2009 International Conference on Measuring Technology and Mechatronics Automation

Study on the Operation Region of Induction Traction Motor for Electric Vehicle

Wang wei,Wang Qingnian,Yu Yuanbin,Zeng Zou Naiwei

Xiaohua
State Key Laboratory of Automotive Dynamic simulation, College of Mechanical Engineering,
Jilin University Jiamusi University,
Changchun China Jiamusi China
e-mail:Wangwei5603@sina.com e-mail:zou_wei45@yahoo.comcn

Abstract—The mechanical property curve, efficiency and
speed operation regions of induction traction motor for
electric vehicle are introduced here. According to the vehicle's
driving characteristic, the motor mechanical property curve is
determined. Within the scope of mechanical property region
of the motor, the method of regulating motor efficiency region
is presented. Within the speed region, the relation between
constant torque and constant power region are derived. A
method of confirming optimum base speed ratio is proposed.
Keywords-Electric vehicle, Induction motor, Mechanical
property, Efficiency region, Speed region
and rotor circuit is not linked to any resistance or reactance
is known as the mechanical properties of the natural
mechanical properties. Figure 1 shows the inherent
mechanical properties (the first quadrant). A, B, C, D points
on the curve determine the operated scope of the motor, the
four points are:
1ˊ A point: T=0 ˈn=n0, the motor run without any
load.
2ˊ B point: T=Te, n=ne, the motor run with rated
load.
3ˊ C point: T=Tstˈn=0, the start point.

I. INTRODUCTION
With the development of the machinery manufacturing
technology and automation control technology, direct
current motor, induction motor, permanent magnet motor
and switch reluctance motor, can be as the electric vehicle
traction motor. As a key component for electric vehicle, the
selection of the structure, dynamics characteristics and
parameters of matching for motor directly affect the vehicle
design objectives. Compared to the industrial motor, the
motor for vehicles must have a wide speed range and wide
range torque range, and be expected to run the whole region
in high efficiency. As a result, researching the operation Figure 1. The inherent mechanical properties of motor
region of traction motor on electric vehicle can provide a
reference for improving the electric vehicle’s performance 4ˊ D point: T=Tmax ˈ n=nm, the motor run with
[1] [2].
maximum load.
On the base of traction motor of electric vehicle, this
In the figure, the motor speed is limited in a smaller
article mainly takes induction motor as example, studying
range, at the same time torque can not meet the driving
on the speed –torque profile range of motor, the efficiency
requirements at the lower speed. Therefore the inherent
region and the speed region. A method of regulating the
mechanical properties can not satisfy the requirement of
high efficiency region of motor is presented. Combined with
vehicle driving.
the experience formulation of motor design, a method of
calculating optimum base speed ratio is proposed by an B. Man-made mechanical property
example. In order to meet the electric vehicle driving demand,
II. THE MECHANICAL PROPERTY OF TRACTION MOTOR variable frequency and voltage or vector control are used to
control motor speed or torque. As is shown in the figure 2,
As an important source of Electric vehicle, the traction the mechanical characteristics curve by motor controller has
motor mechanical characteristics determine the range of the the vehicle ideal traction profile.
operation points. The mechanical properties include natural This typical man-made motor drive characteristic can be
mechanical properties and man-made mechanical properties divided into two distinct sections: constant torque region
[3]. and constant power region. The constant power region and
A. Natural mechanical properties constant torque region means that the capacity of motor can
get maximum output torque and maximum output power at
Under rated voltage and rated frequency, with the a certain speed.
provisions of the connection mode, the situation when stator

978-0-7695-3583-8/09 $25.00 © 2009 IEEE 699

DOI 10.1109/ICMTMA.2009.540

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 Figure 2. The mechanical characteristics curve the motor

