Grant: Research Tools and Instruments - Category 1 (<$150,000)

The software and equipment requested will support the advanced design and experimental aspects of the current research of the Principal Investigator (PI). This is encapsulated in the NSERC/Hydro-Quebec Industrial Research Chair entitled, ""Energy efficiency in electrical machines for small scale renewable energy systems"", in the NSERC Discovery grant entitled ""Energy efficiency and renewable energy"" and in two NSERC Engage grants, one with Infolytica on improving their core loss models and one with an industrial partner TM4 on designing a traction motor without magnets to solve the problem of skyrocketing magnet prices. It is envisaged that these Engage projects will translate into other longer term grants in addition to the established Industrial Research Chair and Discovery programs. The equipment will allow the research team to design, prototype and test advanced machines as well as conventional induction and synchronous machines working under onerous industrial conditions. The innovative work is the design of novel machine configurations which are being prototyped. The testing and performance of conventional machines exposed to a combination of unbalanced supplies and harmonics have not been done before. Thus the work done here will be groundbreaking.