Numerical Investigations on Operation Modes and Transients of IPM Machines with Dual Windings

Abstract

This paper investigates the flux-weakening characteristics and transient response of a dual winding interior permanent magnet (DWIPM) machine designed using the 2010 Toyota Prius IPM Machine specifications. In order to thoroughly adjust the main flux, dual windings are fed by separate identical inverters. Thus, significantly high-torque for high-speed requirements can be simply achieved by making one of the inverters open-circuited. Transient response of the DWIPM machine, including torque and current pulsations, occurring during normal drive or deactivation of one of the inverters has also been investigated for different operation modes. The flux-weakening performance characteristics of the proposed DWIPM machine have been compared with those of its single-fed counterpart in order to highlight the benefits and drawbacks of the dual-winding topology. The steady-state performance characteristics, torque/speed and power/speed curves, efficiency maps, machine transient response, different machine design options with various numbers of turns per phase and current amplitudes, and the importance of the electromagnetic coupling between dual windings have all been addressed. For transient and steady-state analyses, 2D, nonlinear, time-stepping finite element method (FEM) has been employed. It has been revealed that the proposed DWIPM machine exhibit significantly improved flux-weakening characteristics, particularly high-power at constant power region and high efficiency at constant torque region, and quite low current and torque pulsations occurring during operation mode change.