Design and testing of CFRP sleeve for a high-speed permanent magnet synchronous motor with surface-mounted rotor

A high-speed (HS) permanent magnet (PM) synchronous motor (HSPMSM) with a carbon fiber-reinforced plastic (CFRP) protective sleeve in the surface-mounted rotor was explored in this study. In view of retaining the PMs at HS operations, the high-strength CFRP sleeve was designed on the basis of a process that could be summarized as follows. First, a multi-physics analysis of the rotor was conducted. The requirements to the CFRP sleeve were obtained from electromagnetic analysis, loss analysis, heat flow coupling computational fluid dynamics analysis, structural analysis, and rotor dynamics analysis. Second, the CFRP sleeve was designed by theoretical analysis. From the results, the thickness values of the carbon fibers in the circumferential and helical directions were chosen to be 4 and 1 mm, respectively, while the helical angle of carbon fibers was chosen to be 70°. Then, a plate-shaped CFRP product and a cylindrical CFRP product were fabricated to verify the strength and stiffness of the CFRP sleeve. The performance test results show that the hoop strength and elastic modulus and the axial strength and elastic modulus of the plate-shaped CFRP products at 20 °C are 1963 MPa @ 156 GPa and 550 MPa @ 36 GPa, respectively. The hoop strain and axial strain of the cylindrical CFRP product under 35 MPa are about 3000 and 1900 με, which meet the design requirements of the HSPMSM.