Solid-Rotor Material Selection for Squirrel-Cage High-Speed Solid-Rotor Induction Machine

Squirrel-cage solid-rotor core material selection is investigated using a 1 MW 12000 r/min motor as a case study. Different rotor core materials are analysed: S355, X20Cr13, MoCN315M, Imacro M and AISI430. The mechanical strength of the rotor should naturally be strong enough to withstand the high mechanical stresses caused by the high rotational velocity and the rotor should have high saturation flux density for torque production generation. Finite element models are built in Altair Flux 2D environment. A detailed analysis on the influence of material resistivity on torque production and power factor is carried out. Finally, the motor losses are calculated with sinusoidal supply to see the effect of the rotor core material on the motor efficiency.