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Design and Operation of Interior Permanent-Magnet Motors With Two Axial Segments and High Rotor Saliency
Hang-Sheng Chen1 , David G. Dorrell2 , and Mi-Ching Tsai3
Electric Motor Technology Research Center, National Cheng Kung University, Tainan 701, Taiwan School of Electrical, Mechanical and Mechatronic Systems, University of Technology Sydney, Sydney, NSW 2007, Australia Department of Mechanical Engineering, National Cheng Kung University, Tainan 701, Taiwan
Skewing the magnets in a brushless interior permanent-magnet motor can be difcult. One method to overcome this problem is to use axial segments that are rotated (twisted) with respect to each other. Compared to other methods of rotor skewing, this method may reduce manufacturing cost and the complexity of the rotor. This paper addresses the use of two axial segments and the associated effects on the back-electromotive force (EMF) waveform and motor performance. The back-EMF waveforms of an interior permanent-magnet motor are deeply inuenced by the tooth-slot and winding harmonics. They should be sinusoidal to reduce torque ripple for ac motor servo drives and other applications where smooth operation is required. In the paper, we present the two-segment rotor structure together with a simple technique for reducing high-order back-EMF harmonics, and we derive the optimal twisted angle of the proposed two-segment rotor. This minimizes the total harmonic distortion of the back-EMF waveform due to tooth-slot effects. We examine cogging torque and the reduction in cogging torque. We apply the twisted angle rotor to two different compressor motors. In addition to the back-EMF, we address the torque ripple under load and the effect of twist on back-EMF constant. We examine the results using nite-element analysis and validate them by experimental measurement. Index TermsBack-EMF, IPM, I-Psi loop, permanent-magnet motor, skew, torque.

I. INTRODUCTION

ECENTLY, interior permanent-magnet (IPM) motors have become important due to their perceived superior performance over conventional induction motors and other drive machines. A unique characteristic of the IPMs is that the -axis inductance is greater than the -axis inductance because the permanent magnets are embedded in the rotors so that -axis saliency is produced. As a result, a reluctance torque can be generated which can enhance the efciency [1][3] and allow enhanced eld weakening. Therefore, this type of motor can be used in several applications, such as air conditioners, electric scooters, and servo drives, to achieve the required performance. In addition to high efciency and eld weakening operation, many IPM motor applications, such as air conditioners and servos, require the motor be able to produce smooth torque to minimize vibration and noise. Brushless permanent-magnet AC motor drives [4] are often chosen for these applications (the IPM motor is included in this category of machine); they have various attractive features, such as low torque ripple and low acoustic noise, and their topology in terms of stator layout and rotor arrangement can be varied. For this sort of motor drive, the back-EMF should be sinusoidal to reduce torque ripple [5]. However, the back-EMF waveforms often contain high-order harmonics due to tooth-slot effects and lower order harmonics because of phase-belt winding harmonics. Hence IPM motors which exhibit a smooth sinusoidal back-EMF waveform can produce lower vibration and noise. There are many new control

Manuscript received November 19, 2009; revised March 16, 2010; accepted March 25, 2010. Date of publication April 19, 2010; date of current version August 20, 2010. Corresponding author: M.-C. Tsai (e-mail: mctsai@mail.ncku. edu.tw). Color versions of one or more of the gures in this paper are available online at http://ieeexplore.ieee.org. Digital Object Identier 10.1109/TMAG.2010.2048037

