Analysis and improvement of traction motor insulation system exposed to high switching frequency converters

Research Project, 2018 – 2020

It is expected to have two billion vehicles in the world by 2035. Having part of them electrified results in hundreds of million traction motors in the range of 50-500 kW running electric vehicles. Consequently, it is of vital importance to design and produce efficient (in terms of energy), reliable and compact propulsion systems including the traction motor. This development in traction motors can more quickly and efficiently happen by collaboration between companies e.g. ABB, with decades of experience in design and production of electrical machines, and academic partners, e.g. Chalmers, with strong research background in e-mobility. The need for more compact and at the same time efficient propulsion systems has led to proposing converters with a high switching frequency. But, this increase in switching frequency puts more electrical stresses on traction motor insulation system. In this project, we plan to investigate and address this issue.