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A Novel Power-train Using Coaxial Magnetic Gear for Power-split Hybrid Electric Vehicles

Linni Jian1, 2, Guoqing Xu1, 2, Yuanyuan Wu1, 2, Zhou Cheng1, 2, 3, Jianjian Song1, 2
1

Shenzhen Institutes of Advanced Technology, Chinese Academy of Science, Shenzhen, China 2 The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, China 3 Wuhan University of Technology, Wuhan, China E-mail: ln.jian@siat.ac.cn operating region. However, the reliance on mechanical gears (including the planetary gear set and the counter gear) and the silent chain inevitably causes the drawbacks of transmission loss, gear noise and regular lubrication. In order to overcome these shortcomings, the combination of two concentrically arranged machines was proposed to realize power splitting and mixing for HEVs [6]-[8]. Unfortunately, slip rings and carbon brushes have to be equipped to inject/withdraw currents into/from the rotating armature windings. With no doubt, this will degrade the reliability of the whole system.

AbstractThis paper proposes a novel power-train for powersplit hybrid electric vehicles (HEVs). The key is to integrate two permanent magnet motor/generators (M/Gs) together with a coaxial magnetic gear (CMG). By designing the modulating ring of the CMG to be rotatable, this integrated machine can achieve both power splitting and mixing, and therefore, can seamlessly match the vehicle road load to the engine optimal operating region. With the one-side-in and one-side-out structure and the non-contact transmission of the CMG, all the drawbacks aroused by the mechanical gears and chain existing in the traditional power-train system can be overcome. Moreover, the proposed power-train possesses the merits of small size and light weight, which are vitally important for extending the full-electric drive range of HEVs. The working principle and the design details are elaborated. By using the finite element method, the electromagnetic characteristics are analyzed. Finally, system modeling and simulation are conducted to evaluate the proposed system. Index Termshybrid electric vehicle, power-train, coaxial magnetic gear, power-split, Halbach array.
I.

INTRODUCTION

According to the types of the power-train, hybrid electric vehicles (HEVs) can be generally classified as series HEVs, parallel HEVs and power-split HEVs, in which the power-split HEVs combine the benefits of both the parallel types and the series types, hence offering the merits of ultralow emissions and high fuel economy [1]-[2]. The power-train of power-split HEVs is also termed as electronic-continuously variable transmission (E-CVT) system, which was firstly adopted by Toyota Prius in 1997 [3]. Then, several derivatives such as the GM-Allison compound E-CVT, the Timken compound split E-CVT and the Renault compound split E-CVT were introduced [4]-[5]. Fig. 1 depicts the basic architecture of the power-train of Toyota Prius. It mainly consists of a planetary gear set, two electric motor/generators (M/Gs) and two power electronic inverters. The engine shaft is connected to the planet carrier, and the rotor shafts of the two M/Gs are attached to the sun gear and the ring gear, respectively. The ring gear is connected to the final driveline through a silent chain and a counter gear to drive the wheels. By controlling the switching modes of the inverters, multiple power flows among the engine, the M/Gs and the battery can be achieved. Thus, this power-train can seamlessly match the vehicle road load to the engine optimal

Fig. 1. Architecture of power-train of Toyota Prius

Recently, a high performance coaxial magnetic gear (CMG) has been proposed [9]-[11]. It can provide non-contact torque transmission and speed variation using the modulation effect of permanent magnet (PM) fields. Since all the PMs are involved to transmit torque, the CMG can offer as the torque density as high as its mechanical counterpart. Thus, it has promising industrial applications, such as EV drives [12] and wind power generation [13]. The purpose of this paper is to develop a novel power-train for power-split HEVs, in which the CMG is adopted to supersede the mechanical planetary gear set. By integrating the two PM M/Gs together with the CMG, the one-side-in and one-side-out mechanical structure can be achieved so as to eliminate the silent chain and the

(a)

(b)

(c) Fig. 2. Proposed power-train. (a) Architecture. (b) Cross-section of integrated machine. (c) Constitution of integrated machine.

counter gear employed in the traditional power-train. Thus, the aforementioned drawbacks aroused by the mechanical planetary gear set can be overcome. Moreover, due to the high torque density of PM machines and the high extent of integration, the proposed power-train possesses the merits of small size and light weight, which are vitally important for extending the full-electric drive range of HEVs.

