Design and Validation of a 24-Pole Coreless

Axial Flux Permanent Magnet Motor for

A Solar Powered Vehicle
M. Aydin, M. Gulec, Y. Demir, B. Akyuz and E. Yolacan

Abstract -- This paper is about modelling, design and

validation of a 24 pole coreless axial flux permanent magnet II. INTRODUCTION
motor for solar powered vehicle applications. A double-rotor
coreless axial flux surface mounted permanent magnet motor is
investigated in this study. Coreless axial flux permanent magnet
(AFPM) motor is analytically modelled by magnetic equivalent
A XIAL flux permanent magnet (AFPM) motors are widely
use in various applications such as traction where high
radial space and limited axial space is available. In
circuit, and the design is finalized by 3-D finite element analyses vehicular technologies, the powertrain efficiency and smaller
(FEA). Prototype of coreless AFPM motor is built to validate volume are some important issues which are needed to be
simulation results. No-load and on-load performance tests for the solved. Thanks to disc type geometry and high torque-to-
built motor are performed. Back EMF and initial on-load results weight ratios, AFPM motors can be integrated into the
obtained from FEA and test set-up are in good agreement. powertrain electric vehicles. In particular, in-wheel type
AFPM motors helps to decrease volume, mass and number of
Index Terms— axial flux permanent magnet motor, coreless
transmission components in the traction system. Conventional
permanent magnet motor, axial gap synchronous motor, finite
element analysis, magnetic equivalent circuit. and in-wheel motor designs for an electric vehicle powertrain
architectures are illustrated in Fig 1.
I. NOMENCLATURE
‚ Magneto motive force
ƒr Rotor reluctance
ƒg Air gap reluctance
ƒag Average air gap reluctance
ƒgm Minor air gap reluctance
\ pm Magnet constant flux
Iag Magnetic flux of air gap
Igm Minor magnetic flux of air gap
ƒglk Air gap leakage reluctance
ƒ pm Magnet reluctance
O Outer-to-inner ratio Fig 1. Powertrain architecture
Ag Cross section area of air gap reluctance
Agm Cross section area of minor air gap reluctance AFPM motors can have various options such as single-
Bag Air gap flux density stage, double-stage, or multiple-stage. Each of these options
can be with or without armature slots, with or without
armature core. The rotor structures could be internal or
external PM rotors, with surface mounted or interior PMs.
These alternatives are well covered in the literature [1]-[4].
This work was supported by the Ministry of Science, Industry and
Among these alternatives, coreless AFPM motors could bring
Technology of Turkey (Santez) under Grant 0152.STZ.2013-1. The work some more benefits compared to other AFPM motors. Double
is also partially sponsored by Kocaeli University BAP Unit. stage (or sided) alternative without armature core (coreless
Metin Aydin is with Kocaeli University, Dept. of Mechatronics Engr., stator) is selected to be used in this study.
Kocaeli, 41380, Turkey (e-mail: metin.aydin@kocaeli.edu.tr).
Mehmet Gulec is with Kocaeli University, Dept. of Mechatronics
Coreless type stator bring additional advantages compared
Engr., Kocaeli, 41380, Turkey (e-mail: mehmet.gulec@kocaeli.edu.tr). to other types of AFPM motors since eliminating stator core
Yucel Demir is with the R&D Dept., MDS Motor Design Ltd., remove iron losses from the system. Without stator core, the
Kocaeli, 41275, Turkey (e-mail: yucel@mdsmotor.com). motor efficiency is increased and smaller motor stack is
Baris Akyuz is with Anadolu Isuzu Co. Cayirova, 41335, Turkey (e-
mail: baris.akyuz@isuzu.com.tr).
obtained. However, it has to be mentioned that PM usage in
Ersin Yolacan is with Kocaeli University, Dept. of Mechatronics coreless structures is more than that of cored structures due to
Engr., Kocaeli, 41380, Turkey (e-mail: ersin.yolacan@kocaeli.edu.tr). larger electrical air gaps to get the same magnetic air-gap flux
density. In addition to above benefits, cogging torque is also

l-))) 
 TABLE I
DESIGN DATA OF CORELESS AFPM MOTOR
S S N S N S Rated torque 16Nm
) ) ) Rated speed 400rpm
Phase number 3
Pole numbers TBD
DC bus voltage 50V

