A Study Regarding the Rotor Configuration of a High-power Density PMSM for Formula Student Race Car

FSG, FSRo, FSS, FSA, FSAE, etc. are the acronyms for the Formula Student events. These are international engineering design competitions where university students design, build, and test a four-wheel race car within one year. These events are more and more focused on electric vehicle concepts and students are more involved in designing high power-density electrical machines for traction systems adopted. This paper presents a study regarding the rotor configuration of a permanent magnet synchronous motor for a Formula Student electric race car. The study is focused on increasing the motor output parameters like cogging and torque ripple, less rotor losses, and more suitable for actual power inverters which can be found on the market. The motor is a fractional slot machine which has 10 poles and 12 slots. By using a high-saturation magnetic flux material on the stator three rotor shapes have been studied: spoke shape, V-shape, and inserted magnets on the rotor. In the end, the paper presents some conclusions regarding those three configurations of the rotor and which is more suitable for a high-power density machine for a racing car.