Director Systems Integration - Global Technical Team Altair Engineering
There are many design decisions for a motor drive power converter that can impact the performance and operating cost of your complete motor drive system. Understanding the interaction of a particular device, switching speed, PWM algorithm, deadtime, etc. with the motor losses, noise & vibration, control response requires a systematic and automated approach. One of the main challenges is simulation time, a full FEA simulation of the motor along with the power converter will simply take too long. A reduced fidelity FEA model can provide the necessary insight for a broad understanding then enabling key points of interest for full FEA analysis using the same drive waveforms that were used by the lower fidelity model. With a more complete understanding of the efficiency of the system at desired working points or drive cycles we can better calculate the trade-off between initial costs and operating costs. This will allow designers to properly justify more expensive and more efficient components or to properly justify why the added expense just isn’t worth it. This session will go over strategies, insights, and workflows combining a power electronics simulation tool, low frequency electromagnetic FEA, and an automated design of experiments/data analytics tool.
