1

AXIAL-FLUX ELECTROMAGNETIC DIFFERENTIAL INDUCTION MOTOR

F. Caricch, F. Crescimbini, E. Santini

University of Rome, Italy

Abstract - This paper presents an axial-flux torque density of the motor may be accepted in
induction motor which has a single stator and two consideration of benefits arising from a reduction of the
squirrel-cage rotors mounted on individual, power electronic devices needed, if compared with
independents shafts driving two wheels of an electric electric vehicle drives using itwo individual in-wheel
vehicle. This novel induction machine inherently motors. To this aim, one particularly advantageous
behaves as an electromagnetic differential motor solution is accomplished with the drive arrangement
and thereby performs the function of both the shown in Fig. 1, in which a disc-type induction motor
engine and the differential of a conventional vehicle. having a single stator and two individual, independent
Features of the proposed motor topology are rotors is used to drive directly two wheels of a vehicle.
described, and an equivalent circuit is derived from This novel induction machine inherently behaves as an
the analysis of the magnetic and electrical behaviour electromagnetic differential, arid thereby combines in a
of the machine. Basic machine design and
single motor drive the function of both the engine and
characteristics of a 20 kW motor prototype are
the differential of a conventional vehicle.
finally discussed.
Early studies on induction motors having a single stator
and two rotors were developed by considering the
1. INTRODUCTION
conventional arrangement of cylindrical machines with
rahal airgap flux [7]. Recently, design and
Axial-flux &sc machines are drawing considerable
performance of a disc-type tvvin rotor machne have
attention for application in electrical vehicles as wheel-
been discussed in reference IS]. The same machine
direct-coupling motors. Particularly, slotless axial-flux
structure as in reference [SI is considered in this paper,
machines with permanent-magnet rotor excitation
but a different arrangement of 1.he stator winding which
(AFPMs) allow machine designs with substantially
allows a shorter length of the end-windings is
improved performance, typically in terms of higher
torque density or increased efficiency. Therefore, in the proposed. An equivalent circuit is derived from the
analysis of the magnetic and electrical behaviour of the
last few years such an axial-flux machine topology has
proposed machine. Consideralion on machine design
found a growing interest for a number of motor
and characteristics of a 20 kW motor prototype are
applications [l-41, and recently an axial-flux direct-
finally discussed.
drive wheel motor prototype has been used for the
development of a scooter drive [5, 61.
The basic layout of AFPMs comprises a toroidal strip-
wound stator core which carries a slotless toroidal
winding and is placed between two mild steel discs.
These rotor discs are connected rigidly to the machine
shaft and cany axially-polarised magnets. The active
conductor lengths are the two radial portions facing the
magnets, whose polarities are arranged to induce
adhtive emf, around a stator coil. The axially-directed Y ,
CAGEROTORS STATOR
end-windmg lengths are relatively short, yielding low
resistance. Since the working surfaces of the stator core
Fig. 1 Direct drive of electric vehicle wheels by a
are both used, in comparison with conventional
single converter-fed motor having one stator and two
machines the structure of AFFMs allows the
rotors.
exploitation of a higher percentage of active materials
for production of torque. However, because of the large
2. MACHINE STRUCTURE
airgaps in the magnetic circuit, the high performance of
AFPMs are achieved at the price of using high-energy
The basic layout of the proposed axial-flux induction
magnets (i.e. typically Nd-Fe-B with energy density of
machine comprises a single stator and two squirrel-
tens of MGOe), which to date, unfortunately, still have
cage rotors. These rotors are mounted on two individual
a high cost if compared with the cost of other machine
shafts and may rotate independently. The stator
active materials. comprises an iron core obtained from iron tape wound
Hence, whilst AFPMs proved to be one best solution for
in a toroidal fashion. The two surfaces of the stator core
the hgh-torque-density motors required in motor-in- are slotted by means of shearing techniques, being the
wheel drives, on the other hand, there is an interest to slots in the radial direction. The rotors have same
avoid the use of permanent magnet machines. This led magnetic structure as the stator, but the rotor slots
to explore other drive arrangements in which a lower