methods [6][8] which can reduce torque ripple with non-ideal (or sinusoidal) back-EMF waveforms. However, the back-EMF waveform prole is still the most basic property that can be addressed in order to reduce torque ripple and smooth the operation. Various techniques can be utilized to improve this and two are investigated in this paper. The back-EMF waveform is a function of several motor parameters. The main parameters are stator winding layout, slot and pole number [9], [10], stator tooth width [11], magnet magnetization [12][14], and skew. Various techniques have been developed for reducing the high-order harmonics in the back-EMF waveform. These include: double-layer winding arrangements [15]; rotor structure [16]; pole-arc to pole-pitch ratio and saliency [17]; fractional slotting; and rotor magnetic shape design [18][21]. These are all well-known methods which can be employed to produce sinusoidal back-EMF waveforms. Fractional slot and skewed rotor arrangements are very common. However, the rst technique cannot reduce the inuence of the tooth-slot effect completely while the last method may increase the manufacturing cost. Skewing is one of the most common methods to improve the back-EMF waveform [22][25]. This technique is used in most smaller permanent-magnet and induction motors, and has also been applied in magnetic gearboxes to obtain improved transmission [26], [27]. However, skewing may cause various manufacturing problems such as increased magnet cost due to their shaping, and increased manufacturing costs through skewing the stator or tting magnets in skewed IPM rotor slots. In terms of numerical electromagnetic analysis, skewed rotor structures require 3-D nite-element analysis (FEA) which necessitates time-consuming simulations, or 2-D multi-slicing models with many slices [28] which can also be time consuming. Analytical models usually use a skew factor which does not account for axial steel saturation effects. In order to utilize skewing without substantially increasing the costs through the reasons highlighted above, a skewed twosegment structure, as shown in Fig. 1, is investigated in this

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Fig. 1. Proposed rotor with two-segment design with Rotor II rotated by an angle  with respect to Rotor I.

Fig. 2. Winding layouts for one phase of (a) the 4-pole 36-slot motor and (b) the 4-pole 30-slot motor. There are two parallel paths in both windings with each turn formed from three strands-in-hand of 0.85 mm diameter wire. For (a), the center coil-side of each three-coil-side belt has 17 turns, while the coil-sides either side have 18 turns. The winding is single-layer concentric. The offset between each phase is ve slots. For (b), all the coils have 10 turns and the winding is double-layer lap with an offset between phases of six slots. Fig. 3. Quarter cross sections (with nite-element solutions) for (a) the 4-pole 36-slot motor with three 3 mm thick magnets per pole and (b) the 4-pole 30-slot motor with four 3 mm thick magnets per pole. (a) 36 slot motor and illustration of rotor bridge depth; (b) 30 slot motor.

paper. A similar rotor structure was adopted in [29][31] to reduce cogging torque. By dividing the rotor into two axial sections and shifting by an appropriate twisted angle , the inuence of slotting can be reduced; i.e., the high-order harmonics of the back-EMF waveform can be removed. This produces a more sinusoidal back-EMF waveform. In addition, cogging torque and phase-belt harmonics can be reduced. In the paper, two IPM motors are studied. The rst has 4 poles and 36 stator slots while the second has 4 poles and 30 stator slots. The proposed two-section twisted-rotor design is investigated using analytical analysis of the back-EMF waveforms, and further used in FEA simulations to validate the method and assess the motor characteristics. The winding layouts for the 4-pole 36-slot and 4-pole 30-slot motors, which are single-layered and double-layered respectively, are shown in Fig. 2 with a full description in the caption. Fig. 3 shows the rotor topologies (which are slightly different) and also illustrates the ux distributions on no-load. Table I gives full specications for the two motors. It is important to give this data to illustrate that they are production motors rather than experimental motors. The 36-slot motor has a single-layer winding which is very typical for a concentric-wound machine while the 30-slot motor is an example of a fractional-slot motor with lap windings and low cogging torque. The twisted angle design of the two-segment rotor aims to minimize the total harmonic distortion (THD) of the back-EMF and improve the cogging and load torque ripples. In order to support the validity of the twisted angle design, both

simulated and measured results are presented, and the THD of back-EMF waveforms for different twisted angles is analyzed. The back-EMF and initial load results are obtained from 2-D FEA using Ansoft software. To investigate in detail the cogging torque and also the torque under load, SPEED software from the University of Glasgow is utilized to assess the two-segment rotor performance. This package has automated procedures to make results straightforward to obtain. The results from this additional FEA study illustrate the instantaneous torque ripple and mean torque generation using current-ux-linkage curves (I-Psi loops). II. METHOD OF REDUCING HIGH-ORDER HARMONICS OF BACK-EMF WAVEFORMS A. Inuence of Slotting The air-gap reluctance in a slotted motor varies in circumferential direction because of the continuously changing permeability relationship of the slots and teeth due to rotation. This affects the ux linkage and dictates the amplitude of the induced back-EMF. Hence, harmonics are superimposed on to back-EMF waveform due to the variation in air-gap reluctance as the rotor rotates.

