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"Design of four-pole permanent magnet motor with different rotor

topologies."

Conference Paper · January 2013

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Payam Shams Ghahfarokhi Jawad Faiz

Tallinn University of Technology University of Tehran
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 DESIGN OF FOUR POLE PERMANENT MAGNET MOTOR WITH DIFFERENT
ROTOR TOPOLOGIES
P. Shams Ghahfarokhi1 and Jawad Faiz2

1 Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Newcastle University, Newcastle, UK

2 Centre of Excellence on Applied Electromagnetic Systems, School of Electrical and Computer

Engineering, College of Engineering, University of Tehran, Iran

Abstract this paper presents different rotor topologies for The PM rotor topologies are divided into six
permanent magnet (PM) synchronous motors .It consist of configurations as shown in Fig. 1.
four rotor topologies and in each topologies try to reduced
amount of magnet to find maximum amount of torque with
minimum amount of magnet .At the end all of the topologies
compare with amount of the torque ,quality of torque ,flux
and inductances to find advantages and disadvantages each
rotor topologies ,the stator of each configuration is the same
they have six teeth four poles permanent magnet
synchronous motors. Two-dimensional Infolytica magnet is
used to simulate the motor and the Matlab is employed to
calculate the total harmonic distortion

Ι. INTRODUCTION
Fig. 1. Different Types of PM Rotor Topology
The Permanent Magnet Synchronous Machines
(PMSMs) have been known for many years, the ΙΙ. TORQUE
structures of these machines were improved by
improvements in power electronic field and rare earth A. Exterior topology
materials ,the price of these materials is so high and 80 Torque in exterior topology PMSM is developed by
%of these materials are located in china, due to this the magnet flux; if the back emf and current is in phase the
designer decide to minimised amount of the magnet maximum torque is developed. The developed torque
.Nowadays designers of permanent magnet of the motor is determined as follows:
synchronous motor (PMSM) attempt to improve the 3𝐸𝐼𝑐𝑜𝑠𝛼
performance of the PMSM by changing the location 𝑇= (1)
𝜔𝑟𝑜𝑡
and shape of the PM for operation of the motor in
different range of power. In most PMSMs, PMs are
E is the back EMF; I is the phase current, α is the angle
installed in periphery of the rotor; this structure is
between the back EMF and current and 𝜔𝑟𝑜𝑡 is the
called surface-mounted PMSM. this configuration has
angular velocity of the rotor.
some disadvantages like longer air gap length and
operation at base speed . However, by changing the
B. Interior PM Topologies
location of the PMs and installing them inside of the
IPMSM is a salient pole motor and develops two
rotor, performance of the PMSM improves. The latter
different type of torques: PM torque is developed due
configuration is called interior permanent magnet
to the interaction of magnet flux in the d _axis with
synchronous motor (IPMSM) and research on this
stator current in q _axis, reluctance torque is developed
configuration has been extended in the past decade [2].
due to the rotor saliency and different reluctance in q
In the IPMSM configuration, the PMs are buried in the
and d axes. Both torque can be controlled separately.
rotor, so the rotor has smooth surface leading to a rough
The PM torque is controlled by varying the residual
and strong structure; this allows using it over high
flux density and the reluctance torque by changing the
speed operation. At this end, field weakening technique
types, shapes and numbers of the flux barriers in the
is used [3].
rotor [6].
The PMSMs has high output power per volume due to
In the steady-state condition, the average torque in
low Ohmic losses of the rotor. Reduction of the Ohmic
IPMSM is defined as follows:
losses improves the thermal characteristics of the
motor largely. Since PM materials are not heavy, the 𝑇 = 1.5𝑝[𝐼𝑞𝑠 𝛹𝑚𝑎𝑔 + (𝐿𝑑 − 𝐿𝑞 )𝐼𝑞𝑠 𝐼𝑑𝑠 ] (2)
weight of the motor is lower than that of the Where 𝛹𝑚𝑎𝑔 is the PM flux linkage,𝐿𝑑 , 𝐿𝑞 are the d and
conventional synchronous machine. In addition, there q inductances, p is the numbers of pole pairs and
is no brush and commutator in this motor and therefore 𝐼𝑞𝑠 ,𝐼𝑑𝑠 are the stator q and d currents. In (2), the first
it needs less maintenance [4]. part represents the torque developed by the interaction
of magnet flux in the d _axis with stator current in q
_axis (PM torque) and the second part is the saliency
torque. So (2) shows that in the steady-state case the
torque in IPMSM is equal to the sum of the PM torque
and saliency torque [2].

