Electrical machines and drives

The research regarding electrical drives is related mainly to modelling, dynamic behaviour and control of electric drives (e.g. induction machines, permanent magnet synchronous machines, switched reluctance motors, …), to electric machine design (e.g. losses in machines, electromagnetic noise of machines, …) and to power electronics for electrical drives (including both DC-AC inverters and DC-DC converters).

Present Research

• Axial-flux permanent magnet machines with high efficiency and power density
• Integrated Modular Motor Drives
• Synchronous reluctance machines
• Magnetic materials for high-speed electrical machines
• Condition monitoring and active fault compensation of electrical machines
• High-speed electrical machines
• Analytical modeling of electrical machines

• High performance cooling of electrical machines

• Electrical Variable Transmission
• Sensorless control of permanent magnet drives
• Direct Torque Control of Permanent Magnet Synchronous Machines
• Identification of electrical machines
• Image Registration of Electrical Drives
• Line-Start Permanent Magnet Machines
• Design of Electrical Machines for Sustainable Energy Applications
• Additive Manufacturing for Electrical Machines

Past Research

• Sensorless control of switched reluctance drives
• Multi level converters for AC-motors
• Optimal design of switched reluctance motors

Available Expertise 

• Numerical Analysis of Electrical Machines
Numerical field calculation methods for machine design and analysis: finite element tools in 2D and 3D, time and frequency domain methods have been developed and are used for e.g. magnetic noise analysis, optimal design of machines, …  

• Modelling and simulation of electrical machines and drives: the lab has a long-standing (more than 30 years) expertise in non-linear dynamic modelling and identification of electrical machines and drives. Using a combination of numerical and analytical methods several pioneering principles and results regarding e.g. saturation modelling have been obtained. 
• Digital Control of Electrical Drives
The lab has thorough theoretical and practical experience in digital control, applied not only for control of power electronic converters but also for drive control (e.g. discrete time direct torque control of induction machines) (Zie Digital_control.doc)

Experimental Facilities

The machine lab has numerous test benches for electrical machines and drives with controllable DC and AC supplies, several load machines, VXI data acquisition systems, torque, current and voltage sensors and position resolvers or encoders.

Integrated Modular Motor Drives