on the modulation ring, the CMG can achieve stable torque transmission when they satisfy the following relationship:
n s = p1 + p 2

(1)

When the modulating ring is fabricated as a stationary component, the CMG can offer fixed-ratio variable speed transmission, and the corresponding speed relationship is given by:

II. SYSTEM CONFIGURATION AND OPERATING PRINCIPLE Fig. 2 shows the architecture of the proposed power-train. The key is to integrate the two M/Gs into a CMG. PMs are mounted on both the inside and outside surfaces of the rotor of M/G1, which also serves as the inner rotor of the CMG. Similarly, PMs are mounted on both the inside and outside surfaces of the rotor of M/G2, which also serves as the outer rotor of the CMG. The stator of M/G1 is deployed in the inner bore of the CMG and the stator of M/G2 is located at the periphery of the CMG. The engine shaft is connected to the modulating ring of the CMG, and the rotor shaft of the M/G2 is attached to the final driveline. The working principle of the CMG lies on the magnetic field modulation of the modulating ring [10]. This modulating ring consists of several ferromagnetic segments which are symmetrically deployed in the airspace between its inner rotor and outer rotor. By defining p1 and p2 as the polepair numbers of the inner and outer rotors of the CMG, respectively, and ns as the number of ferromagnetic segments

1 =

p2 2 = G r 2 p1

(2)

where 1, 2 are the rotational speeds of the outer rotor and inner rotor respectively, Gr is the so-called gear ratio, and the minus sign indicates that the two rotors rotate in opposite directions. In order to achieve multi-port power flow distribution, herein, the modulating ring is purposely designed as another rotational component. The corresponding speed relationship is governed by:

1 + G r 2 (1 + G r ) 3 = 0

(3)

where 3 is the rotational speed of the modulating ring. Without considering the power losses occurred in the CMG, it yields:
T1 1 + T 2 2 + T 3 3 = 0

(4)

T1 + T 2 + T 3 = 0

(5)

where T1, T2 and T3 are the developed magnetic torques on the inner rotor, the outer rotor and the modulating ring, respectively. Equations (3)-(5) demonstrate that when the modulating ring is designed to be rotatable, the CMG possesses similar functions as the planetary gear set [3], thus offering the capability of both power splitting and mixing.
TABLE I. POWER SPECIFICATIONS OF M/GS

non-magnetic shielding cases are sandwiched within the two rotors so as to offer further decoupling. The adoption of Halbach arrays can also help reduce the cogging torque and increase the torque transmission capability of the CMG [14].

(a) Rated power of M/G1 Rated speed of M/G1 Rated phase voltage of M/G1 Rated power of M/G2 Rated speed of M/G2 Rated phase voltage of M/G2 15 kW 2500 rpm 100 V 30 kW 950 rpm 100 V (b) Fig. 4. Slots and winding connections of two M/Gs. (a) M/G1. (b) M/G2.

III. MACHINE DESIGN The gear ratio Gr of the CMG and the power specifications of the two M/Gs are governed by the expected performance of the vehicle to be designed. Herein, Gr=2.6 which is the same with that in Toyota Prius is adopted and the power specifications of the two M/Gs are listed in Table I.
TABLE II. SPECIFICATIONS OF PROPOSED MACHINE No. of stator slots of M/G1 No. of pole-pairs of M/G1 No. of phases of M/G1 No. of stator slots of M/G2 No. of pole-pairs of M/G2 No. of phases of M/G2 No. of ferromagnetic segments Length of airgaps Thickness of PMs Thickness of modulating ring Thickness of shielding cases Thickness of back iron of rotors Inside radius of stator of M/G1 Outside radius of stator of M/G1 Inside radius of stator of M/G2 Outside radius of stator of M/G2 Effective axial length Fig. 3. Construction of PM poles and rotors. 12 5 3 24 13 3 18 1 mm 6 mm 15 mm 4 mm 4 mm 30 mm 86.5 mm 153.5 mm 195 mm 200 mm

