An analytical approach for the design of innovative hairpin winding layouts

This work deals with an analytical approach aimed at accurately predicting Joule losses in innovative hairpin winding layouts. While hairpin windings are seeing an everincreasing use in automotive and aerospace applications due to their inherently high slot fill factor, they also present drawbacks such as the non-uniform current distribution potentially occurring across their cross section. This phenomenon is emphasized at high frequencies, leading to a significant increase of the effective conductor resistance and, consequently, of copper losses. Hence, particular attention has to be given to the design of electrical machines employing hairpin conductors, aiming to reduce the high-frequency losses as much as possible. In this paper, an analytical model based on previous investigations is updated and modified in order to increase the degrees of freedom in the design and analysis of hairpin windings. With the developed analytical model, the copper losses associated to innovative hairpin configurations can be accurately predicted. The findings also confirm that such alternative layouts can effectively reduce the Joule losses when compared to traditional hairpin technologies.