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TABLE I 4-POLE MOTOR PARAMETERS

(6) From (6), the harmonics can be reduced by summing the tooth back-EMFs. The voltage phases for successive teeth are offset by a spatial harmonic where (7) so that the th harmonics cannot be eliminated due to the toothslot permeance effects. These result in a back-EMF ripple which can cause vibration and noise. B. Calculation of the Twisted Angle In order to counteract the tooth-slot effect and to lower manufacturing cost, the two-segment rotor structure can be utilized. The required back-EMF waveform can be obtained using harmonic superposition and the waveform can be made more sinusoidal by controlling the twist angle between the two axial rotor sections. The back-EMF can be obtained from

Consider an unskewed motor structure, where the tooth ux can be denoted by a general Fourier series [11] where (1) For the tooth, the ux can be expressed as

where is the rotor position, stator slots and rotor poles, and ned by

(2) and are the number of is the angular slot pitch de-

so that (8)

(3) where Using Faradays law, the back-EMF is (4) is the motor speed and is the turns of a coil linking where the ux . Substituting (1) and (2) into (4) gives the back-EMF induced into a coil around the th tooth:

(5) Since the back-EMF of any coil can be found by summing the teeth enclosed by the coil, (5) can be rewritten:

In (8), and can be reduced using the summation of the back-EMF, while can be subtracted from when the twisted angle satises the equation: (9) where the denominator is the least common multiple (LCM) of and ; i.e., the optimal twisted angle of the two-segmented rotor structure can be calculated using (9) to minimize the th harmonic(s). Hence, by twisting the rotor, tooth-slot

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Fig. 4. Back-EMF THD of the 4-pole 36-slot IPM motor with nine different twisted angles.

effects can be limited using a technique which is more straightforward in manufacturing terms than skewing the rotor or stator. Instead of using a full 3-D FEA to perform the motor analysis, a 2-D FEA is applied to analyze the motor by simulating each segment. This method can be used to modify the back-EMF waveform of any permanent-magnet motor with high tooth-slot effects. III. APPLICATION OF TWISTED ROTORS TO IPM MOTORSEFFECT ON BACK-EMF FROM ANALYTICAL STUDY A. Harmonic Analysis of Back-EMF of Type M36 and M36-t Since the 4-pole 36-slot IPM motor has an integral-slot deand is 36. From sign, the least common multiple of (9) the optimal twisted angle is 5 deg, and this is used in the Type M36-t motor. From Section II, the twisted angle design decreases the high-order harmonics of the back-EMF and therefore the THD should be lower for the Type M36-t motor. Fig. 4 illustrates the back-EMF THD with nine different twisted angles. As expected, the lowest value of THD occurs at a twisted angle of 5 deg as suggested by (9). The THD increases either side of this twisted angle. Hence, 5 deg is the optimal twisted angle for the 4-pole 36-slot motor design. Fig. 5 shows the harmonic comparison of the back-EMF waveforms. Obviously, by twisting the rotor, the low-order phase belt (5th, 7th, etc.) as well as the high slotting order (17th and 19th) harmonics should be reduced. However, the amplitude of the fundamental back-EMF harmonic is not signicantly affected. In Table II, the amplitude of the main back-EMF waveform harmonics and the percentage decreases with respect to 0 and 5 deg twist are given. The 17th and 19th order harmonics represent the tooth-slot permeance harmonics, decrease by over 90%. However, the low-order (3rd to 9th) harmonics have much lower attenuation. If a particular winding has a high 5th or 7th harmonic (for a star connected motor, as this sort of motor should be, 3rd harmonics are zeroorder and can be ignored) then the twist angle can be further increased to attenuate those particular back-EMF harmonics. B. Harmonic Analysis of Back-EMF of Type M30 and M30-t The rotor twisted angle for the 4-pole 30-slot IPM motor . was found to be 3 deg by employing (9) The back-EMF THD for this motor with six different twisted angles is shown in Fig. 6, which illustrates that 3 deg is the

Fig. 5. Back-EMF harmonics of Type M36 and M36-t at 5 deg.