N N S N S N
The design specifications are given in Table I. Based on
these specifications, an initial design study is carried out for
(a) (b) (c) various pole numbers using generalized sizing equations [5]-
Fig 2. Flux paths of (a) cored NN type magnet, (b) cored NS type magnet
and (c) coreless NS type magnet arrangements [13]. Sizing equations for a 3 phase coreless AFPM machine
have the following form:

f 1 O 2
PR K AKB g A (1  O2 ) Do Le (1)
p 2

where PR is rated output power of the machine, Le is effective

stack length of the machine, f is frequency, p is pole pair, Bg
is air gap flux density, η is efficiency, KA is waveform constant
and O is the diameter ratio of the machine which is defined as

Di
O (2)
Do

where Do and Di are machine diameters at outer and inner

Fig 3. NS type double rotor coreless AFPM motor
eliminated in coreless AFPM motors due to absence of core
material and reluctance variation.
PM’s arrangement is the one of the important design issues
in AFPM motors. There exist two choices: NN or NS type flux
directions. Flux paths of these arrangement are shown in Fig
2. Magnetic flux has two loops in NN type AFPM motors
while the flux has one loop in NS type arrangements. Since
there is no core in the stator, NS type arrangement is the only
option for coreless AFPM motors. NS type of coreless AFPM
surfaces. A set of parametric analyses are carried out based on
sizing equations to determine the requirements of the
application. An optimization analysis of AFPM motor based
on various pole number is given in Fig 4. Key parameters such
as power density, weight, torque to weight ratio and torque
density are investigated for different pole numbers and finally,
24-pole rotor structure is chosen to be the optimum pole count.
0,7
0,6
Power density [W/cm3]

0,5
motor representation is also given in Fig 3. 0,4
Aim of this study is to design a coreless AFPM motor based 0,3

on analytical and numerical analyses for a solar powered 0,2

0,1
vehicle. First, initial design of the motor is carried out with 0
magnetic equivalent circuit based model. Pole number 0 10 20
Number of poles
30 40

optimization is also carried out based on AFPM motor sizing 5

approach. Then, 3D-FEA model simulations are performed to 4,5
Material weight [Kg]

see the performance characteristics of the coreless motor.

Finally, a prototype machine is built, tested and verified in the 4

last section of the paper. 3,5

3
III. DESIGN AND MAGNETIC MODELLING OF A CORELESS 0 10 20
Number of poles
30 40

AFPM MOTOR 6,5

Torque-to-weight ratio

6
Magnetic equivalent circuit (MEC) modelling is a very
5,5
effective tool to analyze the electromagnetic systems such as
[Nm/kg]

5
solenoids, electric motors, magnetic bearings, eddy current 4,5
brakes and so on. Approximate design and system outputs can 4

easily and rapidly be obtained by MEC modelling and 3,5

0 10 20 30 40
parametric analyses can effortlessly be studied as to numerical Number of poles

methods. Fig 4. Parametric optimization analyses of AFPM motor based on various

pole number


 ªƒr  2ƒ pm  ƒglk ƒglk 0 º
Double rotor coreless AFPM motor are then modelled by « »
Aƒ « ƒglk 2ƒglk  2ƒag ƒglk » (4)
MEC symmetry model for the 24 pole structure. Due to
«ƒr  2ƒ pm  ƒglk ƒglk 0 »¼
symmetry, magnetic flux paths can be analyzed by focusing ¬
only one flux loop portion of the system. Symmetry region of
coreless AFPM motor is given in Fig 5-(a). Symmetry model where reluctances are represented by R. Magneto-motive
consists of half magnets, rotor cores and all phases. MEC of forces in the MEC modelling are occurred from permanent
coreless AFPM motor is also given in Fig 5-(b). Air gap is magnets and magneto-motive force branch is expressed by
modelled with 3 independent reluctances including leakage
reluctances. Therefore, 3 main flux loops are created and they T

are represented by circled numbers in the figure. ‚ ª¬2\ pmƒ pm 0 2\ pmƒ pm º¼ (5)

TABLE II where the constant flux of PM is defined by ψ and magneto-

KEY PARAMETERS OF INITIAL CORELESS AFPM MOTOR DESIGN
motive motor-force is represented by F. The magnetic flux
Number of turns 4
Rotor OD 262mm
density formula in the air gap is given in by
Diameter ratio 0.60
Total axial length 36.3mm T
Magnet pole-arc ratio 0.80
ª Ig Ig Igm º
Bag « » (6)
¬« Ag Ag Agm ¼»

Finally, magnetic flux density is calculated by MEC

modelling and used in the general designed equation to come
up the initial design data which is given in Table II.
Winding design of the coreless AFPM motor is also
completed and shown in Fig. 6. Two sets of coils are used on
back-to-back and each set is designed to have 2 turns with 24
coils in series. In other words, a total of 4 turns is used for each
coil. Thus, number of coils per pole per phase is designed to
be 1 for the coreless motor.