ΙII. MODELS DESCRIPTION

In this paper all models have been simulated by an

INFOLYTICA Magnet software. INFOLYTICA
Magnet software is simulation programme that is able
to draw the 2D and 3D structures of the motor. It is
based on finite element method (FEM) and enables to
calculate torque, iron losses, force, voltage and back-
emf of the motor. The software generates the flux
distribution within the motor. Table 1 shows the
geometrical specifications of the motor.
Table 1. Geometrical specifications of the PMSM
Stator diameter (mm) 100
Rotor diameter (mm) 50
Active axial length of motor (mm) 100
Shaft diameter (mm) 20
Air gap length (mm) 0.5
Stator slot number 6
Pole pair number 2 magnet and the air gap respectively, 𝜇𝑚 is the
Stator phase number 3 permeability of the magnet (µ𝑚 = µ𝑟 µ0 and µ𝑟 =
All the designed motors have the same pole number,
number of tooth and air gap length. The stator and rotor
lamination and back of core is none oriented silicone
steel M330-350. Winding is Copper: 5.77e7 Siemens.
Neodymium (NdFeB) PM is used with coercive force
of -8.28E+
Fig. 2 shows the stator of PMSM with concentrated
winding.
Fig. 3 shows the equivalent circuit of the stator coils.
First the surface mounted motor with PM is considered.
The coil maximum current and turns number produces
MMF. To protect the PM from demagnetization the
stator MMF should be less than
Fig. 3. Coils Connection
the magnet MMF. The MMF of PM is as follows:
𝑀𝑀𝐹 = 𝐻𝑐 × 𝑙𝑚 (3)
where 𝐻𝑐 is the coercive force and 𝑙𝑚 is the length of
the magnet which is calculated in the surface mounted
rotor as follows:
B0
𝐵𝑚 = 𝑙𝑔 𝐴𝑚 𝜇𝑚 (4)
1+
𝑙𝑚 𝐴𝑔 𝜇0
where B0 is the residual flux density of NdFeB equal to
1.1 T, lg is the air gap length and for this configuration
it is equal to 0.5 mm, 𝐴𝑚, 𝐴𝑔 are the area of the
1.05) and finally 𝐵𝑚 is the magnet flux density. It is
assumed that 𝐴𝑚= 𝐴𝑔 and “tooth width”=”slot width”.
If the maximum tooth flux density is equal to 1.8 T,
then the air gap flux 𝐵𝑔 is equal to 0.9 T. Therefore, the
length of magnet for full magnet surface mounted on
the rotor is calculated as follows:
1.1
0.9 = 𝑙𝑔×1.05 (5)
1+
𝑙𝑚
and 𝑙𝑚 = 4.7 × 0.5 = 2.35 mm. By substitution of 𝑙𝑚
and 𝐻𝑐 in (4), The MMF of the magnet is 1945.8. If the
coils have 100 turns, the maximum current of the stator
coils is 19.46 A. So, to protect the magnets
demagnetization the current must be 10 A.
Four different rotor topologies shown in Fig. 4 are
considered here.

Fig. 2. Stator of PMSM

 angular position for single barrier has been shown in
Fig. 5. The maximum of the inductance is 𝐿𝑞 and the
minimum of the inductance wave form is 𝐿𝑑 . Table 3
shows 𝐿𝑞 and 𝐿𝑑 for different rotor topologies

Table. 3. 𝐿𝑑 and 𝐿𝑞 for different rotor configurations

Rotor configuration Ld (H) Lq (H)
Surface mounted (full magnet) 0.016332 0.016946
Surface mounted (arc of 120) 0.016348 0.016942
Inset 0.017606 0.032921
Inset 2 0.021046 0.037383
Spoke (9.78) 0.023973 0.044616
Spoke (8.78) 0.026081 0.046554
Single barrier 0.01719 0.042496
Single barrier 2 0.019281 0.045406
Single barrier near centre 0.034611 0.047262

In Table 3 the d and q inductances for surface mounted

configurations are approximately equal, but they have
very small difference due to distortions in flux
waveform. In the inset configuration, in the q axis there
Fig. 4. Different types of PMSM rotor is some steel instead of air in surface mounted rotor ,
therefore, this q inductance is a little larger than d
The surface mounted motor is the basic model and its inductance. But for other configurations, the difference
PMs volume is 70685.83 ??. Table 2 shows the volume between d and q inductances is much larger than the
for the other configurations: inset. Saliency ratio for interior (buried) configurations
is larger than one. For example, for single barrier
Table 2. Volumes of PMs for each configuration configuration the saliency ratio ζ is calculated as
Name of configuration Volume (?)
Surface mounted 70685.83
follows:
𝐿𝑞
Surface mounted (arc Of 120) 47123.89 ζ=𝐿 (6)
Inset 47123.89 𝑑
Inset 2 44296.46 Table 4 shows the rotor saliency ratio for different
Spoke (9.78) 58680 types of rotor configurations for single barrier ζ=
Spoke (8.78) 52680
2.472.
Single barrier 70700
Single barrier 2 50700
Single barrier (near centre) 70700 Table. 4. Saliency Ratio for Different Types of Rotor
Configurations
Rotor Configuration Saliency Ratio
Surface mounted (full magnet) 1.037584
IV. SIMULATION RESULT Surface mounted (arc of 120) 1.03634
Inset 1.869851
A. Inductance Inset 2 1.776247
Spoke (9.78) 1.861097
To determine the dq inductances of the motors the Spoke (8.78) 1.784952
magnets are replaced by the air and it is solved by 2D Single barrier 2.472139
static module. Then the flux per phase is collected and Single barrier 2 2.354962
the inductance is calculated as follows: Single barrier near centre 1.36552
Ѱ = LI (5)
Table 4 shows that the single barrier configurations
(single barrier and single barrier near the centre) have
larger saliency ratio due to magnet buried in rotor and
its Lq is much larger than the other configurations
leading to the high reluctance torque.

