Dear Colleagues,

Until four decades ago, electrical AC machines have been designed accounting for the fact that they are intended to be grid-connected. This has led to the well-known conventional machines (induction and DC-excited synchronous machines) in which the three-phase windings in the stator are sinusoidally distributed in slots around the air gap so as to optimally couple with the grid sinusoidal supply. Starting from the 1980th, the emergence of power electronic converters has removed the need for such a concept as the basis for machine design. A new approach based on the principle that considers the best machine design is the one that simply produces the optimum match between the electrical machine and the associated power electronic converter. This trend has led to the so-called “converter-fed machines” (CFMs). Much attention is presently focused on the design of new topologies of CFMs where several conventional rules are rethought, such as (i) multi-phase rather than three-phase machines, (ii) winding shape and arrangement, (iii) permanent magnet (PM) excitation rather than DC one, (iv) magnetic circuit material and geometry, (v) three-dimensional (3D) flux paths rather than 2D ones, and so on. Moreover, the rapid and remarkable development of microprocessor systems has enabled the introduction of affordable digital signal processor (DSP)-based platforms dedicated to the implementation of high-performance control strategies in electric machine drives and generators. Beyond their high dynamic, accuracy, energy efficiency, and fault tolerance, some advanced control strategies exhibit enhanced robustness against the CFM parameters variations due to heating, saturation, skin effect, vibration, and other phenomena.

The emergence of new topologies of CFMs and the synthesis and implementation of advanced control strategies in machine drives and generators are currently considered key technology for the progress of several sustainable development applications, especially for green mobility and energy. The present Special Issue highlights the aspects allied to these trendy applications.

Original research, technical surveys, and reviews, dealing with (but not limited to) the topics listed hereunder, are highly encouraged for submission:

• Emerging rotating and linear, radial, axial, and transverse flux PM synchronous machines;
• Multi-phase and multi-three-phase PM synchronous machines;
• High-torque, low-speed, direct-drive in-wheel hub PM machines;
• Flux-switching PM machines;
• Vernier PM machines;
• PM-less synchronous machines;
• Hybrid-excited synchronous machines;
• Fault-tolerant PM machines;
• Multi-objective and multi-physics machine design optimization;
• 48 automotive technology actuators;
• Direct drive wind energy conversion systems;
• Direct drive wave energy conversion systems;
• Two- and three-level inverter PWM control techniques;
• Machine-converter cooling systems design and characterization;
• Advanced maximum torque per ampere, vector, direct torque, direct power, and predictive torque control strategies;
• Sliding mode, fuzzy logic, and neural network control strategies;
• Power flow analysis and energy efficiency optimization;
• Regenerative breaking strategies;
• Acoustic noise, vibration, and harshness (NVH) analysis and reduction;
• Fault-tolerance improvement;
• Robustness enhancement.

We look forward receiving your contributions to this Special Issue “Electric Machine Design Approaches and Control Strategies Applied to Automotive and Renewable Energy Systems” of the Sustainability journal.

Prof. Dr. Ahmed Masmoudi
Prof. Dr. Ziqiang Zhu
Prof. Dr. Fabrizio Marignetti
Guest Editors

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• sustainable mobility and energy systems
• electric machine drives and generators
• sizing
• optimization
• modularity
• parameter identification
• analytical and finite element analysis modelling
• control
• space-vector PWM
• simulation
• implementation
• PM eddy current loss
• energy efficiency
• fault tolerance
• torque ripple