TABLE II HARMONIC AMPLITUDES OF TYPE M36 AND M36-T0 AND 5 deg TWIST

Fig. 6. Back-EMF THD of the 4-pole 30-slot IPM motor with nine different twisted angles.

optimal twisted angle. The harmonic analyses of the back-EMF waveforms are compared in Fig. 7 at zero and this optimal twisted angle. Table III gives the amplitudes of the back-EMF harmonics and the corresponding percentage reductions. The 29th and 31st order harmonics are the second harmonics of the slotting and are reduced by over 90%; these are the main harmonics attenuated by a 3 deg rotor twist. The 15th harmonic is a third and a zero order voltage so it can be ignored. Again, even though the high-order harmonics are substantially reduced by the optimal twisted angle of 3 deg, the fundamental voltage remains virtually constant. These simulations conrm that the proposed axial-section twisted-rotor design technique is effective in reducing high-order harmonics.

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Fig. 7. Back-EMF harmonics for M30 and M30-t at 3 deg.

Fig. 8. Comparison of cogging torque for M36 and M36-t (twisted rotor with reduced cogging torque and oscillation half period). The M36 motor has the cogging characteristic of either Segments 1 or 2; M36-t is the Net Cogging which is the sum of Segments 1 and 2.

TABLE III HARMONIC AMPLITUDES OF TYPE M30 AND M30-T0 AND 3 deg TWIST

IV. COGGING TORQUE OF THE TWO IPM MOTORS WITH TWISTED ANGLE USING FEA Cogging torque is another important factor in the production of torque ripple. It is generated on open-circuit by the interaction of the rotor magnets with the stator slotting reluctance. Since the twisted angle design of the two-segment rotor changes the air-gap reluctance, it reduces the cogging torque in IPM motors. A simulation was set up in SPEED and the cogging torque obtained over a 10 deg rotor movement, which is the period for cogging torque in the 36 slot motor. This can be a difcult simulation to obtain. Care needs to be taken to set up the air-gap layers correctly and move the rotor in small steps while keeping the air-gap element shapes constant in their arrangement. Fig. 8 compares the results of the cogging torque simulations for the M36 and M36-t motors, while Fig. 9 compares the cogging torques for the M30 and M30-t motors. The axial lengths and rotor radii should be considered herethe 36 slot motor is 70 mm long while the 30 slot motor is 85 mm long. The rotor radii are identical. Therefore, like-for-like comparisons should be in the ratio of axial lengths so that the 36 slot motor will be only 82% of the 30 slot motor for identical cogging force stress densities. The twisted angle essentially reduces the peak value of cogging torque for both integral-slot and fractional-slot motor designs. For the 36 slot motor, the 5 deg twist means that when rotor segment is aligned with the teeth (minimum reluctance) the other segments is aligned with the slot centers (maximum reluctance) so that the cogging torque in Fig. 8 halves in pitch and is signicantly reduced. There is some slight variation in the cogging torque on top of the main cogging oscillation and this is due to some numerical drift.

Fig. 9. Comparison of cogging torque for M30 and M30-t (twisted rotor with much reduced cogging torque and oscillation half period). The M30 motor has the cogging characteristic of either Segments 1 or 2; M30-t is the Net Cogging which is the sum of Segments 1 and 2.

