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The benefits and drawbacks of a 5-hp reconfigurable induction motor, which was designed for experimental emulation of stator winding interturn and broken rotor bar faults, are presented in this paper. It was perceived that this motor had the potential of quick and easy reconfiguration to produce the desired stator and rotor faults in a variety of different fault combinations. Hence, this motor was anticipated to make a useful test bed for evaluation of the efficacy of existing and new motor fault diagnostics techniques and not the study of insulation failure mechanisms. Accordingly, it was anticipated that this reconfigurable motor would eliminate the need to permanently destroy machine components such as stator windings or rotor bars when acquiring data from a faulty machine for fault diagnostic purposes. Experimental results under healthy and various faulty conditions are presented in this paper, including issues associated with rotor bar-end ring contact resistances that showed the drawbacks of this motor in so far as emulation of rotor bar breakages. However, emulation of stator-turn fault scenarios was successfully accomplished. Index Terms--Condition monitoring, fault diagnostics, fault emulation, induction motors, reconfigurable motors, rotor broken bar faults, stator winding interturn faults.

In this paper, a multiobjective design optimization method combining design-of-experiments techniques and differential-evolution algorithms is presented. The method was implemented and utilized in order to provide practical engineering insights for the optimal design of interior and spoke-type permanent-magnet machines. Two combinations with 12 slots and 8 poles and 12 slots and 10 poles, respectively, have been studied in conjunction with rare-earth neodymium-iron-boron (NdFeB) and ferrites. As part of the optimization process, a computationally efficient finite-element electromagnetic analysis was employed for estimating the performance of thousands of candidate designs. Three optimization objectives were concurrently considered for minimum total material cost, power losses, and torque ripple, respectively. Independent variables were considered for both the stator and rotor geometries. A discussion based on a systematic comparison is included, showing, among other things and despite common misconception, that comparable cost versus loss Paretos can be achieved with any of the rotor topologies studied. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This paper describes the design and experimental evaluation of two high-efficiency interior permanent-magnet (IPM) motors for use in a commercial transcritical \CO2 (R-744) heat pump water heater (HPWH). Two IPM topologies, a 36-slot 6-pole topology and a 9-slot 6-pole topology, were selected, optimized, and prototyped using a common flat-bar IPM rotor. The experimental analysis includes standard measurements of electrical machine parameters, and dynamometer tests. The initial measurements of the \CO2 compressor performance with a stock line-fed induction machine and the 36-slot 6-pole IPM configuration have been completed. This paper finds a small isentropic compressor efficiency improvement from using the 36-slot 6-pole IPM motor compared to the stock line-fed induction machine at rated operating conditions (essentially constant speed). This paper also expands the open literature on the impact of high-efficiency motor drives on \CO2 compressor operation and \CO2 HPWH systems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]