Designing High Power Density Induction Motors

for Electric Propulsion

H. Bülent Ertan M. Salik Siddique Salar Koushan
Atilim University Atilim University Marquette University
Mechatronics Engineering Electrical and Electronics Eng. Sustainable Energy Lab
Department Department Milwaukee, Wisconsin, USA
Ankara, Türkiye Ankara, Türkiye salar.koushan@gmail.com
bulent.ertan@atilim.edu.tr saliksiddik1@gmail.com

Bernardo J. Azuaje–Berbecí
Atilim University
2022 IEEE 20th International Power Electronics and Motion Control Conference (PEMC) | 978-1-6654-9681-0/22/$31.00 ©2022 IEEE | DOI: 10.1109/PEMC51159.2022.9962892

Electrical and Electronics Eng.

Department
Ankara, Türkiye
ORCID 0000-0002-6773-3087

Abstract— Designing high-power-density electric motors for
propulsion has become an increasingly important issue in the
past few decades. This is not only because electric vehicles are
projected to become the main private transportation means in
near future, but also because of the ever so important metro and
railway transport requirements. Along with these application
areas, electric aircraft propulsion is also coming into focus in
recent years. Electric motors for traction are required to have
high torque density, high efficiency over a wide speed range and
are required to be robust. In recent years, permanent magnet
(PM) motors became the favorite choice for such applications
because of their higher efficiency than other types of motors.
Increasing demand for permanent magnets is likely to cause
supply problems. Therefore, permanent magnet-free alternative
motor types are of much interest. In this paper, the authors
present the design of a 125 kW induction motor for railway
application. This design has 3-times the power density of a
commercial induction motor. The designed motor is
manufactured and its test results are used for establishing an
accurate finite-element model for the prediction of its
performance. This model is used to investigate the effect of
magnetic loading choice, slot shape and magnetic material
choice on the efficiency of the motor. It is shown that with the
same basic dimensions the efficiency of the motor can be
increased to 96% which is comparable with a similar size PM
motor.
Keywords— traction motor, efficiency, high power density,
losses
I. INTRODUCTION
Electric propulsion has become an increasingly important
issue in the past few decades. This is not only because electric
vehicles are projected to become the main private
transportation means shortly, but also because of ever so
important metro and railway transportation requirements in
crowded cities. Aircraft propulsion is also coming into focus
in recent years. In such applications, the motor generally
operates in a wide speed range controlled by a variable-speed
driver. The space available for the motor and drive is usually
limited. This requirement dictates designing compact motors
Compactness alone, however, is not sufficient. In electric
cars the energy supply is limited, in metro and train
applications, although energy is available, it is very important
to improve the operational cost because of the ever-increasing
energy price.
Permanent magnet motors in principle have higher
efficiency since they do not have any secondary copper loss.
However, with the increasing demand for permanent magnets,
the likelihood of facing supply problems cannot be
overlooked.
There are also other issues regarding the use of PM motors
in metro train applications. Such trains often have short
distances between stations. Therefore, their operations involve
repetitive periods of acceleration, coasting, and braking. In
coasting operation, the generated EMF by the motor must be
limited to the inverter DC link level to avoid damage to the
converter. This may affect the benefits of PM’s. Another issue
in using PM motors for railway applications arises because
such motors are operated with a dedicated converter. Whereas
when induction motors are used for the same application, two
motors can be driven by a single converter which saves space
and is more cost-effective.
Metro train motor drives are typically required to have a
torque speed characterized as shown in Fig. 1. As can be
followed from this figure, the speed range is quite wide. As a

This research is funded by the Turkish Scientific and Technological Fig. 1. Traction effort diagram of the reference motor
Research Council and Elsan A.S. project no:5150086.

978-1-6654-9681-0/22/$31.00 ©2022 IEEE 553

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 TABLE I. COMPARISON OF MEASURED AND FE PREDICTED PERFORMANCE OF REFERENCE MOTOR (N=36)
MOOG Brno test Lab. FEA Open Slot Motor
Frequency (Hz) 32 70 125 32 70 125
Voltage 230.4 504 504 230.4 503.7 504
Current (A, rms) 176,4 176,5 170,3 172 173.2 171
Friction & windage (W) 77 354 1614 77 354 1614
Stator copper loss (kW) 2.96 2.96 2.76 2.81 2.86 2.78
Core loss (kW) 0.98 2.58 1.64 0.98 2.68 2.00
Power factor 0.88 0.86 0.903 0.89 0.86 0.89
Input power (kW) 62.047 133.668 134.505 61.500 131.500 133.780
Output power (kW) 55. 8 125 125 55.2 126 125.5
Efficiency %, direct (no fan loss) 90 93.5 92.9 89.9 93.7 93.2
Rotor Cu loss (kW) 1.91 1.87 2 2.38 2.6 2.6
Torque (Nm) 574.7 576 323.1 571 580 325
Speed (rpm) 928.3 2072.5 3694.7 926.87 2067.3 3687.67
Total loss, indirect+fan (kW) 6.27 8.11 8.36 6.21 8.22 8.92
efficiency 0.898 0.939 0.937 0.898 0.938 0.933
From FE

