do this means we have to push the boundaries in materials, manufacturing, thermal management, structures and rotordynamics, and power electronics”. (Picture @Airbus SAS 2023)

Environmental and acoustic impact, the electric motor plays a central role in marine

electrical outlets for charging on boats in the harbor background, horizontal frame

Sima, the Italian company of environmental medicine, has expressed its opinion on the occasion of the last Electric Boat Show. “The reconversion of the over 570,000 leisure boats, 50% of which are under 10 metres, today present in Italy, would contribute in the attainment of 40% of Net Zero targets by 2030, as provided for by EU, and in the decrease of impacts not only of navigation, but also of storage services and the restoration of marine ecosystems in port areas “.
Hence the reflection that the electric boating is an important boost for industry to upgrade the whole naval technology, to frame it in a vision of circular economy with innovative eco-composite materials.
The use of electric boats allows the zeroing of the release of the typical noxious substances of traditional boats, in both water and in atmosphere, such as aromatic and aliphatic hydrocarbons, particulate, fine and ultra-fine particulates, nitrogen and sulphur oxides, mineral oils. Moreover, Sima has underlined how the shift to electric motors drastically decreases the acoustic pollution in the sea, with benefits for the whole marine ecosystem, also implying a notable upsurge in boats’ energy efficiency, increasing it from an average 8% of a means with an endothermic motor to 50% of an electric vehicle.

Loccioni opens the doors to future engineers

One of the key components that in the future will allow the large-scale transition to the electric mobility is the electric axle. Loccioni has embraced this new adventure by developing Axenon, a test bench for e-axle technologies that perform the functional product test at line end, simulating the wheels’ behaviour in different scenarios and collecting data about quality, reliability and performances of each single e-axle. A preliminary assumption to frame a small part of the activity of Loccioni, which has recently hosted the students of the advanced course in Human Centric Engineering SITUM Alumni, who have been guided in a tour through the various work ambits and the current and future opportunities connected with the electrification process.
Important was the contribution by the University of L’ Aquila, which has joined the Polytechnic University of Marche and the University of Perugia in the development of SITUM, because it catches the attention on electrification and its future developments.
The visit in Loccioni laboratories has shown the concreteness of this transition to students. Besides injectors, common rails, pumps and endothermic motors, now inverters, batteries and electric motors must be tested. Even power modules, with SIC semiconductors, core of the electric motor, are the new components of electric vehicles. In addition to e-mobility, in Loccioni there is a lot on show in the front of smart buildings: all 6 laboratories are connected in a micro-grid, 100% electric, whose energy flows coming from renewables are managed by a smart system.

A PhD was born for the study of pumps driven by an electric motor

Vanzetti Engineering, which funds the initiative, and Turin Polytechnics have established a partnership for the implementation of a PhD lasting three years, aimed at the study of pumps driven by an electric motor.
The applications of these machines can be manifold, including the use of a space launcher where pumps will have the task of pressurizing the propellants by bringing them from the tank pressure to that of the combustion chamber, where they react by releasing the energy needed to generate the thrust that allows the rocket to take off.
In the conventional configuration, pumps are driven by dedicated turbines but they can be sometimes replaced by battery-powered electric motors.
The project, exciting for the competences it permits to develop in the ambit of the turbomachine study but also for the fascination of the possible applications, features important advantages for both Turin Polytechnics and for Vanzetti Engineering. “Due to this project, the university further strengthens its collaboration in the sector of the research with companies on the territory while Vanzetti Engineering, specialist in the sector of cryogenic pumps in marine, automotive and industrial ambits, has the opportunity of exploring new possibilities in a technologically advanced and steeply rising sector like the aerospace one”, states Valeria Vanzetti Ghio, sole director of Vanzetti Engineering.

