A 17-year-old engineer's magnet-free motor prototype could make electric vehicles more sustainable

[Xist]

A young engineer called Robert Sansone won the first prize, and winnings of $75,000, at this year's Regeneron International Science and Engineering Fair (ISEF), the world's largest international high school STEM competition.

As per Smithsonian Magazine, his new invention could one day transform the electric vehicle (EV) industry. It is a synchronous reluctance motor with improved performance over previous models.

Typically these types of motors are used for pumps and fans, but they aren't powerful enough for EVs. Sansone's new model improves the torque of these motors, which don't require costly and often unethically sourced rare-earth metals.

BMW and Mahle have been working on rare-earth-free magnets.

Sansone's motor uses a different type of design. Synchronous reluctance motors use a steel rotor, with air gaps cut into it, aligned with a rotating magnetic field. The motor generates a magnetic field using magnetic reluctance. Sansone tweaked the typical synchronous reluctance motor design by removing the air gaps to incorporate another magnetic field by adding more materials. Unfortunately, he hasn't yet disclosed any more information as he is hoping to patent his design.

At 750 RPM, it showed 37 percent greater efficiency. Sansone couldn't test his motor at a higher RPM due to the fact that the plastic prototype would melt. Now that he's gained acclaim and attention for his design, he will hopefully be able to run tests on a fully functional motor prototype using more sturdy materials.

https://interestingengineering.com/i...sustainable-ev

[redpoint5]

No

[freebeard]

A 17-year-old engineer's magnet-free motor prototype could make electric vehicles more sustainable

Clickbait title. "rare-earth-free magnets" buried at the end.

phys.org/news/2022-08: Unexpected quantum effects in natural double-layer graphene

The novel material graphene, a wafer-thin layer of carbon atoms, was first discovered by a British research team in 2004. Among other unusual properties, graphene is known for its extraordinarily high electrical conductivity. If two individual graphene layers are twisted at a very specific angle to each other, the system even becomes superconducting (i.e. conducts electricity without any resistance) and exhibits other exciting quantum effects such as magnetism. However, the production of such twisted graphene double-layers has so far required increased technical effort.

This novel study used the naturally occurring form of double-layer graphene, where no complex fabrication is required. In a first step, the sample is isolated from a piece of graphite in the laboratory using a simple adhesive tape. To observe quantum mechanical effects, the Göttingen team then applied a high electric field perpendicular to the sample: the electronic structure of the system changes and a strong accumulation of charge carriers with similar energy occurs.

At temperatures just above absolute zero of minus 273.15 degrees Celsius, the electrons in the graphene can interact with each other—and a variety of complex quantum phases emerge completely unexpectedly. For example, the interactions cause the spins of the electrons to align, making the material magnetic without any further external influence. By changing the electric field, researchers can continuously change the strength of the interactions of the charge carriers in the double-layer graphene. Under specific conditions, the electrons can be so restricted in their freedom of movement that they form their own electron lattice and can no longer contribute to transporting charge due to their mutual repulsive interaction. The system is then electrically insulating.

So we could postulate a swiched-reluctance motor constructed of graphene. Made with adhesive tape.

At -273.15° Celsius.

[oil pan 4]

There are lots of permanent magnet free motors out there.
They're fine if you want an electric vehicle that operates at a fraction of the power of my 2011 Nissan leaf.

[rmay635703]

Originally Posted by oil pan 4

There are lots of permanent magnet free motors out there.
They're fine if you want an electric vehicle that operates at a fraction of the power of my 2011 Nissan leaf.

Actually a magnet free motor can be wound/designed for far more power per pound than a permanent magnet motor
(Teslas early dual motor had an inefficient “power” motor and an efficient steady state motor)
But why would anyone want 8X% efficiency when you can have a steady high 90’s percentage efficiency?

Until they produce the power efficiency curve for his motor (from light to heavy load) I would say this is a nothing burger as nobody at this point is willing to sacrifice range to gain fewer precious metal content.

The only way I could see this work is if it allowed companies to miniaturize the steady state permanent magnet motor to be just large enough to motor along while having one of these motors as the acceleration motor, bolt them together inline.

The trouble is that this would destroy city efficiency which is the primary benefit of a decently designed EV. Unless hypermilers discover they can accelerate efficiently with less acceleration than a big rig.

There are already a few non Tesla “performance” EVs on the market that have this issue due to voltage and motor selection while the highway ratings stay similar to the Tesla version

[Xist]

It's not clickbait, you nematode, it's just wrong, and I can't add "permanent-" to the title because it would be too long!

[freebeard]

...you nematode...

You don't know the half of it.

[Xist]

Personal question: Have I asked if you ever called a BBS?

[freebeard]

[consults notes] mumble, mumble.

Maybe?

What do you think of the Dead Internet Theory?

"You can't fool me, young man. It's turtlebots all the way down."

[cRiPpLe_rOoStEr]

Overcoming the need for rare-earth based parts may speed up the acceptance of both EVs and PHEVs among other customer profiles. But anyway, when it comes to non-permanent magnets, I've been more familiar with the ones fitted to gensets, and would take with a grain of salt any claim about increased efficiency of a similar approach to non-permanent magnets on motors. Otherwise it would be just simpler to repurpose some motors fitted to industrial machinery and home appliances, which used to not rely on permament magnets sometimes, and match them to a CVT.