Figure 3. The efficiency map of generating

The constant torque operation region for speed is from
zero to base speed [4]: In this region, the car usually has to
overcome resistance to get acceleration. What is more, Ac
voltage increases proportional to the current frequency in
this region. The frequency of back electromotive force and
alternating current in rotor almost unchanged, resulting in a
constant torque. The motor output power is in direct
proportion with speed and power is with the linear of the
speed.
The constant power operation region for speed is from
base speed to maximum speed: In this region, there is no
rapid acceleration, so the torque may be reduced as long as
the resistance can be overcome. At the same time, the
inverter provides variable frequency but AC voltage remains
unchanged. The current is also almost unchanged with the Figure 4. The efficiency map of driving
increase of slip frequency. Electromagnetic torque is
inversely proportional to the speed and the motor power The reference [5] introduced a method to control motor
output keeps constant. operation points at the defined rotor angle speed ω and
torque T by some advanced arithmetic. In this pager, the
III. THE EFFICIENCY RANGE OF TRACTION MOTOR other control parameters are changed but remain speed ω
The efficiency of the motor is an important design and torque T unchanged. So the maximum efficiency points
indicator, and the output power of the shaft dividing input of motor will be got as long as the losses of the motor and
power from supply power defines motor efficiency. The inverter are regulated to minimum value.
efficiency region of the motor is consist of low efficiency
region and high-efficiency region. "863" Project of country
requires that high efficiency operation points that the value
is higher than 80% account for more than 50%.As a result,
the efficiency region of the motor directly impact on the fuel
economy of the vehicle .
A. Distribution for motor high efficiency range
In general, when the induction motor is in no-load or
light load, the efficiency is very low only about 20% to
30%. As the motor load increases gradually, the efficiency
increases. In the vicinity of the rated speed and rated load,
the maximum efficiency reaches 75 % to 92%. As is shown
in figure 3 and figure 4, there are generating efficiency and
driving efficiency map of a three-phase AC induction motor,
with rated speed 3600rpm and rated torque 106N. Figure 5. The high efficiency region Vs rated torque

B. The regulating efficiency range of traction motor

The base driving vehicle’s performance requires that the
basic control for the efficiency not only faces the “single
point” or “single line” but the whole operation region of
traction motor. As far as possible the motor operation points
always falls on the high efficiency region. In order to match

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 the operation points with high efficiency, it is necessary for
recalibration the motor efficiency map graphics. On the
condition of meeting the vehicle dynamics requirements, by
regulating the motor rated torque and rated speed to change
the high efficiency region, so the utilization of high
efficiency region is improved. In figure 5, the high
efficiency region 1 moves up and down to the high
efficiency region 2 by regulating the rated load. In figure6,
the high efficiency region 1 moves left and right to the high-
efficiency region 2 by regulating the rated speed.
(N..m)

Tmax1
Figure 7. An ideal vehicle drive characteristics

dv F
= ˄1˅
dt m
1
on

Tmax2
gi
re

In the formula (1): F is the vehicle traction force; m is

the vehicle weight.
n2o
gi
re

The boundary condition is the vehicle accelerates to

n1 n2 nmax
(rpm)
vrv at seconds t f from standstill condition. Equation (1) is
integrated with these boundary conditions:
Figure 6. The high efficiency region Vs rated speed
vrv tf
dv
m³
F ³0
= dt ˄2˅
IV. THE SPEED REGION OF TRACTION MOTOR 0

The motor rated speed and maximum speed are two

Breaking the integral in equation into constant force and
important parameters for motor design, which directly
constant power portion as described in fig 8, the solution is
determine the performance and the cost of motor. The base
speed ratio is motor maximum speed divided by its rated
speed, which determine the constant torque region and § ·
constant power region. The value of ratio is generally is 2̚ ¨ vrm dv vrv dv
¸
5 [2]. m¨ ³ +³ ¸ = tf
˄3˅
¨ 0 Pm vrm P ¸
m
A. The relation of constant-torque region and constant- ¨ v ¸
power region © rm v ¹
The whole traction motor speed region is consist of
constant torque region and constant power region. In the Then the motor power is:
following, the relations of two regions are derived based on
vehicle dynamic theory. m 2
Assuming the electric vehicle run in a fixed shift at all Pm = (vrm + vrv2 ) ˄4˅
the time, then the motor ideal force-speed profile curve turn 2t f
into vehicle traction Vs vehicle speed relation curve as
v The motor base speed ratio is:
shown in the fig 8 [6][7].In the figure 8, rm is the vehicle
v
rated speed corresponding to motor rated speed˗ rv is the vmax nmax
goal speed of vehicle within the required time t f vmax is the ∂= = ˄5˅
vrm ne
maximum speed of vehicle.
To calculate the total traction power of a vehicle, the
constraint commonly imposed on the propulsion unit is the
According to the equation (3) (4);
initial acceleration. The basic objective is to meet the
acceleration performance with minimum power. In the
optimal case, the rolling frictional resistance is zero when
vehicle is running on the road. According to Newton's
second theory˖