For the 30 slot motor, the 3 deg twist leads to one segment being aligned with the slots when one is aligned with the teeth. Again, the pitch of the cogging torque oscillation as the rotor is rotated halves and it is attenuated even further. Table I shows that the 30 slot stator has a wider slot openings than the 36 slot stator and the cogging is higher. Comparison of the cogging torques in Figs. 8 and 9 illustrate that the 30 slot motor has slightly lower unskewed coggingthis difference would be even more marked if the axial lengths were the same. In addition, the cogging in the 30 slot motor is far more attenuated by the twisted rotor since it is more sinusoidal. The mechanisms involved in generating cogging are quite complex; however, it should be pointed out that the 36 slot stator has an alignment with every pole (i.e., an integer number of slots per pole) in a 4-pole motor whereas the 30 slot motor has an alignment with every pole-pair. The general perception is that this should lead to the 36 slot motor having higher cogging torque but here the difference is not so pronounced. There will be 36 oscillations of the cogging torque in the 36 slot motor and 60 oscillations in the 30 slot motor. Another generalization is that as the number of oscillations per revolution increases then the amplitude tends to decrease, especially if the number of poles aligning with an integral number of slots increases. These results show that the cogging is very much a function of the rotor/stator topology. To illustrate this, Fig. 10 shows the cogging torque

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Fig. 10. Comparison of cogging torque for M30 motor with successive rotor/ stator changes: (i) the bridge in the rotor reduced from 2 mm (which it is in both the 30 and 36 slot rotorsFig. 2) to 1 mm, (ii) the rotor of the M36 machine tted (still with 1 mm bridge), (iii) the slot opening is reduced from 3.3 mm (30 slot stator) to 2.32 mm (as it is in the 36 slot stator), and nally (iv) the air-gap is then increased from 0.65 mm to 1 mm.

When unskewed, the 36 slot rotor has a cogging torque which is about 0.32 Nm peak-to-peak which is 3% of rated torque and the twisted angle rotor reduces this to 0.13 Nm. The 30 slot motor has a peak-to-peak cogging of about 0.26 Nm which is 2.6% of the rated torque. The use of fractional slot motors is popular and the twisted angle rotor further reduces the cogging torque in the 30 slot motor to about 0.011 Nm peak-to-peak which is 0.11% of rated torque and now much less than the 36 slot motor. Other techniques often used in reducing torque is full skew (by one stator slot on either the stator or rotor), careful selection of the magnet arc (in a surface magnet rotor) and careful design of the inter-pole axis of the rotor ( -axis). Cogging torque will be carried through into the load torque when operating as well as affecting the starting torque. Therefore, in motors where load torque ripple is important, the cogging torque needs to be addressed in addition to ripple due to harmonic winding (or phase-belt) torque. V. FEA SIMULATIONS AND EXPERIMENTAL RESULTSOPEN-CIRCUIT BACK-EMF AND LOAD TESTS Experimental validation of the simulations were carried out via an open-circuit back-EMF test and also a load test. The load test was carried out at phase advance and this is investigated below. Obtaining valid instantaneous torque ripple characteristics were not possiblethe active load would produce small torque perturbations which would be in addition to those of the motor under test, hence invalidating the tests. However, mean torque measurements were possible. In this section, the measured back-EMF waveforms of the two motors are compared to the simulated waveforms obtained from the Ansoft models. This is then followed up by load test results. The performance of the motors was examined with torque angle variation in order to assess the motor behavior with phase advance. These motors have -axis saliency and are suitable for eld weakening control. In addition to the load simulation validation, the efciency of M30 and M30-t motors was measured to show the inuence of the twisted angle. For completeness, the load torque is assessed via SPEED simulations both in terms of instantaneous torque ripple and the mean torque calculated from current-ux-linkage loops. Extended twist angles are also assessed in order to change the shape of the load angle curve. A. Back-EMF Waveforms Fig. 12 shows the simulated and measured waveforms of the three-phase back-EMFs for the unskewed 4-pole 36-slot IPM motor with a single-layered winding. Note that the waveforms are uneven due to tooth-slot effects. With a rotor twisted angle of 5 deg for the 4-pole 36-slot motor, the voltage ripple reduces signicantly and the back-EMF waveforms become more sinusoidal, as shown in Figs. 12 and 13. The test was repeated for the double-layer 30 slot motor so that the back-EMF waveforms of the Type M30 and M30-t motors, as obtained from Ansoft FEA simulation and by measurement, are shown in Figs. 14 and 15. It is obvious that the back-EMF waveforms of Type M30-t with 3 deg twisted angle are improved.