‘Electrical Machines and Drives; 11-13 September 1995, Conference Publication No. 412,O IEE, 1995
 L

present an inclination respect to the radius to reduce - 0s stator flux

mechanical vibrations. The coils of the stator winding - @ds stator leakage flux
coils are wound in a toroidal fashion around the stator - Dfl,Ot2 airgap flux
core and placed into slots, lying the end-windings on - Dr2 rotor flux
both the inner and outer cylindrical surfaces of the where the suffixes s, r and t refer to stator, rotor and
stator core. Both rotors carry a squirrel-cage winding airgap, respectively, whereas the suffixes 1 and 2 refer
which is accomplished by means of bars inserted into to rotor 1 and rotor 2. The following relationshps can
the slots and short-circuited by end rings. As the be written:
machine must be excited through the stator winding,
the airgaps must be reduced as much as possible to @t=@t1+ @t2
(1)
produce adequate airgap flux densities and achieve @ds=@dsl-k @ds2
acceptable values of efficiency and torque density.
With reference to a machine having one slot per pole
and per phase, Fig. 2 and Fig. 3 show a rectified view
of the stator core with winding coils placed in slots.
The coil arrangement shown in Fig. 2 results in two
identical, but electrically independent, polyphase
windings which are then connected in series, as
proposed in reference 181. The end-windmgs are
accomplished in the conventional way by connecting
active conductors placed in slots belonging to one side
of the stator core. The currents flowing down any hvo
back-to-back slots (i.e. A and B in Fig. 2) may have
either same or opposite direction depending on the Fig. 4 - Rectij?ed view of the machine (not in scale).
connection between the two halves of the stator
winding. Magnetic and electric circuits as shown in Fig. 5
represent the stator and rotor equations ( A denotes
permeance, izi number of turns and R resistance).
The magnetic circuit shown in Fig. 5 is useful for an
analysis of the electromechanical behaviour of the
machine when used to dnve two wheels of an electric

Fig. 2 - Conventional end windings (dotted lines) @t @t2

4 L

To reduce the length of the end-windings, the active

i
conductors placed in back-to-back slots can be
connected as shown in Fig. 3. T h s winding
arrangement allows a great saving of copper, as well as
a sigruEicant reduction of stator resistance and leakage
inductance. It is found that such advantages become
particularly prominent for machmes having high
number of poles. However, one advantage of the
winding arrangement shown in Fig. 2 is that the two
winding halves can be manufactured separately and
then placed into the slots.

Fig.3 - Proposed end windings (dotted lines).

3. E EQUIVALENT CWCUIT

Fig. 4 shows recridied view at the mean radius of the

machne to be used for electromagnetic considerations. Fig. 5 - a) magnetic circuit of the machine; b) electric
It is possible to identlfy the following fluxes: circuits (stator and two rotors).
 3