University of Nottingham starts electric motor consultancy

The University of Nottingham has created a business unit for the industrialisation of electrical motors and drive systems, claiming that it is the first UK institution to establish an independent business unit for the industrialisation of electrical motors and drive systems.
Nottingham Drive Specialist Services (NDSS) will provide «bespoke development, manufacturing and testing of electrical motors and drives to support the industrialisation of power electronic converters, electrical machines and drives from design through to manufacture and testing», according to the university.
It is based at the recently opened Power Electronics and Machines Centre (PEMC) and has access to more than £20m of equipment. Funding has come from Research England, Getting Building Fund, D2N2, the Wolfson Foundation and the Driving the Electric Revolution Industrialisation Centre. «Over the past 25 years, we have built up a store of intellectual property on this subject area and making this available for companies to benefit from is a key part of what we are doing to support the drive towards electrification and developing the UK supply chain» said NDSS general manager Hitendra Hirani.
The facilities include Test cells: 2MW, 5MW, 500kW altitude environmental, 120,000rpm; propulsion; aircraft generator and actuator test; Characterisation: magnetic materials and insulation; 3MVA PSU and energy storage emulation and Specialist coil winding: Needle (concentrated and distributed stators), Litz, flat conductor, hairpin (continuous and variable cross-section).

A kit for the hybrid conversion of ambulances is under study

Ambulance racing through city traffic jam on slippery road with slush snow. Car accident on highway.

A University project carried out by Tiziano Montella, Master’s Student in Managerial Engineering at Alma Mater in Bologna, in collaboration with Bonfiglioli, was aimed at defining a hybrid conversion solution for ambulances, based on the use of a kit manufactured by the company, made up by a high-efficiency electric motor and an advanced electronic control system.
The project was organized in two phases. «In the first, we have explored ten different application fields in order to identify new market opportunities for Bonfiglioli products. In the second phase, we have focused on the implementation of a hybrid solution for ambulances, which provides for the replacement of the conventional internal combustion engine with an electric system», the student explained.
The work methodology was focused on the information collection through interviews carried out with a broad range of stakeholders, including nurses, ambulance drivers and vehicle outfitting providers. «Due to this attentive analysis of users’ requirements and preferences, we have developed a customized efficient solution that allows the transition of a conventional vehicle into an ecologically sustainable solution, significantly reducing the environmental impact and improving the energy efficiency. The kit at stake is intended for ambulance outfitting suppliers, which will be able to integrate it easily into their conversion processes».
Moreover the system includes a customized configuration of the motor in P4 position, the latter indicates the motor arrangement on the vehicle’s rear axles (rear 4 wheels), instead of on the front axis. This configuration allows improving the vehicle’s energy efficiency and handiness, since the traction is more uniformly distributed on the four wheels. Furthermore, it enables a higher design freedom and a better balancing of the vehicle’s weight.

Coventry University. More and more hydrogen-power research

Coventry University C-Alps See Simon Shepherd

Europe, and especially UK, pay utmost attention to the tests about the electric and hydrogen trend. In fact, more than ÂŁ4 million of new hydrogen testing contracts have been secured within the Centre for Advanced Low-Carbon Propulsion Systems (C-ALPS) at Coventry University.
The £50 million research centre, a joint investment between the university and global engineering consultancy FEV, is working with some of the world’s leading engine and vehicle manufacturers, electrification start-ups and UK and European research consortia to develop new solutions for e-mobility innovations and zero-emission drive systems.
The success of this venture has been made possible thanks to the close collaboration, with ÂŁ3 million jointly invested over the last two years in the creation of a state-of-art hydrogen research, development and testing facility.
This facility is now capable of evaluating prototypes and pre-production hydrogen propulsion systems for use in trucks, coaches, off-highway machinery, ships, and trains, not to mention light to medium sized aircraft.
Simon Shepherd, Director of C-ALPS, commented: “The latest contracts take the total value of joint projects active and completed at C-ALPS to more than £20 million. This, along with the level of interest we are seeing from collaborators, is a sure sign that we have created the environment and expertise required to support UK companies in meeting future propulsion technology demands”.

