Meeting Modern Motor Design Challenges
Electric motor designs continue to evolve, and Ansys is leading the charge with innovative solutions that push the boundaries of what's possible. With the rapid growth of electric vehicles, industrial automation, and renewable energy systems, the demand for optimized electric motors has never been higher. Engineers face mounting pressure to develop motors that are more efficient, compact, and cost-effective while meeting increasingly stringent performance requirements. Ansys Motor-CAD is the world-leading dedicated electric motor design software for multi-physics simulation of electric machines.
Ansys Motor-CAD has long been valued for its comprehensive parametric motor design capabilities. The intuitive template-based setup and embedded multi-physics expertise simplifies the design process. Engineers rely on its built-in templates to quickly develop new motor designs, complete with windings and cooling systems. This simulation-driven approach has become essential as modern motors must balance competing factors including electromagnetic efficiency, thermal management, mechanical integrity, and manufacturing constraints. The ability to virtually prototype designs before physical production saves time and resources while enabling engineers to explore more design iterations than would be possible with traditional methods.
Figure 1: Motor-CAD's built-in templates enable user-friendly parametric definition of geometries such as magnets (top left and right), posts (lower left), and pole V angles (lower right).
The Power of Adaptive Geometry Templates
Motor-CAD's recently introduced adaptive geometry templates improve how engineers can approach motor design and optimization. This innovative feature was included in the 2024 release and continues to be enhanced. It increases the flexibility of the template-based modeling approach by allowing engineers to easily modify the built-in templates using Python commands. This flexibility is crucial when designing motors for specialized applications where standard templates might not fully capture unique design requirements or innovative geometric features that could improve performance.
What makes this feature particularly powerful is the seamless integration with Motor-CAD's existing functionality. Engineers can even import DXF files, combine different components, and modify geometric elements while maintaining full automation of critical aspects like meshing, material properties, and calculation parameters. The 2D electromagnetic FEA solver works directly with the adapted geometries, supporting everything from efficiency mapping to noise vibration harshness calculations. Design modifications defined using the adaptive templates can be evaluated across all relevant physics domains, from electromagnetic performance to thermal behavior and mechanical stress.
An example of the adaptive geometry template capability is shown in the figures below, where it is used to modify the built-in interior permanent magnet (IPM) V-web rotor template. Engineers can create custom parameters which use Bezier curves to re-parameterize the flux guides, resulting in a hybrid template that combines Motor-CAD's built-in features with user-defined customizations. These modifications are immediately accessible through the geometry interface, allowing for quick iterations and design updates. The ability to fine-tune complex geometric features like flux barriers and magnet shapes can lead to significant improvements in performance, efficiency, and manufacturability.
Figure 2: Example of three custom parameters added to an existing geometry template
Figure 3: Example Python script used to define custom geometry objects
Figure 4: Example IPM V-web rotor flux guide geometry re-parameterized using the adaptive template
Figure 5: Adaptive templates can create custom trapezoid rotor ducts (left) and shaped rotor pockets (right)
Accelerating Motor Design
The adaptive template capability in Motor-CAD is especially beneficial during the early stages of motor design. The ability to rapidly explore innovative geometric configurations while maintaining the robustness of parametric design helps accelerate the development process. Engineers can push their designs further, optimizing performance and manufacturing requirements with greater freedom. This early-stage flexibility allows engineers to identify promising design directions and avoid costly changes later in the development cycle.
By combining traditional template benefits with new geometric flexibility, Motor-CAD empowers engineers to create more competitive and innovative motor designs. This approach is especially valuable in emerging applications like electric aircraft propulsion or high-performance industrial drives where conventional motor designs may not meet the extreme requirements for power density and efficiency.
For those working in electric machine design, the Motor-CAD adaptive templates enable faster iteration cycles, broader optimization possibilities, and better performing motors. The ability to perform advanced multi-physics simulations while maintaining user-friendly parametric control makes it invaluable for both experienced motor designers and those new to the field. The combination of powerful simulation capabilities and flexible geometry creation helps engineers push the boundaries of what's possible in motor design, leading to innovations that will drive the future of electrification across industries.