Go to JKU Homepage
The European Research Council
The European Research Council (ERC) is a premier funding body dedicated to advancing cutting-edge scientific research across Europe. Established by the European Union in 2007, the ERC's mission is to support investigator-driven, high-risk, high-reward research in all scientific fields, fostering groundbreaking discoveries and innovations. By offering substantial grants through competitive processes, the ERC empowers researchers to explore novel ideas and tackle some of the most pressing challenges facing society today. Its commitment to scientific excellence and autonomy ensures that the ERC remains a cornerstone of Europe's research landscape, contributing significantly to the continent's global competitiveness and knowledge economy.
Prof. Gerd Bramerdorfer was awarded an ERC Starting Grant in 2022 to conduct research on electric machines with inherent speed-dependent characteristics for more sustainable and efficient energy conversion, referred to as Project CHARMAELEON.
Project CHARMAELEON
Half of the total electric energy consumed within the European Union is used for operating electric machines. Those might feature high efficiency for rated load, but partial load and overload performance often is very poor. Additionally, given some voltage and current limits for driving machines, designers need to trade good performance at high torque versus high-speed capabilities.
Machines with speed-dependent characteristics would facilitate overcoming the current limitations and thus are the subject of this ERC project. The main approach for realizing operation dependent machine characteristics is to acquit oneself of thinking that the electric machine structure must be static.
The gained results will allow for simultaneously achieving higher net efficiency levels and reducing the consumption of resources due to an improved utilization of the applied components. The project will thus help to reduce the overall energy consumption and to minimize the need for critical raw materials. The reward of this project is tremendous and the expected outcome will beneficially affect our future lives.
The major question to be adressed within this project is:
“Can we design machines with inherent speed-variable permanent magnet flux linkage?”
So, without any (electric) control from outside, the design should adapt itself according to the operating speed. This is why the project title
CHARMAELEON
was chosen. The word includes parts of “characteristics”, “machine”, and “electric”. The focus is on the similarity with the word “chameleon”, representing an animal that adapts its colour situation-dependent.
Further Information will follow soon!