(a)

(a) (b)

Fig 6. Winding scheme of the coreless AFPM motor: (a) One phase and (b)
all phases

(b)

Fig 5. 2-D symmetry region and MEC of coreless AFPM motor

IV. 3-D FEA OF CORELESS AFPM MOTOR
In this section, 3-D finite element analyses of the coreless
Flux for each loop can be calculated by Kirchhoff’s Law AFPM motor is carried out by Flux® FEA package by Cedrat
and fluxes are defined by in order to obtain motor performance results. Initial design
obtained from sizing approach and MEC analyses are used in
M >I1 I2 I3 @
T
(3) FEA modelling. The most important matter encountered as
modeling a 3-D AFPM motor is attaining a quality and an
intensive mesh on the machine. Even though a quality mesh is
where ϕ represents the flux. Reluctance matrix based on flux
created, it is very difficult to solve the problem in a short span
loops is given by
of time. In this study, an intensive mesh is obtained using
173,428 nodes and 1,000,888 volume elements. Besides, both
no-load and on-load analyses of the motor are performed in a


 50
40 phase
phase-phase
30
20

Back EMF [V]

10
0
-10 0 5 10 15 20 25 30
-20
-30
-40
-50
Magnets Angle [Mechanical Degrees]

Fig 9. Phase and line back-EMF voltage waveforms at 400 r/min (obtained by
3-D FEA)

Stator
S 45
40 phase
windings
t Rotor phase-phase
35
30

Back EMF [V]

Fig 7. 3-D FEA model, stator windings and mesh structure of the coreless 25
AFPM motor 20
15
10
5
0
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21
Harmonic Number [-]

Fig 10. Harmonic contents of the back-EMF voltages

18
16
14
12
Torque [Nm]

Fig 8. Magnetic flux density variation on the coreless AFPM motor
short period using Cedrat Distribution Engine (CDE) tool. 3-
D FEA model, stator windings and mesh structure of the
coreless AFPM motor is illustrated in Fig 7. Nd-Fe-B magnets
are mounted on the rotor of the coreless AFPM motor. No-
load magnetic flux density variation on the motor is shown in
Fig 8. As seen from the figure, maximum flux density levels
are observed on the rotor as 1.5 T.
Fig 9 demonstrates phase and phase-to-phase back-EMF
voltage waveforms of the AFPM motor obtained by 3-D FEA
at 400 r/min. It can be said that the voltage waveform induced
on the stator winding has a sinusoidal shape for line back-
EMF. In addition, FFT analysis of the back-EMFs of the
machine is performed to investigate the harmonic contents of
the voltage waveforms (Fig 10). As seen from the figure, 3rd
harmonic appears on the phase back-EMF. Therefore, total
harmonic distortion (THD) of the phase voltage is higher than
line voltage. Moreover, THD value of line voltage is 1.2% as
expected.
On-load analysis of the coreless AFPM motor is also
accomplished. Torque output variation of the motor obtained
by 3-D FEA at 13.9Arms is illustrated in Fig 11. As seen from
the figure, the average torque value of the machine is 15.3 Nm
and torque ripple percentage is 4.55% of the average torque.
10
8
6
4
2
0
0 10 5 15 20 25 30
Rotor position [Mechanical Degrees]
Fig 11. Torque output variation of the coreless AFPM motor (obtained by 3-
D FEA)
V. CORELESS AFPM MOTOR PROTOTYPE AND VALIDATION
Final design of coreless AFPM motor is obtained by 3-D
FEA and a prototype of coreless AFPM motor is manufactured
based on analyses. Rotor and stator structures of coreless
AFPM motor is given in Fig 12. Rotor is consisted of surface
magnets which are attached on an iron disc (Fig 12-(a)). 24-
pole is accurately placed to iron disc via guided spaces on the
rotor surface. The key structure of coreless motors is coils
assembly. Layout of coils is very important for motor to get
the output parameters exactly. Only if, coils are settled
equally, AFPM motor will work as designed. Therefore, coils
are firstly wrapped with a castermid guide and after covered
up by epoxy. Two coils sets are generated and mounted on top
of each other to ease the winding process. Manufacturing steps
of stator are given in Fig 12-(b).