The pole-pair numbers of the CMG are governed by (2). Hence, p1 and p2 equal to 5 and 13, respectively, are chosen to result in the gear ratio of 2.6. Consequently, ns equals 18 can be deduced from (1). For this integrated machine, the decoupling of electromagnetic fields in the CMG and the two M/Gs is very important since it can directly affect the controllability of the system. Thus, the Halbach arrays are employed to constitute the PM poles on the two rotors. As shown in Fig. 3, each pole of PM is divided into 4 and 2 segments for the inner rotor and the outer rotor, respectively. The corresponding magnetization directions are indicated by the arrow lines. It is well known that the Halbach arrays can offer the merit of self-shielding. Therefore, the back iron of the two rotors can be designed to have small thickness, leading to save iron material and reduce the system size. Moreover,

Fractional-slots and concentrated windings are adopted in the stators of the two M/Gs. The concentrated winding refers to the armature winding that encircles a single stator tooth. It can offer several significant advantages over the distributed winding [15]: 1) Reduction in the coil volume and hence the copper loss in the end region; 2) Shortened machine axial length; 3) Reduction in machine manufacturing cost; 4) Compatibility with segmented stator structures that makes it possible to achieve higher slot fill factor values. Moreover, it has been proven that by adopting fractional-slots and concentrated windings, the d-axis inductance of the armature windings can be dramatically increased, which helps achieve optimal flux weakening of surface-mounted PM machines [16]. This feature is advantageous for widening the speed adjustment range of the M/Gs. Fig. 4 illustrates the slots and winding connections on the stators of the two M/Gs. The numbers of slots are 12 and 24 on M/G1 and M/G2,

respectively. Thus, the slot-per-phase-per-pole (SPP) of 2/5 and 8/13 are achieved for the M/G1 and M/G2, respectively. IV. FINITE ELEMENT ANALYSIS The electromagnetic characteristics of the proposed integrated machine can be analyzed by using the finite element method (FEM). The specifications are listed in Table II. Firstly, the electromagnetic field distributions of the proposed machine under no-load and full-load are illustrated in Fig. 5. It can be observed that almost no flux line goes through the shielding cases, which demonstrates that due to the adoptions of Halbach arrays and shielding cases, excellent field decoupling among the CMG and the two M/Gs can be achieved. With no doubt, this can help improve the controllability of the whole system. Therefore, the electromagnetic behavior of each component (namely the CMG and the two M/Gs) can be analyzed and modeled individually in spite of its integration.

Secondly, as shown in Fig. 6, the back electromotive force (EMF) waveforms can be obtained by rotating the two rotors of M/Gs at their rated speeds. Thirdly, the torque transmission capability of the CMG can be assessed by calculating the Maxwells stress tensors in the airgaps while keeping the outer rotor and the modulating ring standstill, and rotating the inner rotor step by step. Fig. 7 depicts the resulting torque-angle curves. It can be found that the torque-angle curves vary sinusoidally, in which the maximum torque values denote the pull-out torques. Thus, the pull-out torques of the inner rotor, outer rotor and modulating ring are 226.7 Nm, 589.7 Nm and 815.9 Nm, respectively. The ratio of the pull-out torques on the two rotors is 2.601, which has a very good agreement with the designed gear ratio of 2.6. In addition, the above three pull-out torques agree well with (5) since there is a phase difference of between the curve of the modulating ring and the curves of the two rotors.

Fig.7. Torque-angle curves of CMG. (a) (b) Fig. 5. Electromagnetic field distributions in integrated machine. (a) No load. (b) Full load.

Fig. 8. Vehicle road load.

V. SYSTEM MODELING AND SIMULATION As shown in Fig. 8, the vehicle road load Fl consists of three main components: aerodynamic drag force Fd, rolling resistance force Fr and climbing force Fc [2]:
Fl = Fd + Fr + Fc

(a)

(6) (7) (8) (9)

Fd = 0.0386 Cd Av 2
Fr = C r Mg cos

Fc = Mg sin

(b) Fig. 6. Back EMF waveforms at rated speeds. (a) M/G1. (b) M/G2.

where Cd is the aerodynamic drag coefficient, is the air density, A is the vehicle frontal area, v is the vehicle velocity, M is the vehicle mass, g is the gravitational acceleration, Cr is the rolling resistance coefficient, and is the angle of incline.

