Accelerating Electric Motor Design and Analysis

The demand for greater power efficiency is driving demand for more efficient electric motors across sectors—from electric vehicle development to electrification efforts in the industrial market. Increasing demand for new, innovative and efficient designs has decreased development cycle times. This has put more pressure on engineers to make design decisions faster and with much more confidence in the final product.

Engineers in the electric motor space who are seeking a way to accelerate their work while improving the quality of their final designs to meet this demand will be interested in checking out this new electric motor design tool from ANSYS. 

Through an agreement with Motor Design Limited, ANSYS will distribute that company’s Motor-CAD product, combined with its own multiphysics analysis tools, which extends simulation into the design phase of electrical machine product development. 

ANSYS Motor-CAD is a dedicated electric machine design tool for fast multiphysics simulation across the full torque-speed operating range, according to the company. The software enables engineers to evaluate motor topologies and concepts across the full operating range, and to produce designs that are optimized for performance, efficiency and size. 

ANSYS is hosting a webinar on November 7 to introduce the new solution.

The software includes four integrated modules:

• EMag, which uses a combination of 2D finite element (FE) and analytical algorithms for fast calculation of electromagnetic performance;
• Therm, the industry-standard tool for thermal analysis of electric machines;
• Lab, which enables rapid and accurate analysis of an electric machine design over the full operating envelope; and
• Mech, a 2D FEA-based solution for analyzing stress and displacement in rotors during operation.

Together, these modules enable fast, iterative multiphysics calculations that can accelerate the entire design process. Motor-CAD’s template-based setup simplifies and automates the analysis process, while its built-in electromagnetic, thermal and mechanical solvers offer valuable multiphysics insights into a motor design. 

Simulations can be completed in just a few seconds. For deep analysis and design validation, the Motor-CAD model can be transferred to ANSYS Maxwell, ANSYS Icepak and ANSYS Fluent—providing high-fidelity, 2D/3D analysis of demagnetization, core loss, hysteresis and other advanced electromagnetic phenomena.

The result: Engineers have more time to fully explore the design space, while creating efficient, compliant designs that meet the increasingly stringent needs of the industry.

“The addition of Motor-CAD to the ANSYS electric machine design flow creates a complete end-to-end workflow for electric machine design. Its ease of use and single application focus allow ANSYS to expand the electric machine design workflow to the concept design engineering teams earlier in the development process,” said Steve Pytel, senior director, product management at ANSYS, when the new offering was announced in early October. “For deep analysis and validation, the Motor-CAD model can be transferred to ANSYS solvers, delivering high-fidelity, 2D and 3D analysis capabilities.” 

Check out the new ANSYS Motor-CAD solution, and register for the company’s upcoming webinar, “Introducing ANSYS Motor-CAD,” on November 7.

Thanks for reading DE.

—The editors