 50
40
30
20

Back EMF [V]

10
0
-10 0 5 10 15 20 25 30
-20
(a)
-30
-40 Experiments
3-D FEA
-50
Angle [Mechanical Degrees]
(a)
40
Experiments
35 3-D FEA

Line-Line Back EMF [V]

30
25
20
15
(b) 10
5
0
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9
Harmonic Order
(b)
Fig 13. Comparison of (a) back-EMF and (b) harmonic profile of coreless
AFPM motor at 400rpm

18
(c) 16
14
Fig 12. Coreless AFPM motor prototype pictures (a) rotor, (b) coils and stator
structure and (c) manufactured AFPM motor 12
Torque [Nm]

10 Fixed Current - Exp.

No-load and on-load test are performed to validate the built 8 3-D FEA
motor. First, no-load test is carried out at 400rpm speed and 6
results obtained from experiment is compared with 3-D FEA 4
results in Fig 13. Back-EMF waveform test results are in big 2
harmony as well as harmonic contents. On-load test is 0
investigated by fixed current method due to driver issues. In 0 5 10 15 20 25 30
this method, phases are fed by a stable current as Ix, -0.5Ix and Angle [Mechanical Degrees]
-0.5Ix and a drive motor rotates the motor. Torque profile of
Fig 14. Torque profile of coreless AFPM motor
coreless AFPM motor is given in Fig 14. Average torque is
measured as 14.79Nm and results show that there is a 3.4%
difference between test and FEA results which is an
acceptable error. Torque output results of coreless AFPM VI. CONCLUSION
motor and comparison between the simulation data is given in
A double rotor coreless AFPM synchronous motor for a
Table III.
solar powered car application has been presented in this paper.
TABLE III Magnetic modelling based on MEC in connection with sizing
TORQUE OUTPUT RESULTS FOR CORELESS AFPM MOTOR approach used in pole number optimization is carried out and
3D FEA Test Data % Error initial design is investigated. 3-D FEA are carried out to see
Ave. Torque 15.3Nm 14.79Nm 3.3% the actual motor performance, finalize the design and a
Torque Ripple % 4.55% N/A N/A prototype coreless AFPM motor is built to verify the results
KT [Nm/Arms] 1.1 1.06 3.6% obtain from 3-D FEA. No-load and on-load tests are
KV [Vrms/rpm] 0.096 0.095 1%
BackEMF Fund 38.46 38.2 0.7%
performed and results obtained from experiments and FEA are
in good agreement and built coreless AFPM motor is verified.


 VII. REFERENCES
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between the axial flux and the radial flux structures for PM synchronous
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VIII. BIOGRAPHIES
Metin Aydin (S’98–M’04) is a native of Turkey. He received the B.S. degree
in electrical engineering from Istanbul Technical University, Istanbul,
Turkey, in 1993 and the M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in electrical engineering from
the University of Wisconsin, Madison, WI, USA, in 1997 and 2004,
respectively. He was with Wisconsin Electrical Machines and Power
Electronics Consortium, Madison, WI, USA, for eight years and Caterpillar
Inc. R&D, Peoria, IL, USA, for more than two years and worked on various
projects related to electric motor designs and control. He is currently a Faculty
Member with the Department of Mechatronics Engineering, Kocaeli
University, Kocaeli, Turkey. His research interests include conventional and
unconventional electrical machine design and control
Mehmet Gulec (S’12) received the B.S. and M.S. degrees in mechatronics
engineering from Kocaeli University, Kocaeli, Turkey, in 2010 and 2013,
respectively, where he is currently working toward the Ph.D. degree in the
Department of Mechatronics Engineering. He is also currently a Research
Assistant with the Department of Mechatronics Engineering, Kocaeli
University. His research interests include modeling, simulation, and design of
electromagnetic systems and mechatronics.
Yucel Demir received his B.S. and M.S. degrees from Kocaeli University,
Turkey, in 2011 and 2013 respectively all in Mechatronics Engineering. He is
currently working for MDS Motor Design Ltd. as a R&D Engineer and a
Ph.D. student at the Dept. of Mechatronics Engineering at Kocaeli University.
His research interest includes electrical machine design and control.
Baris Akyuz received the B.Eng degree in Electrical & Electronics
Engineering from Sakarya University, in 2008. He is currently M.Sc student
in Mechatronics Engineering in Kocaeli University. He is currently Senior
R&D Engineer in Anadolu Isuzu Automotive Industry & Trade Inc. His
current research interest include electric/hybrid electric vehicles, electrical
machines and hybrid-power trains.
Ersin Yolacan received the B.S. and M.S. degrees in mechatronics
engineering from Kocaeli University, Kocaeli, Turkey, in 2009 and 2012,
respectively. He is currently working toward his Ph.D. degree in the
Department of Mechatronics Engineering. His research interests include
simulation and control of electric motors.