Fig. 5. inductance variations versus rotor angular position
Where Ѱ is the flux-linkage, L is the inductance and I
is the current. The inductance variations versus rotor
B. Flux Linkage
To determine the flux, models were solved by 2D
transient with motion. Fig. 6 shows the time variations
of flux for surface mounted rotor (full magnet), in this
case the phase angle between the phases is 120 degrees.
Fourier analysis can be used to calculate the flux for
surface mounted rotor. The flux for surface mounted
rotor with arc of 120 is 15% lower than that of the full
magnet. However, this leads to a cheaper motor due to
reduction of PM volume. The final equation for
calculating the flux in surface mounted motor is:

Fig. 8. Flux per Volume

Fig. 6. Time variations of flux
Fig. 7 shows the flux for different rotor configurations
C. Torque
Fig. 9 shows the total torque and the saliency torque for
the surface mounted rotor with full magnet. In theory,
the surface mounted rotor only develops the PM
torque. Fig. 9 indicates that the surface mounted rotor
does not develop reluctance torque
Fig. 10 shows the reluctance torque and the total torque
for single barrier configuration.
. Fig. 11 shows the voltage vector diagram in a saliency
manner:
By replacement of the above equations in (2) a new
equation for torque is obtained:

Fig. 7. Flux for Different Rotor Topologies

4 𝛼
Ѱ𝛹 = 𝜋 𝐵𝑔 sin 2 (7)
where 𝐵𝑔 is the air gap flux density and α is the arc of
the magnet . Simulation result shows 13.4% in the flux
which is close to its theoretical value. In addition, the
airgap flux flux is largerr than that of the magnets, this
is called the flux concentration configuration [8]. So Fig. 9. Total Torque and Reluctance Torque for Surface Mounted
flux in this configuration is higher than the surface (Full Magnet)
mounted rotor. In the single barrier, the flux is higher
than that of the single barrier near the centre. In the
single barrier, the flux path rotating around the magnets
are so narrow and most of the flux goes to the air gap;
however, in the single barrier near the centre the steel
path around the magnets are much longer than that of
the single barrier, because the air gap reluctance is
much larger than the steel path, so the flux goes around
the magnets and less flux goes to the air gap The
reluctance is calculated as follows:
𝑙
𝑠 = 𝜇𝐴 (8)
l is the PM length, A is the area and 𝜇 is the permability.
Fig. 10. Total Torque and Reluctance Torque for Single Barrier
Since the air 𝜇 is smaller than that of the steel, the air
gap reluctance is larger.
Fig. 8 shows the flux per volume for different rotor
topologies. The maximum flux per volum belongs to
the single barrier and inset and the minimum flux per
volume belongs to surface mounted rotor.