consequence, from the point of view of energy efficiency, at the 3-frequencies the motor is tested. Notice that the stator
what is important is the energy efficiency of the motor over its copper loss, rotor copper loss and core loss are predicted with
driving cycle. It must be noted that energy in the braking phase about 1% accuracy at 70 Hz supply frequency.
of the cycle becomes very important as well, in improving
drive efficiency. In section II of this paper, the loss components of the
induction motor are considered and interpreted. Section III
Given the better efficiency and more compact structure of discusses how each of these loss components can be reduced
PM motors, at the beginning of the century, major producers using the verified FE model. In Section IV conclusions are
of traction motors considered PM traction motors for their presented.
applications. However, no significant success has been
reported [1]. Some research papers examine the energy II. REFERENCE INDUCTION MOTOR AND ITS LOSSES
efficiency of induction and PM motors over a given drive
cycle. In [2] it is shown that PM motors have higher energy The reference motor is a 125 kW, 4-pole 3-phase
efficiency as compared to induction motors over the operating induction motor. Its rated voltage is 504 volts at 70-Hz. As
speed range, Whereas, in [3] it is shown that when a certain can be observed from Fig. 2, this motor is force cooled by an
operating cycle is considered induction motors have better external fan rated at 0.37 kW, providing clean cooling air.
energy efficiency. The cross-section of the motor lamination is presented in Fig.
3. The stator slots are the open type to allow easy preformed
In this paper, the authors investigate how induction motor coil insertion. The rotor bars are copper and brazed to copper
efficiency can be improved by design choices and whether end rings. The core is manufactured using 0.5 mm Cogent
similar efficiency levels to PM motors can be achieved. By Steel 50JN530 laminations.
identifying factors that reduce motor losses, one can design an
induction traction motor with the highest possible efficiency The efficiency of the test motor is 93.4% and is similar to
for a given application. Higher efficiency means the losses of the commercial motors of this motor power rating. This figure
the motors will be smaller and therefore with the same cooling however is lower than a comparable size PM motor which
arrangement more power can be produced, increasing the would have efficiency in the range 94-96% [3]. This paper is
power density of a motor. Therefore, the first issue is to an attempt to explore whether it is possible to the test increase
analyze the component of losses of an induction machine.
Once these are identified solutions for reducing each loss
component can be sought.
To study the problem at hand, the authors used a traction
induction motor developed and manufactured for Ankara
metro system. The torque-speed performance of this motor is
given in Fig. 1. This motor is thoroughly tested in compliance
with IEC standards.
Next finite-element (FE) model of the motor is developed
and the accuracy of the model in predicting the performance
and losses prototype motor is tested by comparing the FE
model predictions with the test results at 70 Hz base
frequency and also at 32 Hz and 125 Hz (Table I). As seen in
Table I, the prediction accuracy of the FE model is excellent, Fig. 2 The reference motor and its cooling arrangement.

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 TABLE II. INVESTIGATION OF MAGNETIC LOADING EFFECT ON OVERALL
LOSSES F = 70 HZ

Turn per phase 30 36 42

Voltage (V) 504 504 504
Power Output (kW) 126 125.2 125.5
Magnetic loading (T) 0.68 0.57 0.47
Current loading (A/mm) 42.9 43.7 50.25
Current (A) 194.3 173.2 169
Power factor 0.78 0.88 0.9
Rated speed (rpm) 2077 2067 2054
Rated torque (Nm) 580 580 580
Total core loss (kW) 2.84 2.68 1.95
Total Cu loss (kW) 4.95 5.46 7.19
Fig. 3. Lamination of the open slot reference motor
Total loss + ext fan (kW) 8.47 8.84 9.84
Efficiency % with fan 93.7 93.4 92.7
the efficiency of the motor while keeping its physical
loss
dimensions unchanged.
To achieve this purpose, the losses of the motor should be numbers are possible, however, in the investigation here three
reduced. This can be done by studying the motor loss turn numbers that allow magnetic loading to vary in the 0.5
distribution and understanding the causes of each loss T-0.7 T range are considered. Table II presents the results of
component and improving the design to reduce these losses. this investigation.

