Rotor Axial Flux Permanent Magnet Research Articles

An analytical formula for back EMF waveform of a counter‐rotating dual‐rotor non‐slotted axial flux permanent magnet synchronous machine

AbstractFractional slot concentrated winding (FSCW) permanent magnet (PM) machines are gaining more attention for low‐speed applications because of their great advantages. This paper proposes a new structure for an FSCW double rotor axial flux PM synchronous machine (DRAFPMSM) with counter‐rotating rotors. In addition, an analytical formula for the Back EMF waveform of the proposed structure is presented. The accuracy of the formula is investigated by designing a 40 W sample machine. The rotors of this machine rotate with speeds of 600 and 428 rpm in opposite directions. The Back EMF of the sample machine is calculated using the suggested formula. In addition, the finite element method (FEM) is used to determine the Back EMF waveform. Comparison of the obtained results confirms that the new formula yields the Back EMF precisely such that the results well match to those of FEM. The effect of the relative position of two rotors on the Back EMF waveform is investigated using the proposed formula. In addition, the optimum relative position of two rotors for minimizing the Back EMF THD of the case study machine is determined.

Quantitative comparison of low-cost electrical machines with soft magnetic composite and ferrite magnet materials

Because of its special structure and manufacturing process, the soft magnetic composite (SMC) material has shown its advantages over silicon sheets, including magnetic and thermal isotropy, low high-frequency core loss, low material wastes during its manufacturing process, etc.. Considering the price of SMC raw material can be very cheap in the future, it is an ideal material for developing the low-cost electrical machine. Combined with SMC cores and low-cost ferrite magnets, some electrical machines with SMC and ferrite magnets for low-cost applications were developed in the past decades, which include the transverse flux flux switched permanent magnet motor (TFFSPMM), axial flux claw pole permanent magnet motor (AFCPM), axial flux vernier motor (AFVM), dual rotor axial flux permanent magnet motor (DRAFM) and axial radial flux permanent magnet motor (RAFM). To better utilize SMC material, all these machines are designed following the design guidelines of SMC machines. Though both of them with good performance for low-cost applications, it is necessary to know the main advantages of each machine. The main target of this paper is to compare these machines quantitatively. For obtaining the comparison results fairly all these machines are optimized by using the sequential robust Taguchi method. Finally, it can be seen that the AFVM and TFFSPMM are with relatively high torque ability and the DRAFM is with high efficiency and power factor ability.

A Study on Optimal Design Process of Dual Rotor Axial-Flux Permanent Magnet Synchronous Motors

The core design elements of the motor for the co-robot joint are miniaturization and high torque. In this paper, a dual rotor axial-flux permanent magnet (DRAFPM) motor is proposed to improve the performance of robot joints. DRAFPM motors have the advantage of reducing iron loss and minimizing volume because they can remove stator yoke. When designing a motor with the same volume, it can be designed to increase the height of the fixed ruler by the thickness of the yoke of the fixed ruler and increase the number of turns. In the case of existing axial-flux permanent magnet (AFPM) motors, the shape of the three-dimensional structure is limited by radial laminating of stator. Therefore, considering the production of 3D printing, the shape of stator shoe is designed. The optimal design problem of DRAFPM motor consists of real and integer design variables. In addition, due to the structural characteristics of DRAFPM motors, 3D finite element analysis (FEA) is required, so it takes a long time to interpret. Therefore, this paper proposes an efficient optimal design process to optimize the remaining real design variables after prioritizing the integer design variables. The proposed optimization process is applied to the DRAFPM motor for robot joints, and the optimal design plan satisfying the design function is derived from various design variables to prove the validity of the optimization process.

Introducing Analytical Formulas for Calculating Back EMF of the Contra-Rotating Double-Rotor Axial Flux Permanent Magnet Synchronous Machine

Back electromagnetic force (back EMF) is one of the most significant performance characteristics of the machine which significantly affects the machine current, efficiency, power factor, and power angle. Studies showed that the precise analytical formulas to calculate the back EMF of Counter-rotating dual rotor axial flux permanent magnet synchronous machines (CRDR-AFPMSMs) were not presented so far. While by helping the analytical formulas, back EMF is calculated faster than the finite element method (FEM). Therefore, the novelty of this article is calculating the back EMF of CRDR-AFPMSMs considering its harmonic components. To fulfill this goal, Maxwell’s equations are used. The back EMF waveform obtained from the proposed formulas is compared with the results of FEM. Comparing the results confirms that the obtained results from the finite element (FE) simulation and analytical formulas are in good accordance. Besides, the shifting technique is used to reduce harmonic components of the back EMF. By helping proposed formulas and shifting techniques, the Total Harmonic Distortion (THD) of back EMF has decreased from 12.12 to 4.88%.

