Special issue on recent advances in electrical machines

Citation

Zhu, Z.Q. (2016), "Special issue on recent advances in electrical machines", COMPEL - The international journal for computation and mathematics in electrical and electronic engineering, Vol. 35 No. 2. https://doi.org/10.1108/COMPEL-12-2015-0467

Special issue on recent advances in electrical machines

Article Type: Guest editorial From: COMPEL: The International Journal for Computation and Mathematics in Electrical and Electronic Engineering, Volume 35, Issue 2.

This special issue of the International Journal for Computation and Mathematics in Electrical and Electronic Engineering (COMPEL) includes the extended and improved versions of a selection of papers presented at the 17th International Conference on Electrical Machines and Systems (ICEMS2014, October 22-25, 2014, Hangzhou, China). ICEMS is jointly sponsored by the China Electrotechnical Society (CES), the Korean Institute of Electrical Engineers, and the Institute of Electrical Engineers of Japan – Industry Applications Society (IEEJ-IAS) and held in rotation annually in China, South Korea, and Japan. It is technically co-sponsored by Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers. It is now a well-established international conference on electrical machines and actuators, electric motor drives and systems, power converters, renewable and alternative energy systems, energy efficiency systems, transportation applications, smart grid applications, reliability and diagnostics, system modeling and motion control, and other related topics. The ICEMS2014 was organized by Zhejiang University and 1,129 digests were received. Following the review by at least two reviewers, 687 full papers from 24 countries and regions were accepted. In total, 49 papers won Best Paper Awards and 163 selected papers were recommended to COMPEL, IEEE Transaction on Industry Applications, and Transactions of CES.

The current trends of electrical machines include: high torque, high-torque density, high power, high-power density, high speed, direct drive, high efficiency, high-flux adjustability, high reliability, high-fault tolerance, high manufacturability, low cost, low noise and vibration, high-system performance, high integration of materials, power electronics, machines, and controllers. System-level integration and design consideration are key technologies and are essential for different applications. Various design considerations at the system levels should be taken into account. Otherwise, the electrical machines may not be able to satisfy the system requirement and/or the drive and controller cannot fully exploit the potential capacity which an electrical machine can offer. Permanent magnet machines exhibit high-torque density and high efficiency and are most extensively investigated with significant development. They become popular for numerous applications, ranging from domestic appliances, electric vehicles/hybrid electric vehicles, more electric aircrafts, to wind power generation. However, rare-earth permanent magnets are still relatively expensive and there are concerns about their resources and relatively high cost. Hence, “magnetless” machines, using no magnet or fewer magnets, are being seriously investigated or re-examined; e.g. induction machines and switched reluctance machines and wound field machines. Numerous electrical machine topologies are emerging; each may exhibit some novel features but also problems. There is no “perfect” electrical machine and the advantages are highly dependent on application and requirement. This special issue is mainly dedicated to the design, analysis, and control of permanent magnet synchronous machines and switched reluctance machines.

Z.Q. Zhu, Department of Electronic and Electrical Engineering, University of Sheffield, Sheffield, UK

Acknowledgments

The author would like to take this opportunity to thank General Chair, Professor Jian-Xin Shen, General Secretaries, Professor Qin-Fen Lu and Dr Xiao-Yan Huang, and all members of the Technical Program Committee of ICEMS2014 for their efforts in selecting and reviewing the papers. The author would like to thank Professor Jan K. Sykuski, the Editor-In-Chief of COMPEL, and the staff of the Emerald Group Publishing Limited especially to Kay Wilkinson and Abi Masha for their help and support.