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The focus of this research is to perform a detailed investigation of the tradeoffs between mass, efficiency, service factor (SF), power factor (PF), and cost of commercially available induction machines (IMs). To support this effort, data from a large number of IMs is used to establish Pareto-optimal fronts between these competing objectives. From the Pareto-optimal fronts, relatively straightforward models are formulated for the mass versus loss, cost versus loss, SF versus mass, PF versus cost. Parameters of the models are obtained using a genetic algorithm (GA).

In this research, excitation strategies for a salient-pole wound rotor synchronous machine are explored using a magnetic equivalent circuit model that includes core loss. It is shown that the excitation obtained is considerably different than would be obtained using traditional qd-based models. However, through evaluation of the resulting ‘optimal’ excitation, a relatively straightforward field-oriented type control is developed that is consistent with a desire for efficiency yet control simplicity. Validation is achieved through hardware experiment. The usefulness/applicability of the simplified control to variable speed applications is then considered.