The motive force F available at the wheels is required to overcome the above road load Fl and to drive the vehicle with an acceleration a. If Fl is greater than F, it becomes a deceleration and a is a negative value. It is expressed as:
a= 1 (F Fl ) kr M

k = Lk iqk q q

(19) (20)

k = Lk i dk + kpm d d
T mk = 3 p k k iqk k idk d q 2

(10)

(21)

where kr denotes a correction factor that there is an apparent increase in vehicle mass due to the inertia of rotational masses.

where superscript k=1 is for the case of M/G1, and k=2 is for the case of M/G2, subscript q represents the q-axis component, and d represents the d-axis component; v, i, L and are the stator voltage, stator current, stator inductance and stator flux linkage; s is the rotational speed of the stator flux linkage and pm is the flux linkage excited by the PMs.

Fig. 9. Rotational parts of integrated machine (from left to right: inner rotor, modulating ring and outer rotor).

Fig. 9 indicates the rotational parts of the integrated machine. Their motions are governed by:
T1 + T m 1 = J 1 d1 dt

(11) (12)
d 2 dt

Fig. 10. Power distributions under FUD 48 driving mode.

d 3 Te + T3 = J 3 dt T 2 + T m 2 T fd = J 2

(13)

where J1, J2, J3 are the moments of inertia of inner rotor of CMG (rotor of M/G1), outer rotor of CMG (rotor of M/G2) and modulating ring of CMG, respectively; Tfd, Tm1 and Tm2 are the load torque of final driveline, output torque of M/G1, and output torque of M/G2, respectively. In addition, assuming that the initial torques are zero at the time instant t=0, the developed magnetic torques in the CMG can be given by [17]:
T1 = T P 1 sin ( p 1 1 + p 2 2 N s 3 )dt 0
t t T 2 = T P 2 sin ( p 1 1 + p 2 2 N s 3 )dt 0

For simplicity, the engine is assumed to be shut down and the vehicle is driven under the full-electric mode. As shown in Fig. 10, the FUD 48 driving mode is engaged. The maximum speed is 48 km/h and the time span is 55 s. The power distribution between the two M/Gs is defined as: 1) during the time period of 0-18 s, the M/G1 and M/G2 supply 1/3 and 2/3 of the propulsion power; 2) during the time period of 18-48 s, the M/G2 supply all the power needed; 3) during the time period of 48-55 s, the M/G1 and M/G2 collect 1/3 and 2/3 of the dynamic power of the vehicle.

(14) (15) (16)

T 3 = T P 3 sin ( p 1 1 + p 2 2 N s 3 )dt 0
t

where Tp1, Tp2 and Tp3 are the pull-out torques developed on the inner rotor, outer rotor and modulating ring, respectively. On the other hand, the M/Gs can be modeled by following equations:
k k v q = r k iq +

dk q dt

+ sk k d

(17) (18)
(a)

k k v d = r k id +

dk d sk k q dt

REFERENCES
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[2] [3]

[4]

[5]

[6]

[7]

[8] (b) Fig. 11. Simulated responses of rotational speed, electromagnetic torque and stator current. (a) M/G1. (b) M/G2. [9] [10]

[11]

Fig. 11 shows the simulated responses of the M/G1 and M/G2. It can be observed that the rotational speeds of the two M/Gs are with opposite directions, and the ratio of their quantities is consistent with the gear ratio. This is in accordance with the speeds relationship constrained by (3) since the engine is shut down during the whole process. Moreover, during the acceleration stage (0-18 s), the torque and speed of each M/G are with the same direction, which means that the two M/Gs deliver power to the driveline simultaneously. Then, when the vehicle runs at the high speed range (18-48 s), the torque of M/G1 is zero while the M/G2 solely supplies the power needed. Finally, during the deceleration stage (48-55 s), the torque and speed of each M/G are with opposite directions, which means that the two M/Gs recycle the braking power of the vehicle, namely regenerative braking. VIII. CONCLUSIONS In this paper, a new power-train for power-split HEVs has been designed, analyzed and modeled. The key is to integrate two PM M/Gs together with a CMG. First, by purposely designing the modulating ring of the CMG to be rotatable, this integrated machine can achieve both power splitting and mixing, and therefore can seamlessly match the vehicle road load to the engine optimal operating region. Then, with the one-side-in and one-side-out structure and the non-contact transmission of the CMG, all the drawbacks aroused by the mechanical gears and chain existing in the traditional powertrain can be overcome. Finally, the proposed power-train system possesses the merits of small size and light weight, which are vitally important for extending the full-electric drive range of HEVs.

[12]

[13]

[14]

[15]

[16]

[17]

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