Siemens has unveiled the newest addition to its Simcenter virtual prototyping suite, Simcenter E-Machine Design.
The software potentially speeds up electric motor prototyping by up to 25x using pre-engineered design & testing templates, compatible with typical radial flux and atypical axial flux machines. It’s easily integrated with the rest of the Simcenter tools for thermal & mechanical simulation, inverter design, and more, allowing engineers to test machine prototypes on a system level.
We interviewed Siemens’ product managers Adrian Perregaux and Benoît Magneville who detailed how it works, some of the templates found in the software, and what manufacturers can expect while using the suite.
Can you talk about how it works?
One of the core capabilities is the template-based design approach, which greatly reduces development time and cost.
We’ve integrated several pre-engineered templates for setting up models, refining mesh, defining and implementing experiments, and reviewing the results, allowing engineers to quickly design hundreds of machines in the virtual suite.
Traditional finite element analysis is laborious and time-consuming, often requiring several days or weeks to set up. Instead of relying on an FEM expert, the user simply describes the components of the rotor and stator, and in a matter of minutes, it produces the topology for the entire machine.
We also took things a step further and integrated a host of predefined experiments. The engineer no longer needs to be a finite element expert, or even know how to fully set up the experiment themselves. The engineer simply selects the test such as torque speed curve, back EMF, etc. and the software virtually runs the experiment for them.
With just the constructs of an idea, the process really does take less than an hour to simulate. When an engineer saves that precious time and brainpower, it widens their capability to experiment and innovate. Teams can now quickly explore what sizes may be required for a design or adjust topology within a few minutes, giving them the tools to run through hundreds of potential designs within a week.
The Simcenter E-Machine Design software is just one component of our Simcenter portfolio for e-drive simulation. By connecting to tools like Simcenter 3D for mechanical analysis, Simcenter STAR-CCM+ for thermal system simulation, and Simcenter Amesim for mechatronic systems simulation, we’re not only speeding up the development process but also enabling cross-collaboration between the EV powertrain teams. We’re excited to learn how this changes the electric machine landscape.
What advantages does this offer over physical prototyping?
Building physical prototypes is very expensive and time-consuming. It takes 6-8 weeks to accumulate the parts, another week to assemble the machine, and another to test it. We’re looking at about 10-12 weeks or longer for this entire process, and that’s just to test an idea. Over those 10-12 weeks, your team could have already generated data from hundreds of designs with our software. It’s quite a dramatic paradigm shift.
Physical prototyping has its place in the design process, but it also has functional limitations such as engineering experience level, your capabilities, and company resources. The beauty of virtual design is it allows engineers to finally take that big idea, put it into a simulation, and reveal if it translates into real-world innovation.
What are the experiment templates in the software?
When designing a motor, there are about half a dozen common experiments to characterize the machine and find out if it will deliver the required torque, and those are all integrated into the software. For instance, the back EMF test, torque versus speed test, and efficiency map test, all of those can be quickly simulated now.
The software also enables micro-level examination, which is useful for verifying material properties for various components. You can even check the shape plots of flux density, ensuring the selected materials behave within your unique needs.
It’s quite extensive and allows you to look at properties with various discrepancies, deception, or disciplines throughout the design cycle.
Can you talk about the prototyping time and cost savings this can translate into?
In terms of prototype cycle time, we’re seeing about a 25x reduction, and it’s not unheard of for customers to reach even a 100x reduction.
We’re also seeing a cost reduction of anywhere from 5-20x. This not only comes from getting to the next step in prototyping much faster but material costs throughout the process are greatly reduced. An aerospace manufacturer has reported savings of about $250,000/year in permanent magnet costs alone.
These new methods translate into real-world dollars, as manufacturers can pass those savings on to their customers while delivering superior products. There’s a huge market potential.
How does it integrate with the other tools found in the Simcenter suite?
With the software, engineers can assess the model with various configurations and large numbers of drive cycles very efficiently, which is crucial to electric vehicle powertrain design.
We’ve unlocked cross-discipline collaboration too. Users can take the initial machine models and integrate them with the inverter, transmission, and cooling systems to create a single CAD-based model of the electric drivetrain. Then, you can use this to optimize NVH performance, controls, and thermal systems.
Zooming out, that big picture that matters for our automotive customers. They need to ensure that all models will integrate seamlessly, instead of designing them in silos and hopefully connecting the dots later. It’s all about optimizing and collaborating with the other talent on your team, and we’ve proven that’s possible with this new tool.
Any other industries it’s being applied to?
It’s quickly gaining traction in several industries, one that we didn’t anticipate was drone design.
There are several new drone manufacturers popping up on the West Coast in defense, medical, and delivery applications. For startups, time is money, placing engineering teams under intense time-to-market pressure. With the suite, engineers are rapidly accelerating their design process and getting to the next steps in production faster than their competitors.
Closing thought:
Siemens is the pioneer of electromagnetic simulation, starting in the late 70’s. The suite is built on a strong foundation of over 40 years of research and development in the space.
With a modern user-friendly interface and all of the appropriate upscale foundation and framework, we’re excited to see how it alters the path to electrification.
Ready to demo the Siemens Simcenter E-Machine Design and other tools? You can contact the team by clicking contact sales at this link:
Special thanks to Benoit and Adrian for the interview!
