The paper presents a comparative analysis of energy consumption by 2.2 kW electric motors of various types and energy efficiency classes in the electric drive of a pump unit with throttle control in a water supply system. Line-start permanent-magnet synchronous motors of the IE4 energy efficiency class and induction motors of the IE4 and IE3 energy efficiency classes of various manufacturers were considered (IE4 and IE3 are labels of energy efficiency classes of electric motors according to IEC 60034-30-1 standard). Energy consumption at a hydraulic load changing under a typical duty cycle was calculated based on the nameplate data of the pump and electric motors. The developed method shows that selecting an electric motor based on the IE energy efficiency class under the IEC 60034-30-1 standard (i.e., based on efficiency at a rated load) may not provide the minimum energy consumption of a variable flow pump unit over a typical duty cycle. In particular, the considered IE4 class line-start permanent-magnet synchronous motors do not provide significant advantages over IE4 class induction motors, and sometimes even over IE3 class induction motors when they are used in variable flow pump units.

The energy efficiency of a multi-pump system consisting of two low-power (0.75 kW) pumps operating in parallel mode and a single-pump mechanism (1.5 kW) is compared in this study. For this purpose, mathematical models, experimental data, and data retrieved from the manuals provided by the pump manufacturers are used. The single-pump system is fed by a single variable speed drive. A multi-pump system running in parallel mode consists of two pumps. One of them is driven by an induction motor connected directly to the electrical grid and equipped with a throttle. Another pump is actuated by an induction motor fed by a variable speed drive. The flowrate of the liquid in the multi-pump is controlled with the help of speed variation and throttling. In the case of the single-pump system the conventional speed control method is applied during the analysis. For both pump system topologies, the daily and annual energy consumption is obtained. As a result of conducted calculations, it was shown that the multi-pump provides 29.8% savings in comparison to the single-pump system in the case of a typical flowrate profile.

Due to the rapid increase in the number of variable speed AC drives, the analysis of their energy efficiency has become highly essential. However, such an analysis requires consideration of a wide variety of factors. This includes considering the energy loss in the frequency converter, depending on the motor type. In this article, a computational comparison of the energy properties of variable frequency pump drive employing two types of electric machines, i.e. an induction and a synchronous reluctance motor, is presented. The effect of the motor type on the losses in a low-voltage two-stage frequency converter using analytical and numerical models, with a further comparison, is investigated. Furthermore, an alternative approach to determine the current magnitude and power factor of the load of the converter is suggested. Eventually, this study provides a quantitative estimate of the increase in losses in the converter caused by using the two different motor types. Several experimental tests are conducted on induction and synchronous 1.1 kW reluctance motors.

Motors with rare earth permanent magnets are the most compact and energy efficient in most applications. However, their use as traction motors for off-highway vehicles, such as mining dump trucks, is challenging not only because of the high cost of the magnets, but also because of the difficulty of providing a wide range of constant power speed control due to the unregulated permanent magnet flux. For this reason, induction motors remain the most popular type of motor for hybrid and all-electric mining dump trucks. However, the use of an induction motor results in increased power loss, increased current, and high temperature ripple of the power switches of the solid-state inverter when stopping on a slope with an electric brake. In this article, a theoretical comparison between an induction motor (IM) and a magnet-free wound rotor synchronous motor (WRSM) with a rotor DC-excitation in a mining dump truck drive is presented. Both motors have an identical stator outer diameter, and their geometry is optimized using the Nelder-Mead method. 2D finite element analysis in the time domain is used to calculate the IM characteristics. Steady-state characteristics of the motors such as efficiency, losses, torque ripple, required inverter power, dimensions, weight and cost of active materials are compared. In addition, losses and temperature ripples in the power modules of the semiconductor inverter, which affect the reliability of the drive, are compared when using the considered motors. The study demonstrates that the WRSM offers significant benefits such as reduced power loss, inverter power requirement, cost and mass of active materials, making it promising for use in mining trucks.

This paper considers an optimization of the IE5 four-pole synchronous reluctance motor of a new design. The motor has an original rotor design and a stator with a fractional-slot winding (2.5 slots per pole and phase). The target parameters of optimization are the resulting efficiency of the motor at the fan load profile, the torque ripple, the required power of the frequency converter, and the total harmonic distortion of the supply voltage. The motor efficiency is much higher than the IE5 class requirement and remains high in wide range of powers at the fan load profile. Also, the motor has low torque ripple despite that its rotor and stator have no skewing.

Synchronous homopolar motors (SHMs) with an excitation winding located at the stator and a toothed salient pole rotor are a good alternative to motors traditionally used in traction applications such as induction motors or interior permanent magnet synchronous motors (IPMSM). This study presents the results of a theoretical comparison between an IPMSM and an SHM in a traction application with a constant power speed range of 1:10, which is specific to the mining truck drives, and with a rated power of 370 kW. The considered IPMSM and SHM have the same number of phases, poles and stator slots, and the same outer diameter of the stator lamination. The IPMSM design is optimized using the Nelder–Mead method. The main objectives of optimization are to minimize the average losses in the operating cycle and to limit the required power of the semiconductor inverter. The performance of the optimized IPMSM is compared with the previously obtained performance of the SHM optimized by the same method. Although the average losses in the operating cycle in the compared motors are approximately equal, the losses at high speed for the IPMSM are about two times greater than at low speed with maximum torque, which means that there is a need to intensify the IPMSM cooling system and there is deterioration of reliability. The advantage of the IPMSM is the reduction in the length of the active part by 30%. The advantage of the SHM is that there is 4.6 times lower cost of active materials. In addition, the SHM is more reliable than the IPMSM, as there is no risk of overheating, demagnetization or degradation of permanent magnets over time.