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 mvrv2 v2 f e = (1/(1 − s ))nR /(60 / P) ˄9˅
Pm = (1 + 2max2 ) (6)
2t f ∂ vrv
In the formula (8) (9): P is number of pole pairs ˗ f e is
In the formula (5) (6): Pm is the motor maximum power rated frequency of power supply˗ s is slip.
After calculating the power factor for the two motors,
nmax is the motor maximum speed˗ ne is the motor rated
the relation for two motors is the following expression:
speed.
According to the equation (5) and (6), the motor 1
maximum speed is a fixed value while motor rated speed is W2 = W1 ˄10˅
variable. The motor base speed ratio will be changed, so the K3
motor power will gradually reduce. In the formula (10): W1 is the base motor weightˈ W2 is
When the value of vrm is zero, the base speed ratio will the scaled motor weight.
be Ğ and the whole speed region will be constant power With the changing of induction motor rated speed, while
other parameters remain the base values, the curve between
region. In this case, the motor power required is minimum.
the base peed ratio and maximum power , base peed ratio
On the other hand, the motor power will be the twice of the
smallest power of motor if the vehicle runs in the constant and weight are concluded according to the equation ˄6˅
torque region at all the time. Of course, it is impossible for ˄7˅˄10˅as is shown in the figure 8 and figure 9.
motor to always run in the constant torque region. So we can The above figure make evident the gain in motor weight
draw the conclusion: Extending the motor constant power when designing the motor drive for a base speed ratio of 5
region can reduce peak power of the motor under some as opposed to ratio of 3, the weight is increased by 26.7ˁ,
vehicle operation constraints. while the peak power is only reduced by 14.3%. It was
founded that when the optimum base speed ratio is 3, the
B. The traction motor optimum base speed ratio power density for motor, weight and power ratio is
Reference [8] showed that peak power decreases as the effectively improved.
speed ratio above 5 does not lead to any substantial
reduction in the peak power. Considering that such high
ratios are achieved with great design difficulties,
recommended using a ratio of 5 for all motor drives.
Reference [9] considered the relation between weigh and
torque of motor, recommended using a base speed ratio of 5
for all motor drives.
From the basic analysis presented in this section, it is
clear that the comprehensive performance of motor may be
not good with the increase of constant-power region.
According to the design experience formula, take induction
motor for example, the relation for base speed ratio and
weight can be concluded. The scaling factor K as follows [8]
˖
Figure 8. The base speed ratio Vs motor power
1
ª§ n · § P · § cos(σ ) 2 ·º 3
K = «¨ R 2 ¸ ¨ e1 ¸ ¨ ¸» ˄7 ˅
«¬© nR1 ¹ © Pe 2 ¹ © cos(σ )1 ¹ »¼

In the formula(7): nR1 is the base motor rated speed in

rpm ˗ nR 2 is the scaled motor rated speed in rpm; Pe1 is the
base motor rated power in kw˗ Pe 2 is the scaled motor rated
power in kw˗ cos(σ )1 is the base motor power factor ˗
cos(σ )2 is the scaled motor power factor .The power factor
is calculated as a function of the continuous power, number
of pole pairs and frequency using the following expression:
Figure 9. The base speed ratio Vs motor mass
cos(σ ) = 1.08Pe0.015 P −0.08 f e−0.07 ˄8 ˅

V. CONCLUSIONS

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 ķThe paper shows the induction motor performance by [2]
three operation regions which are motor mechanism external
characteristic, motor efficiency and motor speed. Three [3]
regions for induction motor will be the theory guide for the
motor parameters matching of electric vehicle. [4]
ĸ According to the basic requirements of vehicle
driving, a way of regulating motor high efficiency is [5]
presented within the region for motor speed-force profile.
Ĺ The relation of motor constant power region and
motor constant torque region are derived based on the [6]
vehicle running dynamics formula; A method for calculating
the optimum base speed ratio is proposed, and then an [7]
example is given to prove.
ACKNOWLEDGMENT [8]
The paper is supported by the National Natural Science
Foundation of China (Grant No.50705037).
[9]
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