vehicle. If the vehicle moves on a straight path, then where X = w (zdr + Llu). Hence, if SI = s2, then it
the stator flux divides into two equal parts, being both results TI = T 2 . Moreover, if
the rotors in a same electromagnetic conditions.
Whenever the vehicle is on a curve path and
considering a constant feeding frequency, the external
wheel increases the speed and the relevant rotor (say
rotor 1) approaches the synchronous speed. Currents in
the cage winding of rotor 1 decrease: the same holds for the torque ratio can be approximated as
its electromagnetic reaction on the stator. The stator
flux tend to flow in rotor 1, since in rotor 2 there is a
greater slip, and therefore there is a greater current and
electromagnetic reaction. Therefore, electromagnetic
torque on rotor 2 decreases. This behaviour represents
an improvement with respect to that of the and therefore the torque is greater on the faster rotor, as
conventional mechanic differential: to the external desired. On the other hand, the: condition
wheel can be applied a greater torque since it is
generally the more loaded in a curve trajectory.
Linkage of electric and magnetic circuits based on the
principle of transfiguration of the network allows to
determine the equivalent circuit shown in Fig. 6. In this results in
figure R, and Lds are the stator resistance and leakage
inductance, respectively, and L, is the magnetising
inductance. Rotor resistance and leakage inductance are
indicated as R, and Ldr, respectively, whereas s denotes
the slip.
It should be noted that the reactive term X presents a
great value since it is the sum of the rotor magnetising
RS
+ -ds dr and leakage inductance. In practice, since it is L p >>
Ldr, Xis of the same order of uLP
t I The electromechanical behaviour described above
suggested the name of an electromagnetic differential
induction motor (EDIM) for the proposed machme. The
equivalent circuit of EDIMs is similar to that one
resulting from the connection in series of two
, . . I .
conventional induction machines. In this case, the
w
stator voltage divides into the two portions depending
dr on the equivalent impedance cif each machine, and the
Fig. 6 - Equivalent circuit of the machine mechanical behaviour is same as in an EDIM. Of
course, the coupling between the fluxes in the airgaps is
By neglecting the leakage flux with respect to the absent. From a magnetic point of view it is found that
magnetising flux, if s1 = s2 then the current in the EDIMs allow a reduction of the weight of the stator
branch AB shown in Fig. 6 is zero, and therefore the iron. The flux in the stator is practically always the
point B is at the potential VJ2, being V, is the stator same, independently on the flux distribution in the
voltage. Whenever occurs that s1 f s2, it yields VB # airgaps and therefore the stator iron is always in the
VJ2 and I,, f I,, . Therefore, the distribution of the optimum design conditions.
fluxes in the two airgaps changes, while the stator flux When the rotors present the same angular speed, the
keeps constant, as it mainly depends on Vs and the maximum torque can be expressed as:
number of turns of the stator winding, Ns. From the
equivalent circuit shown in Fig. 6 it is possible to
deduce the torque developed by each rotor as a function (3)
of SI and SI. It yields:

where w is the angular frequency of the currents, Xeq =

2 Xd, + 2 Xd,., and k is the ratio between the no-load
voltage V A B ~at A-B terminals and the phase voltage.
Neglecting the voltage drop onLR, ,E, is related to the
total flux linked with one stator phase. If a is the
number of parallel-connected paths per pole and per