Forefront laboratories for the research on electric motors will be set up in Modena

And in this future, the former Foundries in Modena are today at the core of an important redevelopment project that aims at implementing an enormous “innovation hub”, where electric motors will play a central role. Giovanni Franceschini, professor at the Engineering Faculty and already Dean of Unimore Engineering School, has explained the topicality of this area standing out for its great potentialities. «As president of the technical-scientific Committee of Democenter, my missions include seizing the technological challenge represented by the green mobility. So, the National Centre for the sustainable mobility, financed with NRRP resources, was born. Modena is involved in three specific ambits: the first concerns connectivity and autonomous-drive cars, of which Modena is national coordinator, the other two are linked with innovative propulsion, biofuels, hydrogen, fuel cells and electric traction: batteries, inverters and electric motors. The NRRP funds the purchase of equipment to create laboratories and to provide development systems. The idea is to succeed in making a part of the former Foundries a place where implementing these innovative laboratories for the sustainable mobility».
These spaces with academic propensity would represent an excellent opportunity for start-ups and spin offs. Moreover, the whole tertiary training might be moved here. With Democenter, for instance, we have recently started a master dedicated to companies’ employees with “more classic” mechanical education who need to learn how to operate in the new more electric world.

University, an infrastructure to experiment new electric vehicles

University constantly operates in the research and development of an electric future. A scenario that frames also Turin Polytechnics, which has recently presented the CARS-HEV infrastructure for the experimentation of conventional, hybrid and electric vehicles implemented by CARS Inter-department Centre and co-funded by Piedmont Region through European Funds. Everything was presented during an event organized by the Polytechnics in collaboration with FPI Fondazione Piemonte Innova, Mesap, Pole of Mechatronic Innovation and Advanced Manufacturing Systems and AVL Italy.
During the meeting, they described the activity of the Center for Automotive Research and Sustainable Mobility CARS and of the innovative test chamber Hybrid/Electric powertrain and Vehicle Test Facility and they presented as best practices the collaborations with JRC-Joint Research Center, with Stellantis and with AVL.
The infrastructure allows carrying out the test cycles demanded by international regulations, in addition to non-standard drive cycles, like those acquired by the experimentation on the road to validate control strategies of the energy management system, measuring consumptions, efficiency and emissions.
Professor Matteo Sonza Reorda, Vice-Rector of Research for Polytechnics, stated: «Turin Polytechnic, with this new forefront structure has succeeded in orienting the available resources at best, seizing the opportunities offered by INFRA-P announcement by Piedmont Region to support the implementation of new open-access research infrastructures, through which boosting territory’s socio-economic development according to a cooperation between public and private»

India, EVR Motors’ TSRF technology on Napino bicycles and tricycles

EVR Motors is the inventor of a newly designed and patented motor topology – the Trapezoidal Stator – Radial Flux Permanent Magnet (TS – RFPM) topology to develop and manufacture motors for electric two-wheelers in India.
Recently, a partnership has been established between the motor manufacturer and Napino Auto & Electronics. This is EVR Motors’ second partnership in India; earlier it had inked a partnership with Omega Seiki Mobility for the electric three-wheeler segment.
The TSRF technology is said to be distinctive because of its lightweight and compact design. The proprietary TS Topology has a unique trapezoidal tooth shape core structure, which improves flux distribution, reduces leakage, and gives superior heat dissipation with good thermal capacity.
The TS topology can be tailored for a wide variety of requirements and enable multiple variations based on the same design and tooling. The air-cooled motor for two-wheeler application weighs under 7kg, has a diameter of 130mm and is said to be a perfect fit for Indian electric two-wheeler applications. The modular voltage range is between 48- 96V.
The partners will pool in their expertise of designing and manufacturing the all-new TSRF motors at Napino’s manufacturing facility.