Comparison of Interior Permanent Magnet and Synchronous Homopolar Motors for a Mining Dump Truck Traction Drive Operated in Wide Constant Power Speed Range

Abstract

Synchronous homopolar motors (SHMs) with an excitation winding located at the stator and a toothed salient pole rotor are a good alternative to motors traditionally used in traction applications such as induction motors or interior permanent magnet synchronous motors (IPMSM). This study presents the results of a theoretical comparison between an IPMSM and an SHM in a traction application with a constant power speed range of 1:10, which is specific to the mining truck drives, and with a rated power of 370 kW. The considered IPMSM and SHM have the same number of phases, poles and stator slots, and the same outer diameter of the stator lamination. The IPMSM design is optimized using the Nelder–Mead method. The main objectives of optimization are to minimize the average losses in the operating cycle and to limit the required power of the semiconductor inverter. The performance of the optimized IPMSM is compared with the previously obtained performance of the SHM optimized by the same method. Although the average losses in the operating cycle in the compared motors are approximately equal, the losses at high speed for the IPMSM are about two times greater than at low speed with maximum torque, which means that there is a need to intensify the IPMSM cooling system and there is deterioration of reliability. The advantage of the IPMSM is the reduction in the length of the active part by 30%. The advantage of the SHM is that there is 4.6 times lower cost of active materials. In addition, the SHM is more reliable than the IPMSM, as there is no risk of overheating, demagnetization or degradation of permanent magnets over time.