Fig. 11. Comparison of cogging torque for M36 motor with reduction of the bridge from 2 mm to 1 mm.

with different arrangements. First, the rotor in the 30 slot motor has the bridge decreased from 2 mm to 1 mm (dened in Fig. 3). This causes an increase in cogging from about 0.3 Nm peak up to just under 0.7 Nm peak. The rotor was replaced with the rotor from the 36 slot motor (with the 1 mm bridge kept). The cogging torque increases very slightly. The stator slot openings were then reduced from 3.3 mm to 2.32 mm, this reduced the peak cogging from 0.7 Nm to 0.5 Nm. The air-gap length was then increased from 0.65 mm to 1 mm. This further reduced the cogging. In comparison, the 36 slot motor had the bridge reduced from 2 mm to 1 mm in a likewise fashion and Fig. 11 illustrates that the cogging reduced from just over 0.3 Nm to about 0.14 Nm peak, i.e., it reduced with a reduction in bridge which is the opposite to the 30 slot motor. Again, this illustrates that the cogging torque is unpredictable and a function of several parameters. If the cogging torque characteristics were sinusoidal, with 5 deg twist in the 36 slot motor and 3 deg twist in the 30 slot motor, then the cogging would be eliminated since the cogging for each segment would be in complete anti-phase. However, they are not sinusoidal in their shape so that the difference leads to the cogging characteristics for the M36-t and M30-t motors. Hence, the pitch of the cogging in the twisted rotor motors is much less.

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Fig. 12. Three-phase back-EMF waveforms for 36 slot motor at 1800 rpm. (a) Simulated and (b) measured back-EMFs. Both traces have 50 V/division.

Fig. 13. Three-phase back-EMF waveforms for 36-t slot motor at 1800 rpm. (a) Simulated and (b) measured back-EMFs. Both with 50 V/division.

B. Torque From I-Psi Loops A common assessment of the performance of an IPM motor is to assess the variation of torque with torque anglethis is the angle of the current phasor with the -axis. For the 36 and 30 slot motors, the torque calculations for the different simulation packages is given in Table IV. The errors are less than 5% and this is because there are some minor differences in the bridge area of the Ansoft model (the true experimental motor topology as used for the back-EMF simulation and measurement comparisons) and SPEED model (a slightly modied bridge arrangement in order to t a standard topology, but giving very similar results). The twisted rotors are 5 deg for the 36 slot motor and 3 deg for the 30 slot motor. It can be seen that there is little difference in the torque when the rotor is twisted by a small degree. It is now worth investigating the torque in more detail. Experimental validation was obtained for the 30 slot motor so this motor will be the focus of more detailed study; some further results for the 36 slot motor will included when necessary. The SPEED calculations in Table IV were obtained from current-ux-linkage loops (I-Psi loops) and Fig. 16 shows these

for the M30 and M30-t motors. These are for one phasethe loops for the other two loops are identical and the area enclosed in a loop represents the energy converted. From knowledge of the pole number and speed, the energy can be converted into the mean torque. Since the torque is little changed from the unskewed to the twisted rotor case it can be seen that the loops for Segments 1 and 2 are very similar and their sum is very close to the unskewed rotor loop. These results are for the current phasor placed on the -axis. C. Instantaneous Torque Simulations We can also address the instantaneous torque from these simulations. Fig. 17 gives the torque for the M30 and M30-t motors. There is some attenuation of the torque ripple when the rotor is twisted although it is not substantial. To further assess the affects of the twisted rotor then the exercise was repeated for the 36 slot motor as illustrated in Fig. 18. This time the full-load torque ripple is attenuated. The torque ripple under load is substantially higher than the cogging torque. Fig. 19 compares the torque when 10

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Fig. 14. Three-phase back-EMF waveforms for 30 slot motor at 1800 rpm. (a) Simulated and (b) measured back-EMFs. Both with 50 V/division.

