A clear, practical foundation for understanding electric propulsion from stored energy to mechanical thrust. This book presents the connected engineering principles behind electric drive systems, showing how machines, inverters, batteries, controls, thermal systems, mechanical hardware, and safety features operate as one coordinated platform.
Written for students, practicing engineers, technicians, and professionals entering electrified transportation, it develops knowledge in a logical sequence. Fundamental electrical, magnetic, and mechanical concepts lead into machine selection, power conversion, energy storage, propulsion architecture, control, cooling, validation, and production integration.
What you will learn
- Trace energy, power, torque, speed, and efficiency through a complete propulsion system.
- Compare permanent-magnet, induction, synchronous-reluctance, interior permanent-magnet, and switched-reluctance machines.
- Understand machine construction, electromagnetic design variables, dq-axis models, losses, efficiency maps, and operating limits.
- Apply inverter, semiconductor, gate-drive, modulation, DC-link, filtering, and electromagnetic-interference fundamentals.
- Evaluate battery characteristics, state of charge, state of health, charging equipment, DC-DC conversion, and high-voltage distribution.
- Assess centralized, distributed, modular, integrated, geared, and direct-drive propulsion arrangements.
- Follow the principles of field-oriented control, position sensing, sensorless estimation, torque regulation, field weakening, and regenerative braking.
- Plan thermal paths and cooling systems while accounting for hot spots, derating, reliability, and thermal-runaway risk.
- Address isolation, arc-flash, overcurrent, overspeed, overtemperature, grounding, shielding, EMC, and compliance concerns.
- Connect requirements, simulation, hardware-in-the-loop testing, dynamometer measurement, calibration, manufacturing, diagnosis, and maintenance.
Engineering practice throughout
Each chapter combines explanatory material with system-level relationships and a practical example. Readers calculate propulsion requirements, compare machine topologies, build performance maps, estimate inverter and DC-link needs, size a battery for a duty cycle, develop architecture trade studies, design a closed-loop speed controller, balance cooling capacity, create a protection concept, validate a system against a drive cycle, and troubleshoot a commissioned propulsion unit.
Electric Propulsion Engineering Fundamentals is designed to help readers connect equations with hardware and component decisions with vehicle-level results. Whether used for self-study, classroom instruction, onboarding, or early-stage design work, it provides a structured reference for building sound engineering judgment across the electric propulsion lifecycle.