phase, and n' the number of conductors series-
connected in one slot:
n'
E,=-u @,
U
where @, is the total stator flux. With the same
hypotheses, i.e. neglecting R,, V'B~ is the difference
between E, and the voltage drop on Es In terms of
magnetic fluxes, it can be said that V A B ~= k E, is
related to the rms value of the flux in the airgap:
where Ot = 2 p q 01 , and therefore:
2Pq
kE, =-n'w @I
a
since the flux linked with each turn is the flux into the
joke, that, by definition, is the flux in one pole. If L,lot
is the slot inductance of one slot presenting one
conductor, one has:
and therefore, since by hypothesis Lds = Ldr:
Consequently, the maximum torque do not depend
upon the number of turns or on the end-windmg
arrangement, and it can be related dlrectly to the
geometrical and magnetic parameters.
4. DESIGN CONSIDERATIONS
The stator geometry is mainly determined by the inner
radius r and outer radius R (or, equivalently, by the
outer radius and kr = rm), the dimensions of the slots
and the axial thickness of the stator core.
The machine design proceeds as follows:
an expression forthe slot opening b as a function of
k,. is deduced;
the rms value of the mmffor a desired values of the
flux density is calculated;
once the slot area is known, the slot height is then
calculated;
other quantities are calculated with a
straightforward process. In particular, once the slot
4
geometry is known, it is possible to deduce the
maximum torque value.
The main results of the design procedure can be
(4) summarised as follows. For an effective design point of
view, the dimensional analysis will be conducted
having the external radius R as main parameter. The
airgap length, 6, can be assumed to be proportional to
R; the same holds for the slot opening b and for the
slot magnetising mmf nZp while the slot area A , is
proportional to R2. On the other hand, the slot depth h
is proportional to R since h = A , / b. The stator copper
volume is proportional to R2, the same hold for the
stator flux cDt; the stator iron volume is proportional to
R3. Therefore, the maximum torque is proportional to
an R power e ual to 4. The stator weight is
proportional to Rj,and therefore the maximum specific
torque is proportional to R.
5. 20 kW MACHINE PROTOTYPE
On the basis of the described considerations, the
Authors designed and built a 20 kW machine whose
parameters are listed in Table 1. It should be noted that
several Merences between the design of the machine
and the realisation exist, and they are dlscussed in the
following.
The stator slots are not semi-closed, but open. This was
due to the fact that the construction of a semi-closed
stator slots can be obtained either by the progressive
punching of the continuous iron tape constituting the
stator, or by milling a toroidal core. The Authors
chosen this second way for cost reasons. Obviously,
magnetic properties of the machine are aEected by this
construction technique, since the manufacture process
short-circuits the iron sheets and iron losses are
increased.
Rotor slots were obtained by milling of the rotor discs.
Simplicity reason in the realisation lead to a circular
design of the slots. In order to increase the maximum
power of the machme, the Authors studied and realised
a water-cooling of the machine.
Fig. 7 shows the stator and one of the two rotors of the
prototype machine before assembling (the rotor is
shown before the preparation of the cage winding).
6. CONCLUSIONS
The pager presented a newly conceived axial flux
induction motor, which has the property to behave as a
mechanical dfierential gearbox, and therefore is
suitable for the electrical traction. The electrical and
magnetic characteristics were dscussed, and the
equivalent circuit for steady state unbalanced operation
was derived. The general design criteria of the machine
were introduced, and the layout of a prototype built by
the Authors was shown.
REFERENCES [7] T.A. Lipo, "Analog Computer Simulation of an
Axially Aligned Two Rotor A.C. MAchine", Master
[ 11E. Spooner, B. J. Chalmers, "Toroidally-Wound, Thesis, Marquette University, Wisconsin (USA),
Slotless, Axial-Flux, Permanent-Magnet, Brushless- 1964.
DC Motors", Proceedings of the International [8] D. Platt, B.H. Smith "Twin Rotor Drive for an
Conference on Electrical Machines, 1988, Vol. 111, Electric Vehicle", IEE Proceedmgs, Part B, Vol.
pp. 81-86. 140, No. 2, March 1993, pp. 131-138.
A. Di Napoli, F. Caricchi, F. Crescimbini, G. Noia,
"Design Criteria of a Low-Speed Axial-Flux PM
Synchronous Machine" - Proceedings of the TABLE 1
International Conference on the Evolution and
Modern Aspects of Synchronous Machines, Zurich, List of main design parameters of the prototype
August 27 - 29, 1991.
E. Spooner, B. J. Chalmers, M. M. El-Missiry, Wu
Wei, A. C. Renfrew, "Motoring Performance of the
Toroidal Permanent Magnet Machine Torus",
Proceedings of the LEE 5th International
Conference on Electrical Machines and Drives,
1991, pp. 36 - 40.
141 F. Ca&chi, F. Crescimbini, A. Di Napoli, 0.
Honorati, T.A. Lipo, G. Noia, E. Santini,
"Development of an IGBT Inverter Driven Axial-
Flux PM Synchronous Motor Drive", Proceedings of
the 4th EPE Conference, 1991, Vol. 3, pp. 482 -
487.
[5] F. Caricch, F. Crescimbini, E. Fedeli, G. Noia,
"Design and Construction of a Wheel-Directly- I flux density in the stator joke I 1.8 T I
Coupled Axial-Flux PM Motor Prototype for EVs",
Proceedings of the 1994 IEEE-IAS Annual I ROiTOR I
Meeting, Denver (USA), 2-7 October 1994.
I slot skewing I 8.63 degrees I
161 F. Caricchi, F. Crescimbini, G. Noia, E. Santini, number of slots
"Prototype of an Innovative Electrical Scooter for first harmonic skew coefficient
Application in Zero-Emission Urban Mobility",
Proceedings of the 12th International Electrical
Vehicle Symposium, Anaheim (USA), 5-7
December 1994.

a) bl
Fig. 7 - a) Stator and b) rotor ofthe prototype machine (the rotor is shown without conductor winding)