What's new in Altair® FluxMotor® 2024.1 ?
Altair EmployeeAltair FluxMotor 2024.1
The ability of Altair FluxMotor to cover a wide range of machines is continuously evolving. Recently, polyphase and wound field synchronous machines have been added. In this version, a special effort has been made to propose a very complete set of modeling capabilities for designing and optimizing wound field synchronous machines.
You will also find other interesting improvements concerning PM synchronous, induction and synchronous reluctance machines.
GOING FURTHER IN THE DESIGN OF WOUND FIELD SYNCHRONOUS MACHINES
A new “SSFR” test is introduced to compute the parameters of D-axis and Q-axis equivalent schemes by performing a frequency analysis. These results are based on the magnitude and the phase of the operational inductance transfer function, which are computed with the Finite Element software Flux. The resulting reactances and time constants of the machines are also provided. Such data can be used in system modeling tools like Altair PSIM to evaluate the behavior of the machine with its drive and control system.
2nd order equivalent scheme of a wound field synchronous machine with dampers
Another test is introduced to evaluate the behavior of the machine when operating at the working point that you target. Through this test, you can also verify whether the desired operating point can be reached, and you can identify the appropriate values for the corresponding field current and the control angle. Values like the machine constants, power balance, magnetic flux density in air gap and in iron are also provided. You can evaluate for example the impact of using hairpin winding technology.
To provide reduced-order models to system simulators like PSIM or Activate, look-up tables (LUT) can be generated by FluxMotor. This is widely used to design the control of the machine. This export is now available for wound field machines, and it has also been extended to reluctance synchronous machines.
Quick access to optimization is essential to search the design space in an efficient way. In only a few clicks, you can generate a model that can be directly used by Altair Hyperstudy, to optimize your machine performance at a given working point or to maximize its efficiency over a duty cycle.
Hairpin winding technology considered for wound field machines
EASY SIMULATION OF SKEWED MACHINES
Skewing of machines is widely used, especially in the EV world. It helps reduce torque ripples and vibrations. A new option is offered in FluxMotor to consider step skewing. Only continuous skew was possible before this version. A user-friendly interface allows to define and visualize the step skew topology and enables you to generate any kind of skewing scheme. 
Defining step-skewed permanent magnets
ALTAIR FLOW SIMULATOR FOR REFINED THERMAL ANALYSIS
To get a fast evaluation of the thermal behavior of motors, automatically built 1D thermal networks are used. To go further in your thermal analysis, you can export such networks to Altair® Flow SimulatorTM and customize them for more accuracy. They are displayed in a 3D view, and for clarity, the different regions are associated with groups. Resistances can either be hidden inside their groups or expanded. This dual view gives the possibility to show a meaningful global vision containing the main heat paths or, on the contrary, to have the deepest insight into specific regions.
Visializing various levels of details of a 1D thermal model in Altair Flow Simulator.
With the previous version, it was possible to export the thermal model of a synchronous machine with permanent magnets from FluxMotor to Flow Simulator ready to perform a thermal steady state analysis.
With the new version of FluxMotor, it is now possible to export the thermal model of both reluctance synchronous machine and induction machine with squirrel cage from FluxMotor to Flow Simulator.
AND ALSO
- Charts, maps, curves improvements: zoom, axis definition, 3D visualization…
- Twisting of wires between the forward and return sections of a coil
- Tutorials, best practices documents and videos are available on the online user help guide [Link]
Get all the details in the Release Notes [Link]
If you want to learn also about Flux and its new features, follow this [Link]
Enjoy the new version !
#OnlyForward
Fabrice Marion - Senior Program Manager - FluxMotor®
Vincent Leconte - Senior Director Electrification Solutions