Electrical machines and drives – the revolution continues

Speaker: Z.Q. Zhu, Fellow of Royal Academy of Engineering, IEEE Fellow, IET Fellow,  Professor of University of Sheffield

Venue: Dingtalk

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Abstract

Electrical machines and drives are a key technology for numerous market sectors, including industrial drives, domestic appliances, renewable energy, automation, robots, electrified transportation such as electric vehicles, fast trains, more electric aircrafts, and electric ships, etc. This presentation will focus on the current research developments and trends in electrical machines and drives, including high torque/high torque density, high power/high power density, high efficiency, high speed, low speed and direct drive, high reliability, high fault tolerance, high manufacturability, high system integration and design consideration of materials/power electronics/machines/ controllers, low acoustic noise and vibration, and low cost, as well as advanced cooling techniques and thermal management, etc. Worked examples will be given to illustrate the development of novel research concepts and the impact on successful commercial applications.

Biography

Professor Z.Q. Zhu is a Fellow of the Royal Academy of Engineering, a Fellow of IEEE, and a Fellow of IET. He received B.Eng. and M.Sc. degrees from Zhejiang University, China, in 1982 and 1984 respectively, and a Ph.D. degree from The University of Sheffield, U.K., in 1991. Professor Zhu was a Lecturer/Assistant Lecturer at Zhejiang University for four years before joining The University of Sheffield in 1988 where he became a professor in 2000 and has been a top-band university professor since 2014. Since 2008 he has been Head of the global well-known Electrical Machines and Drives Research Group. The group currently consists of >120 personnel (including ~100 PhD students/post-doctors), 8 research centres including the Rolls-Royce University Technology Centre in Advanced Electrical Machines, and the UK Government funded EPSRC Future Electrical Machines Manufacturing Hub. Professor Zhu is the Royal Academy of Engineering/Siemens Research Chair, Academic Director of the Sheffield Siemens Gamesa Renewable Energy Research Centre for off-shore wind power generation (2009-), Director of the Midea Electrical Machines and Control Research Centres for high performance machines and drives (2010-), and Director of the CRRC Electric Technology Centre for fast train propulsion (2014-). Prof. Zhu has made pioneering contributions to the modeling, control, new machine topologies, and applications of permanent magnet machines and drives. His innovative research works and publications have made major advances in state-of-the-art PM machine technology. These advances are now having a major impact on a wide range of applications, including electric vehicles, wind power generators and domestic appliances, leading to a major collective impact on society by reducing both energy consumption and greenhouse gas emissions as a result of significant efficiency improvements. His research activities are sponsored extensively by the UK government and the global industries, the outcomes being exploited successfully for commercialisation by Siemens, Midea, Toyota, Nissan, Valeo, Rolls-Royce, and CRRC etc. He is/was Visiting/Guest Professor of 15 universities including Zhejiang University, Tsinghua University, Chinese Academy of Science, Hong Kong University, and University of Wisconsin-Madison. He is/was a panel member of Royal Academy of Engineering, Panel 7 - Electrical & Electronic (2018-), IEEE Medal in Power Engineering Committee member (2018-), EPSRC Engineering Panel member (2013 & 2019), and NSFC Overseas Panel member (2001-2006), Editor/Associate Editor of IEEE Trans. on Energy Conversion (2014-2017); IEEE Trans. on Industry Applications (2007-2010); Journal of IEE Japan-IAS (2015-), CES Transactions on Electrical Machines and Systems (2017-) etc. He is the author/co-author of >100 patents and >400 IEEE Transactions and IET Proceedings papers. He was the recipient of the 2019 IEEE Industry Application Society Outstanding Achievement Award, 2019 Foundation Prince Albert II de Monaco Award, and 2018 Guandong Province Science and Technology Co-operation Award. He received 34 Best Paper Awards, including 6 IEEE/IET society/journal awards. He has supervised 76 PhD students who successfully obtained their PhD degrees and also 35 post-doctor Research Associates.