Simulation of electric machine in test rig

Abstract: Electrification is a trend that is on the rise within the aviation industry. Electrifying more systems in airplanes leads to increased efficiency and safety. GKN Aerospace intends to simulate electric machines as a preliminary step before conducting real-world experiments for the purpose of testing different machine designs. A simulation of an existing electric machine was made in this project seeking to replicate the characteristics of a synchronous machine installed in a test rig at GKN Aerospace. The simulation was made possible by measuring and estimating parameters from the machine. Furthermore, the report demonstrates the complexity of reverse-engineering an existing machine and how unexpected challenges made the development of the simulation model much harder than anticipated. The result confirms that a simulation model can be made by measuring and estimating the machine’s parameters. However, to get a more precise simulation, more exact measurements must be done, and more time to experiment with the input and output data in Motor-CAD. The simulation developed in this project can be applied to simulate steady-state behavior of the machine. A suggestion for future work includes more detailed measurements as well as further integrating the simulation in other software platforms to facilitate more dynamic simulations.