The two main loss components of a given motor are core
loss and copper loss. In addition, the power required by the
cooling arrangement and the stray losses affect the motor
efficiency. In the investigation here, the cooling loss is
assumed to remain unchanged.
Core loss is due to eddy current and hysteresis loss. A
significant component of core loss is the rotor surface loss,
which is due to the air gap harmonics. Each of these loss
components is investigated for the reference motor for
different magnetic loading conditions and presented in Table
III.
Copper loss in an induction motor is composed of the
stator winding copper loss and rotor cage (or winding) copper
loss. The calculation of stator copper loss is quite
straightforward as the motor current is sinusoidal, even when
the motor is driven by an inverter. On the other hand, the rotor
copper loss calculation is not so straightforward. This is
because the air gap harmonics cause eddy current loss in the
rotor core and additional copper loss in the rotor bars
depending on their penetration depth.
Please notice that contribution of the core loss and copper
loss components are dependent on the frequency of operation
of the motor. Therefore, any solution offered to reduce these
losses must be effective throughout the range of frequencies
a particular motor operates. As a first step, this paper
investigates the effects of some of the possible means of
reducing these losses only at the rated frequency of 70 Hz.
The following sections consider the means of reducing loss
components of the reference motor.
A. Air Gap Flux Density Level and Losses
The first thing that comes to mind for reducing overall
losses is to seek the air gap flux density level (or flux per pole)
that reduces the overall losses of the motor. For this purpose,
a series of simulations are made with different turn numbers
(corresponding to different magnetic loadings). Other turn
Table II indicates that about a 5% reduction in losses of the
reference motor is possible by increasing the magnetic
loading level in the core. This is mainly due to the reduction
in ohmic losses of the motor because of increased conductor
cross-section. Notice that the conductor cross-section is
increased which results in reduced phase resistance. Note also
that the motor current inevitably increases when the turns per
phase is reduced.
III. MEASURES FOR REDUCTION OF MOTOR LOSSES
In order to propose means of reducing the core losses of
the reference motor, the distribution of the core loss in
various parts of the magnetic circuit is investigated. In
segregating the losses, stator tooth loss, stator back core loss
motor frame loss, rotor teeth loss, and rotor back core loss are
considered. Table III displays how much core loss occurs in
various parts of the stator magnetic circuit. Core loss in
different sections of the core is calculated by defining a non-
model object in solving the magnetic field using Ansys
software [5]. Please note that the frame loss reaches up to 1.7
% of total motor loss at the highest magnetic loading levels.
When the rotor side core losses are investigated it can be
observed that within the first 4 mm of the rotor teeth more
than 60% of the rotor side core losses occur, when the airgap
flux density is higher. This corresponds to about 15% of the
total core loss. It is decided to investigate whether this loss
component can be reduced and if so how much reduction is
possible.
A. Air gap slot harmonics and surface loss reduction
It is known that the air gap field contains harmonics of
higher order, dominated by slotting harmonics [4]. According
to [4] if the rotor is rotating at speed (1-s)ns rpm, stator slot
harmonics in the air gap can be expressed as in (1)
(1 − 𝑠) (1)
𝑓𝑟𝑠 ≅ 𝑛
𝑠
𝑍
60 1

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 TABLE IV. REFERENCE MOTOR AIR GAP HARMONICS AT 70 HZ
SUPPLY FREQUENCY

Flux density B peak (T)

Harmo. Penet. Open narrow s New New
Harmo.
Freq. depth slot opening mater. mater.
No Hz mm open s closed s
1 70 - 0.835 0.83 0.833 0.825
3 210 22.5 0.0073 - - -
5 350 13.5 0.013 - - -
7 490 9.64 0.027 0.025 0.027 0.025
9 630 7.5 0.003 - - -
15 1050 4.5 0.011 0.023 0.0032 0.01
17 1190 3.97 0.264 0.15 0.269 0.16
Fig. 4. Semi-closed stator slot opening lamination 19 1330 3.5 0.189 0.09 0.19 0.11
TABLE III CORE LOSSES IN VARIOUS PARTS OF THE MOTOR AND 22 1540 3 0.086 0.1 0.08 -
COPPER LOSSES FROM FE ANALYSIS FS=70 HZ 24 1680 2.8 0.082 0.1 0.08 -

