Lightweight Design Of Motor Housing Based On Multi-load Case Topology Optimization

The current goal of motor industry is to achieve lightweight and miniaturized structure,improve reliability,power density as well as intelligence,etc.At present,the demand of lighter and smaller motors in manufacturing industry is increasing because this can effectively save materials and space.As one of the main parts of the motor,the motor housing plays an extremely important role in reducing the weight of the whole motor.The purpose of lightweight motor housing is to reduce the weight and manufacturing cost by saving the material without compromising on the performance of motor housing.The housing of a PMSM is taken as the research object in this paper.The three-dimensional modeling of the prototype was built in CATIA software,and the stiffness,strength and modal finite element analysis of the prototype finite element model were carried out.Also,the free modal tests of the motor housing were conducted to compare the test results with the simulation results to verify the accuracy of the finite element model.At the same time,it was found that the prototype does not fulfill the strength requirements and there was room for further optimization in the initial design of motor housing structure,which can be optimized.In order to achieve lightweight design,the topology optimization method was introduced in the conceptual design stage of the motor housing.Combining the space and intermal layout of the motor,multiple load cases topology optimization design of the motor housing was conducted by using the OptiStruct software.According to the material distribution of motor housing structure after topology optimization,the optimized motor housing shape was reconstructed in CATIA software,and the stiffness,strength and modal finite element analysis of the reconstructed motor housing were conducted.Compared with the original motor housing,the strength of motor housing fulful the requirements,and the weight of optimized motor housing is reduced by 3.84 kg and the ratio reaches 13.54%.The weight reduction of motor frame and end housing is 10.86%and 21.18%respectively.The lightweight design of motor housing structure is significant.The work in this paper has an important reference value for the lightweight design of motor housing,and has a certain guiding significance for the design of related companies.