Fig. 15. Three-phase back-EMF waveforms for 30-t slot motor at 1800 rpm. (a) Simulated and (b) measured back-EMFs. Both with 50 V/division.

segments are used in the 30 slot motor with a front-to-back axial skew of one stator slot (which gives a segment-to-segment twist of 1.2 deg). There is still torque ripple due to winding harmonicsthis can be the reduced by careful winding design and higher skewing. To illustrate the latter then the 30-slot 10 segment rotor was twisted even further with 3 deg twist per segment (giving a stator skew front to back of 2.5 stator slotsthis would help damp the 5th and 7th winding harmonic torques). These results are given in Fig. 20. The torque ripple is now reduced to about 0.2 Nm peak-to-peak which is a 2.3% ripple (with the mean torque reduced to 8.96 Nm). D. 30 Slot Sine Wound Stator Simulations With the two segment rotor the torque ripple is still 13.4%. As an exercise, the winding was graded (different number of turns per coil) so that with winding is more sinusoidal. This is done for the 30 slot motor and the results are shown in Fig. 21. The mean torque increases by over 1 Nm; however, the torque ripple only reduces by 1%. This winding in Fig. 2(b) has 5 coil sides per phase per belt with two slots gap on one side and three on the other. From the two slot gap side the turns per coil for

TABLE IV TORQUE FOR DIFFERENT MOTORS FROM ANSOFT AND SPEED WHEN CURRENT IS ON THE q AXIS

successive coils in one phase belt are: 7, 11, 13, 12, and 7. This gives a total number of 50 turns per phase belt which is the same as the lap-wound motor. Therefore further design modications can be implemented to reduce the torque ripple and as examples of this then the slot openings are closed from 3.2 mm to 1.5 mm. This reduced the ripple to 9% and in conjunction with the two-segment rotor with 3 deg twist then the ripple is found to be 6.2%. It should be borne in mind that reducing the slot opening may cause problems in winding the motor (automated or manual) where the wire may no longer t though the opening,

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Fig. 18. Instantaneous torque for 36 slot motor with unskewed rotor and twisted rotor showing torque ripple attenuation with full load current on q -axis. Two segment twisted rotor gives reasonable torque ripple attenuation.

Fig. 16. Current-ux-linkage loops for the M30 and M30-t motors with full load current on the q -axis. The segment I-Psi loops are very close and the sum of the two loops is almost identical to the unskewed rotor I-Psi loop.

Fig. 19. Variation of instantaneous torque at full load with increasing segment number (current on q -axis) showing inuence of winding functions10 segment twisted rotor (in 30 slot stator) which is twisted by 1.2 deg per segment.

Fig. 20. Variation of instantaneous torque at full load with increasing segment number (current on q -axis) showing inuence of winding functions30 slot stator and 10 segment twisted rotor, which is twisted by 1.2 deg and 3 deg. Fig. 17. Instantaneous torque for 30 slot motor with unskewed rotor and twisted rotor with full load current on q -axis. The air-gap is split into four layers and Maxwell stresses are taken round the air-gap at the center of the two middle air-gap layers (Integration 1 and 2). (a) Unskewed rotor torque obtained from two Maxwell stress integrals; (b) twisted rotor (Segment 1 and Segment 2 torque from mean of two Maxwell stresses).