Turns per phase 30 36 42

𝑇𝑝 𝑓𝑠 (3)
Voltage (line) (V) 504 504 504 𝛿𝑛 =
𝜋 𝑓𝑛
Current (A) 194.3 173.2 169
S (kVA ) 170.3 151.2 147.53 Where fs is the supply frequency and fn is the nth harmonic
Power Factor 0.78 0.88 0.9 frequency.
Rated speed (rpm) 2077 2067 2054
Rated torque (Nm) 580 580 580 FFT analysis of the air gap flux density distribution of the
Output power (kW) 126 125.2 125.5 test motor is performed for the reference motor at 70 Hz
ROTOR CORE LOSS
supply frequency. Slot harmonic frequency in this operating
Rotor tooth 4mm core (kW) 0.4 0.35 0.30
condition corresponds to the 18th harmonic. The results in
Table IV confirm that indeed the largest air gap harmonic is
Rotor tooth 4 to 9 mm (kW) 0.2 0.2 0.17
due to stator slotting. Important harmonics frequencies, and
Rest of rotor teeth (kW) 0.1 0.1 0.08
their flux density magnitude, and the penetration depth of
Rotor back core (W) 7 5 3
each frequency can be followed from Table IV.
FEA CORE LOSS ROTOR kW) 0.7 0.6 0.5
STATOR CORE LOSS It can be observed that significant harmonics can
Stator tooth 4mm (kW) 0.26 0.25 0.25 penetrate about 4 mm into the rotor teeth from the rotor
Stator tooth 4-9 mm (kW) 0.23 0.23 0.2 surface. Other harmonics penetrate up to 9 mm. Further down
Rest of Stator tooth loss (kW) 0.7 0.65 0.4 the rotor teeth, the air gap harmonics are not expected to have
Stator back core loss (kW) 0.77 0.78 0.55 a significant effect. From these findings, it can be concluded
FEA stator core loss (kW) 2 1.95 1.4 that reducing the magnitude of the air gap harmonics would
FRAME CORE LOSS
reduce surface loss.
FEA frame core loss (W) 140 70 50 The reference motor has open slots as shown in Fig. 3.
ROTOR BAR LOSS This facilitates easy placement of preformed coils.
Rotor Cu 4mm (kW) 0.7 0.75 1.1 Alternative coil types can be used and slot openings can be
Rotor Cu 4mm-9mm (kW) 0.58 0.65 0.9 made smaller. With this idea in mind, the stator slot opening
Rest of rotor Tooth (kW) 0.65 0.72 0.95 is reduced to 2.68 mm as shown in Fig. 4. The FE solution
Total rotor bar loss 1.93 2.12 2.95 for semi-closed slot geometry is obtained. When the air gap
STATOR COPPER LOSS flux density harmonic analysis is performed, it is found that
Stator Cu loss (kW) 2.53 2.87 3.7 the harmonic content of the air gap flux density distribution
Efficiency % no fan 93.95 93.69 92.99 is greatly reduced as can be followed in Table IV. The
harmonic flux density magnitudes also display a drastic
reduction.
Where frs is the frequency of the stator slot harmonics with
respect to the rotor, Z1 is the number of stator teeth and s is For comparison purposes, the losses of the motor with
the slip. Such harmonics are known to create a traveling wave semi-closed slots are calculated and compared with the motor
[4]. Therefore, the penetration of these harmonics can be magnetic circuit with an open slot case in Table V, in the first
calculated from (2) two columns. When the results presented in these columns
𝑇𝑝 𝑃 are inspected it can be observed that by reducing the slot
𝛿𝑟𝑠 = (2)
𝜋 2𝑍1 opening to about 30% of its original value, rotor copper loss
is reduced about 0.63 kW, i.e. by 30%. Most of the reduced
Where Tp is the stator pole pitch and P is the number of bar copper loss is in the first 9 mm of the bar from the rotor
poles. A series of other air gap harmonics will also exist. surface. This indicates that smaller copper loss is due to
Therefore, a general expression for the penetration of the nth reduced air gap flux density harmonics. The rotor core loss is
harmonic can be written as in (3). also reduced significantly from 0.7 kW to 0.125 kW, as this
loss is mostly due to Eddy currents loss caused by air gap

