E-Mobility Development

Gonçalo Pereira, Principal Applications Engineer at Altair presents at the 2019 UK e-Mobility Seminar. Trade-off Studies between Battery Pack, e-Motor, Range etc. System Model Generation to Explore Sensitivities.

Nowadays, it is more and more challenging to design an e-motor. Many constraints have to be fulfilled, including maximizing power using minimal size, considering thermal constraints, material and production costs, and of course reducing weight. In order to meet these constraints, a multifaceted solution is needed, leveraging physics tools in combination with optimization methods. This webinar will introduce Altair's e-motor design and optimization solutions in a step by step process. We will discuss pre-design, magnetic computation and thermal analysis and show how optimization methods can help to optimize weight and cost at each step of the process (especially the weight of magnets) . We’ll demonstrate how Design Of Experiments (DOEs) allows designers to run different types of optimization very quickly, which enables informed decisions at different stage of the design cycle.

Peter Snape, Crash Technical Specialist at Altair presents at the UK e-Mobility seminar 2019. Developing a 5-star EV (eg. Specific Legislation FMVSS305). Exploiting Crashworthiness Opportunities of EV Architectures.

This presentation introduces an application of a unique, highly automatic, multi-physics design strategy for E-motors, based on a current program at Mercedes-AMG GmbH. The strategy considers essential development requirements including electromagnetics and thermal requirements, NVH, stress and durability. It accommodates for DOE, multi-objective optimization and design exploration methods to be used to explore and find feasible motor designs. The presentation will show how the strategy adds efficiency to the E-motor development process and how it impacts the total costs of development.

Presentation by Frank Cord Lohmann, Project Manager at Altair.

The steady shift from conventional (combustion) powertrains to hybrid or full electric powertrains goes hand in hand with a steady increase in traction battery size, power and capacity. While passive cooling (air cooling) might have been sufficient for smaller HEV and BEV batteries, current battery setups for full electric vehicles very much require active cooling to ensure battery performance, durability and operational safety. Therefore, the design of battery cooling systems is a critical aspect of overall traction battery design.

As a rule of thumb, current lithium-ion batteries need to be kept in a thermal operation window between 10°C and 40°C. Operational temperatures above 40°C will sharply decrease battery performance, and if allowed to stay above 40°C for a significant amount of time will permanently degrade battery lifetime and safety. Therefore, battery cooling must be designed to ensure operations within this window for all climatic and operational conditions. Simulation of the battery and battery cooling system provides valuable insights about battery performance and heat build-up in the early stages of battery cooling system design, at a time when physical prototypes do not yet exist and testing is thus not possible.

In this presentation, we will walk through the steps of early cooling plate design, using simulation to optimise pressure drop, coolant flow rates and general cooling performance as well as making first predictions on cell temperatures for different operating conditions and doing preliminary operational profile runs in preparation for a full vehicle simulation. We will also talk about model interfaces to other simulations tools and simulation disciplines, and how the model of cooling plate and battery can be expanded from a thermal model to a full multiphysics model.

An increase of the e-motor operating temperature above critical levels reduces especially the life expectancy of the insulation material, which potentially results in the destruction of the motor. High temperatures also increase winding resistance. Cooling decreases the resistance and electric losses respectively. Lower electric losses reduce the amount of (expensive) copper required to achieve the targeted machine performance. The presentation shows how CFD simulation helps to determine the thermal load of electric motors and how to develop the optimum cooling system for maximum performance and life time.

Jamie Buchanan, UK Technical Director at Altair presents at the 2019 UK e-Mobility Seminar. Global Review of the EV Architecture. Integration Opportunities (e.g. Battery System Packaging, BIW / Battery Tray Integration)

Sendyne, part of the Altair Partner Alliance, provides a virtual, physics-based battery model called CellMod Virtual Battery for real-time co-simulation for individual cells and packs. This presentation provides a brief overview of the battery model and benefits as well as an example of system simulation using Altair Activate using the Functional Mock-up Interface standard for co-simulation.

This webinar provides an overview of a typical CAE based approach for SnR detection and prevention and demonstrates how this is achieved through a Risk and Root Cause analysis in Altair Squeak and Rattle Director. We will also discuss how to increase the complexity and fidelity of the model with the progression of development, and the importance of exploring multiple loading scenarios. Throughout the entire process, structural optimization is there as a helpful tool to find solutions to the problems we encounter on the way or even prevent them from the start.

Introducing electric traction in automotive brings new challenges for the design of electric machines. Nowadays designers have to consider increasing constraints like efficiency, temperature, weight, compactness, cost but also stricter regulations, while reducing time to market. Fortunatly, Altair proposes disruptive methodologies to make relevant choices in the early stage of the design, based on numerical simulation and optimization techniques. Once the machine has been selected and designed in Altair FluxTM this webinar covers how an electric motor design's performance is evaluated and maximized considering its global efficiency along the whole driving cycle. The next design challenge is to get an accurate estimation of the losses, which becomes more and more strategic in the design process in order to accelerated speed to market with balanced design and confidence. This estimation is also a key issue of thermal design. Therefore, the study of losses (in particular non-conventional losses) is crucial. Two methods are proposed to take the current wave form into account: by using an equivalent circuit model in Altair ActivateTM system modelling software, or by representing the PWM in Flux circuit context.

This presentation demonstrates Altair’s capability of simulating the behavior of a mechanically damaged battery from a cell to a pack integrated in a vehicle, based on collaborative research previously conducted with MIT. An innovative approach of applying electromagnetics loss to predict rising temperature due to short circuit effects during an impact is discussed, along with the development of a software tool, Battery Design, which enables OEMs and suppliers to design battery applications using multiphysics optimization, including mechanical-electrical-electrochemical-thermal behaviors.

If you are a designer, Squeak and Rattle test engineer or a maybe just a beginner to the SnR Analysis world, this presentation is for you. We will showcase how you can benefit from simulation as early as the concept design phase by performing a CAD based modal analysis combined with a material compatibility analysis, and perform a Screening Risk Assessment which provides upfront results using a streamlined and easy-to-use workflow in Squeak and Rattle Director.