Project description
Brushless, rare-earth-free electric machines
Europe’s dependence on rare-earth materials presents a challenge for the sustainability of electric machine (EM) production. Additionally, conventional wound-field EMs rely on brushes for rotor excitation, leading to maintenance issues and reduced reliability. The demand for more cost-efficient, durable, and environmentally friendly EM solutions is growing. Eliminating reliance on rare-earth materials while ensuring high performance remains a key objective for future electrical machine design. Supported by the Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions programme, the HARMFIX project is developing a novel rotor field excitation method to achieve brushless operation in wound-field EMs. By introducing a new armature winding configuration and optimising the machine’s topology, the project aims to reduce copper consumption and eliminate the need for costly auxiliary components.
Objective
This project is focused on the design and development of new rotor field excitation methods to achieve brushless operation for wound-field electrical machines (EMs). The proposed method will provide an opportunity to reduce the reliance of EMs on rare-earth materials of which EU is lacking its resources and eliminate the usage of brushes for their rotor field excitation while improving the reliability and cost-efficiency of the machine systems. Through this method, a new armature winding configuration will be developed to generate not only the fundamental magnetomotive force (MMF) but also a suitable harmonic MMF component in the airgap of the EMs, while powered from a single customary current-controlled voltage source inverter (VSI). The rotor of these machines will be altered to house both harmonic and field windings. The harmonic MMF component will be employed to induce a harmonic current in the harmonic winding of the rotor, which will be rectified to excite the rotor field winding to achieve brushless operation and develop torque. A new topology optimization methodology will be developed to optimize the windings and minimize copper consumption. The EMs employing HARMFIX do not require rare-earth materials, costly auxiliary electromechanical excitation systems or custom-made power electronics circuitry, or control strategies for their brushless operation. Therefore, this method is a truly viable and sustainable alternative for commercial products which are currently employing rare-earth materials, brushless exciters or brushes, and slip rings.
Fields of science (EuroSciVoc)
CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques. See: The European Science Vocabulary.
This project's classification has been human-validated.
CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques. See: The European Science Vocabulary.
This project's classification has been human-validated.
Keywords
Project’s keywords as indicated by the project coordinator. Not to be confused with the EuroSciVoc taxonomy (Fields of science)
Project’s keywords as indicated by the project coordinator. Not to be confused with the EuroSciVoc taxonomy (Fields of science)
Programme(s)
Multi-annual funding programmes that define the EU’s priorities for research and innovation.
Multi-annual funding programmes that define the EU’s priorities for research and innovation.
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HORIZON.1.2 - Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions (MSCA)
MAIN PROGRAMME
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Topic(s)
Calls for proposals are divided into topics. A topic defines a specific subject or area for which applicants can submit proposals. The description of a topic comprises its specific scope and the expected impact of the funded project.
Calls for proposals are divided into topics. A topic defines a specific subject or area for which applicants can submit proposals. The description of a topic comprises its specific scope and the expected impact of the funded project.
Funding Scheme
Funding scheme (or “Type of Action”) inside a programme with common features. It specifies: the scope of what is funded; the reimbursement rate; specific evaluation criteria to qualify for funding; and the use of simplified forms of costs like lump sums.
Funding scheme (or “Type of Action”) inside a programme with common features. It specifies: the scope of what is funded; the reimbursement rate; specific evaluation criteria to qualify for funding; and the use of simplified forms of costs like lump sums.
HORIZON-TMA-MSCA-PF-EF - HORIZON TMA MSCA Postdoctoral Fellowships - European Fellowships
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Call for proposal
Procedure for inviting applicants to submit project proposals, with the aim of receiving EU funding.
Procedure for inviting applicants to submit project proposals, with the aim of receiving EU funding.
(opens in new window) HORIZON-MSCA-2022-PF-01
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Net EU financial contribution. The sum of money that the participant receives, deducted by the EU contribution to its linked third party. It considers the distribution of the EU financial contribution between direct beneficiaries of the project and other types of participants, like third-party participants.
33100 Tampere
Finland
The total costs incurred by this organisation to participate in the project, including direct and indirect costs. This amount is a subset of the overall project budget.