Fig. 11. Voltage vector diagram in saliency manner
1
𝑇 = 3𝑝[𝐼𝑝 Ψ𝑚𝑎𝑔 cos 𝛽 + (𝐿𝑑 − 𝐿𝑞 )𝐼𝑝 2 sin 2𝛽] (11)
2
The first part of (11) is the PM torque and the second
part is the saliency torque [8]. The equation shows that
in one period of the torque waveform, the saliency
torque has two periods. Fig. 12 shows the saliency
torque for different rotor topologies:
𝐼𝑞𝑝 = 𝐼𝑝 cos 𝛽 (9)
𝐼𝑑𝑝 = 𝐼𝑝 sin 𝛽 (10)
Fig. 12 shows that the reluctance torque for surface
mounted rotors is almost zero, because 𝐿𝑞 and 𝐿𝑑 are
almost the same. In other configurations, 𝐿𝑞 and 𝐿𝑑
differ. In single barrier, the saliency ratio is higher than
the other configurations and hence it has high
reluctance torque. Also the flux has important effect in
interior types, for example, in single barrier near the
centre the air gap flux is less than that of the single
barrier, also it has low saliency ratio leading to a lower
reluctance torque compared to the single
Fig. 12. Reluctance Torque for Different Rotor Topologies
barrier. In inset configuration difference between 𝐿𝑞
and 𝐿𝑑 is lower than that of the single barrier, but its
Fig. 13. Total torque for Different Rotor topologies
saliency ratio is larger than the surface mounted rotor,
hence it develops reluctance torque.
In Fig. 13 , the maximum torque belongs to the single
barrier and surface mounted rotor (full magnet). They
have highest PM volume compared to the other
configurations. By reduction of the PM volume the
torque decreases due to lower flux. For example, the
torque for surface mounted rotor with arc of 120
degrees is less than that of the full PM surface mounted
motor. The inset and surface mounted rotor have same
the PM volume but the inset also develops saliency
torque; so it develops more torque in comparison with
the surface mounted with arc of 120 degrees. The
single barrier near the centre has the same volume like
single barrier; however, it has less flux in the air gap
and the torque of this configuration is smaller than that
of the single barrier. If the torque for each model is
divided by its volume, the torque per volume is
calculated. Fig. 17 shows the torque per volume for
different rotor topologies; the developed torque per PM
volume for the models that have less PM are larger than
the models that have more amount of the magnet.
The total harmonic distortion is calculated as follows:
2
√𝑇12 +𝑇22 +𝑇32 +⋯
𝑇𝐻𝐷 = (12)
𝑇1
Where 𝑇1 is the fundamental harmonic, 𝑇2 is the
second harmonic and 𝑇3 is the third harmonic.
Fig. 15 shows the harmonics for surface mounted rotor
with full PM:
Fig. 14. Total torque per volume of PM
D. Torque Quality
In Fig. 15 most significant harmonics are 5th, 6th, 7th and
12th. The harmonics in these types of motors are
reduced by changing the shape of the PMs. Fig. 16
shows the total harmonic distortion (THD) for all of the
configuration. by changing the distribution and pitch
factors of the stator winding As Fig. 16 shows less
distortions in the torque waveform belonging to the
surface mounted rotor configurations. These
configurations do not have reluctance torque, so the
distortions in total torque waveforms are less than
others. However, in the other waveforms, distortion in
reluctance torque leads to more distortions in the total
torque waveforms, compared to surface mounted
 REFRENCES

[1] R. Krishnan, Electric Motor Drives: modelling, analysis, and

Fig. 15. Fast Fourier transform (FFT) for surface mounted rotor
(Full PM)]
control, Prentice Hall, Upper Saddle River, NJ, 2001
[2] T. M. Jahns, G. B. Kliman and T. W. Neumann “Interior
Permanent Magnet Synchronous Motors for Adjustable Speed
Drives” IEEE Trans. Ind. Applic. , Vol. IA-22, No.4, July 1986,
pp.738-747
[3] A. M. Mutean “analysis and control of permanent synchronous
motors for electrical vehicle” Final PhD Thesis, University
technology of Belfort, Romania, July 2007, pp.1-25
[4] J. Soleimani, A. Vahedi,” 3-Phase Surface Mounted PMSM
Improvement Considering Hard Magnetic Material Type”,
International Journal of Advance Engineering Sciences and
Technologies (IJAEST), vol.7, No.1,036-041 ,2011,pp.36-41
[5] T. Gundugdu and G. Komurgoz “Design of Permanent Magnet
Machines with Different Rotor Type’’ World Academy of Science,
Engineering and Technology 70, 2010 ,pp.511-514
[6] W. L. Soong, S. Han and T. M. Jahns “Design of Interior PM
Machines for Field-Weakening Application’’ IEEE, international
conference, Oct 2007, pp.654-664
[7] E. S. HAMDI “Design of Small Electrical Machines’’ WILEY,
BAFFINS Lane, Chichester 1994, pp.18-22
[8] B. Mecrow “Design of machines and drives-permanent magnet
machine” lecture note, Newcastle University, UK, 2010

[8
Fig. 16. Total harmonic distortion for all of configurations

configurations. In the mentioned configurations and

single barrier near the centre, the distortions in
reluctance torques are less than that of other interior
types, Therefore, the waveforms are sinusoidal THD
is less than other interior configurations.

Conclusion

Nowadays the cost of PM materials are getting high.

This paper attempts to reduce the PMs volume and
decrease the cost of PM motors. At this end, interior
rotors motor is preferred. These configurations lead to
a higher flux and torque compared to the surface
mounted rotor. Hence, in IPMSM reduction of PM
volume is possible and its torque is identical with the
surface mounted rotor with full PM. The total harmonic
distortion in interior configurations is so high. The
reluctance torque in these configurations leads to
distortion; however the THD in surface mounted
configuration is low and therefore they are more
sinusoidal compared to the interior types.

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