Power Electronics and Electrical Drives Research

Electrical Drives, constituted by electrical machines, power electronic converters and related digital control systems, are usually the final energy convertor in a chain from electric energy generation to consumption. Energy is converted into rotary or translatory mechanical motion in a process where electromagnetic design and power electronic control interact. There are three distinct different focus areas here:

Electrical machine design

This is about the physical design of the electro mechanic energy converters. Physical size and proportions, material properties, cooling method, mechanical stress, production method and cost etc is account ted for in a multidisciplinary engineering and scientific challenge to create the most suitable energy converter for a certain application.
The research focus is directed towards utilisation of both traditional and non-traditional materials and production engineering. A special focus is also given to conventional and non conventional cooling methods, which have a strong relation to performance optimisation.
We have in house developed software tools using Matlab and Finite Element software for fast an efficient design optimisation. Most projects in this area are related to the automotive area, in particular hybrid drives.

Power electronic design

This is about the design of the power electronic circuits, including power transistors, drive circuits, passive components, cooling systems etc needed to provide an efficient conversion of electric energy, usually for driving an electrical machine.
The research focus is about creating a strong link between the physical layout of the power electronic control circuit and corresponding thermal situation at a given load. In combination with a correspondingly detailed model of the thermal situation in the electrical machine it is possible to optimize a drive system design.

Control

This field is about control methods for the driven load. In some cases it may be a voltage of e.g. a DC/DC converter but in most cases it includes controlling an output quantity of an electrical machine, like speed or torque.
The focus is on hardware and software efficient control methods for speed, torque, current, magnetic flux and finally modulation of the power electronics. We use the most modern control electronics.