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 TABLE V CORE AND COPPER LOSSES FOR OPEN AND SEMI-CLOSED SLOTS FOR TWO DIFFERENT CORE MATERIALS (FS=70 HZ)
Semi-Closed New mat. New mat. Open
Open slot slot Closed slot slot
Voltage (V) 504 504 504 504
Power Out (kW) 126 126 125.2 125.6
Friction windage loss (kW) 0.35 0.35 0.35 0.35
Stator Cu Loss (kW) 2.53 2.5 2.55 2.53
Rotor Cu Loss (kW) 2.4 1.67 1.45 1.98
End ring Loss (kW) 0.47 0.42 0.19 0.28
Bar loss (kW) 1.93 1.25 1.26 1.7
Teeth 0-4 mm (kW) 0.7 0.55 0.54 0.7
Teeth 4-9 mm (kW) 0.58 0.3 0.31 0.45
Total core loss (kW) 2.84 2.34 0.84 0.87
Rotor core loss (kW) 0.7 0.125 0.051 0.12
Teeth 0-4 mm (kW) 0.4 0.03 0.015 0.07
Teeth 4-9 mm (kW) 0.2 0.035 0.02 0.03
Total losses (kW) 8.12 6.86 5.19 5.73
Power factor 0.78 0.79 0.76 0.76
Efficiency (including cooling fan loss) 93.7 94.6 95.8 95.3

harmonics. As a consequence total losses of the motor
excluding f&w (friction & windage) are reduced from 7.77
kW to 6.86 kW. Due to the reduction in losses, the overall
efficiency of the motor increases to nearly 95%.
B. Employing better materials for loss reduction
:ieee-mce@ieee.orgWhen Table V is investigated it can be
observed that even with semi-closed slots, the core loss of the
motor still remains about 30% of the total losses of the motor.
It is therefore worthwhile to find out whether the core loss
can be further reduced by employing better magnetic core
material. In this study, 10JNEX900 with the B-H
characteristics given in Fig5 is used to study this issue. The
loss/kg characteristic of this material is given in Fig. 6. Fig. 5
and Fig. 6 also present the B-H and loss/kg characteristics of
the 50JN530 core material which is used to produce the
reference motor.
Fig. 5. Magnetization characteristics of the materials tested. (As
specified in ANSYS software)
Fig. 6. Loss/kg characteristics of the materials tested. (As specified
in ANSYS software)
The reference motor geometry is simulated with
10JNEX900 lamination material with both open slots and
semi-closed slots at the rated power of the reference motor.
The result of the FE solutions is presented in the last two
columns of Table V.
From the results presented in Table V, it can be observed
that the new material motor with open slot geometry (last
column) has about 30% less core loss. Rotor copper loss is
also reduced by about 15%. Total losses of the motor are also
reduced from about 8 kW for the original motor to 5.7 kW.
Consequently, the efficiency of the motor rises to 95.3%.
The 3rd column of Table V presents the solution results
when the motor slots are semi-closed. As one would expect
there is little change in the stator core loss. On the other hand,
the rotor core loss is further reduced to almost a negligible
value, due to reduced surface loss. Meanwhile, it can also be
observed that the rotor bar loss is reduced by 25% to 1.45 kW.
Notice that the stator copper losses remain unchanged. The
motor efficiency, with the new magnetic material and semi-
closed slots, reaches nearly 96%. This is the efficiency level
one would expect from an equivalent PM motor today.
IV. CONCLUSIONS
Permanent magnet use is expected to increase steeply in
the coming years. Considering this issue, the authors of this
paper investigated what needs to be done in designing
induction motors with comparable power density to PM
motors, for traction applications. Notice that this requires
reducing the total losses of induction motors.
The study here points out that at the design stage;
 Magnetic loading of the motor should be adjusted so
that the overall motor losses are minimized, although
this may mean that the motor power factor is lower and
the rated current is higher. However, the increase is
limited to about 10% which is not expected to
noticeably increase motor drive cost.
 Surface loss of the rotor side is an important proportion
of the overall motor loss. Slot design must be made by
keeping this issue in mind to reduce air gap flux density

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 harmonics. Note that the air gap size may also be used
to reduce the mentioned harmonics in the air gap. [1]
 There are better magnetic materials in the market now.
The material choice is very important to improve motor
efficiency.
[2]
 The frameless design of the motor must be considered
to reduce motor losses.
 There are other options not discussed here for reducing
[3]
the losses of an induction motor. For example, higher
conductivity materials may be considered for the rotor
cage.
[4]
This paper provides many clues on how to approach
designing a high-efficiency motor by reducing its losses.
Reduction of motor losses means that the cooling also
[5]
requires less power and this also helps to improve the
efficiency of the motor. Lower loss in a given volume may be
used to increase motor power density.
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