E. Variation in Torque With Torque Angle Simulations It is worth investigating the variation of torque with torque angle to assess the performance of the motor under eld weakening conditions. The motors were tested at 30 degree phase advance. Again, focusing on the 30 slot motor, the variations of torque and rms line voltage are shown in Fig. 22. This gure illustrates that the motor exhibits good eld weakening capability. Many IPM motors do not work well with phase advance up to 30 degrees. More detailed performance gures at 30 deg advance are given in the next section but one point to highlight is that the motor is running close to unity power factor at the 30 deg phase advance with full load current, which leads to high efciency operation.

so this may not necessarily be a satisfactory remedy. However, solutions such as the use of parallel strands-in-hand of thinner wire can be used to overcome this issue. A full comparison of the peak-to-peak load torque ripple for the different 30 slot and 36 slot motors is given in Table V. This illustrates that several design changes have to be implemented to reduce the torque ripple, and that some changes are more effective than others.

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TABLE V COMPARISON OF MEAN TORQUE AND TORQUE RIPPLE WITH FULL LOAD CURRENT ON q -AXIS

Fig. 21. Variation of instantaneous torque at full load with sine wound stator, narrow stator slot opening (1.5 mm) and two segment twist30 slot stator and full load with current on q -axis.

Fig. 23. Experimental set-up4-pole 30-slot motor under test for measurement of the efciency.

Fig. 22. Variation of torque and line voltage at full load current for 30 slot machine (untwisted)M30-t results are very similar.

F. Experimental Load TestPerformance Verication From the comparison of the M36 and M30 motors, the back-EMF of the M30 motor appears to be more sinusoidal. Both motors are efcient; the efciency of the 4-pole 30-slot IPM motor is examined here together with the mean torque. Fig. 23 shows the experimental setup used to test the motor. It was connected to a servo motor which acted as the load, and a torque transducer was used to measure the torque and speed directly. The motor driver was programmed using the Microchip MPLAB IDE, which is specic to sensorless drive

control. The motor was driven at constant speed 3660 rpm and a load of about 10 Nm applied to the test motor. A phase advance of 30 deg was also used. Table VI shows the measured motor output data of the 4-pole 30-slot IPM motor at the rated speed of 3660 rpm, where the input voltage and current are rms values. It is clear that the efciency of M30 and M30-t motors are almost the same at rated speed with 30 degree phase advance. These are a little high at around 95%the calculated efciency is 91.8% and phase resistance this includes 247 W of copper loss (228 measured with an RLC meter) and 91.7 W of iron loss (from phase winding resistance measurement and SPEED calculation). When the efciency is over 90% small measurement small errors will cause the differences. The power was measured using a three-phase power analyzer; with the power factor being very close to unity this measuring technique may well produce a 4.1% error in measurement, which is the difference in the measured and calculated efciencies. The optimal twisted angle can reduce back-EMF high-order harmonics; however, it does not signicantly affect motor efciency. The simulated and measured torques appear to be the same at 9.96 Nm, showing excellent correlation at this particular load point.

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TABLE VI MEASURED DATA OF 4-POLE 30-SLOT IPM MOTOR

VI. CONCLUSION This paper has presented a simple and effective method to reduce high-order harmonics in the back-EMF waveform of an IPM using a two-segment rotor with a twisted angle between the two axial segments. This modication can reduce the manufacturing cost when compared to full skewing. The proposed two-segment structure of the rotor reduces the cogging torque due to the tooth-slot effect, and can suppress the high-order back-EMF harmonics. The paper provides a formula to calculate the optimal twisted angle of the rotor segments for production of sinusoidal back-EMF waveforms. The optimal twisted angle design was examined by analyzing the THD of these waveforms. It was found that the cogging torque can also be reduced, while the motor efciency remained almost constant when the twisted rotor was used. In addition to the back-EMF and cogging torque calculations, load torque was also investigated. Torque ripple due to winding MMF harmonics were apparent. While multi-stage segments were shown to reduce this, a reduction in mean torque is also associated with this method since a high degree of skew is required. This problem is better addressed using low-harmonic windings with methods such as short pitching and graded coils (sinusoidal winding). There are many recent papers which concentrate on particular design aspects and techniques of permanent magnet motors (for instance, [32][39], in addition to work already cited). This paper describes further design possibilities for brushless PM motors and reects the growing demand for new and innovative design features in this type of motor for a broadening base of applications which are becoming more demanding in their specication. REFERENCES
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