Magnetic equivalent circuit and finite element modelling of anisotropic rotor axial flux permanent magnet synchronous motors with fractional slot distributed winding

AbstractAxial flux motors have been in the focus of many research work due to their promising properties when compared to conventional radial flux machines. Axial flux permanent magnet synchronous motors (AFPMSM) studied in the literature were mostly limited to surface‐mounted permanent magnet machines (SPMSM), excluding only a few studies about axial flux internal permanent magnet (AFIPM) or permanent magnet‐assisted synchronous reluctance (AFPMaSynRM) machines. Since numerous rotor topologies have been proposed and investigated in case of radial flux motors, analogous design methodologies can be developed in case of axial flux motors with rotor saliency. The parametrisation and modelling of a magnetically anisotropic rotor axial flux motor are presented. This approach is described generally and the method is applied to an example motor geometry. The results were validated by FEA (Finite Element Analysis), using the 2D multi‐slice and 3D modelling approaches. The modelling error was calculated and the analytical and numerical methods were compared. It was found that the proposed model was suitable for calculating important parameters of the anisotropic rotor axial flux permanent magnet synchronous motor (AnR‐AFPMSM) during the design process.

Electromagnetic Design Characterization of a Dual Rotor Axial Flux Motor for Electric Aircraft

This article presents and evaluates a dual rotor axial flux permanent magnet motor for electric aircraft applications. Several features, including grain-oriented electrical steel, Halbach arrays, and wires with rectangular cross sections, are used to improve torque density and efficiency. A novel winding arrangement is used to mitigate interturn short-circuit faults. Rather than simply optimizing the motor by itself, this article evaluates the tradeoffs between motor performance and its interfaces with the drive, thermal management system (TMS), and mechanical structure. This information can be used along with similar analyses of these subsystems to select the design with the system-level optimal performance. This article uses finite-element simulations to characterize tradeoffs among active mass, efficiency, fundamental frequency, power factor, axial forces on the rotors, and cooling surface area. Several designs exceed 95% efficiency at takeoff with less than 8 kg of active mass. While high pole counts, a large outer radius, and short stator teeth tend to optimize the magnetic performance at takeoff, this can reduce cruise efficiency, reduce the surface area through which the TMS can extract heat, increase the fundamental frequency the drive must supply, increase the structural mass required to support the rotors, and introduce complexity to the manufacturing process. Further analysis for a selected design reveals that the power factor can be significantly improved with a minimal torque penalty via field weakening due to significant saturation in the stator teeth.

Optimal Design of Axial Flux Permanent Magnet Motors for Ship RIM-Driven Thruster

This paper deals with the design and optimization of a 2.1 MW rim-driven electric thruster for ship propulsion. For this purpose, a double stator ironless rotor axial flux permanent magnet (AFPM) motor is considered as the propulsion motor. The analytical model of the selected AFPM motor is presented. The magnetic field in the AFPM machine is calculated using the 3D magnetic charge concept in combination with image theory and permeance functions to take into account the stator slotting effects, and a simple thermal model is used to evaluate the heat dissipation capabilities of the machine and the thermal dependence of the main electromagnetic losses. To optimally design the AFPM, an optimization process based on genetic algorithms is applied to minimize the cost of the active motor materials. An appropriate objective function has been constructed, and different constraints related to the main electrical, geometrical, and mechanical parameters have been taken into account. The achieved results are compared with the performance of a podded radial flux permanent magnet (RFPM) motor, which is considered a reference propulsion motor. The obtained results show a fairly satisfactory improvement in the cost and masses of the active motor materials. Finally, the accuracy of the obtained optimum solution is validated by performing 3D finite element analysis (3D-FEA) simulations.

Design of dual rotor axial flux permanent magnet generators with ferrite and rare-earth magnets

This article addresses dual rotor axial flux Ferrite permanent magnet (PM) generator, as an alternative to a surface mounted and spoke types Nd-Fe-B generator which have concentrated windings. The performance parameters of all generators, particularly the efficiency, are identical. The design objective function is the generators mass minimization using a population-based algorithm. To predict the performance of the generators a finite element (FE) technique is applied. Besides, the aims of the design include minimizing cogging torque, examining different rotor pole topologies and different pole arc to pole pitch ratios. Three-dimensional FE technique is employed. It is shown that the surface mounted Ferrite generator topology cannot develop the rated torque and also has high torque ripple. In addition, it is heavier than the spoke type generator. Furthermore, it is indicated that the spoke type Ferrite PM generator has favorable performance and could be an alternative to rare-earth PM generators, particularly in wind energy applications. Finally, the performance of the designed generators is experimentally verified.

Detection and Identification of Rotor Faults in Axial Flux Permanent Magnet Synchronous Motors Due to Manufacturing and Assembly Imperfections

In this paper, a method is proposed to detect and identify the types of rotor faults in single stator single rotor axial flux permanent magnet synchronous motors, due to manufacturing and assembly errors. Three types of faults are considered: A shift in the rotor geometry along the axial direction, a parallel shift of the rotor geometry axis with respect to the stator axis, and inclined rotor. The proposed method is based on using the motor voltages (V <sub xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">d</sub> and V <sub xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">q</sub> ), extracted from the controller, as features for detecting the type of the faults and estimating it's severity. The change of the point (V <sub xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">d</sub> , V <sub xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">q</sub> ) in the V <sub xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">d</sub> -V <sub xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">q</sub> plane is used as a fault indicator. The shift direction is used to detect the fault's type, and the amount of the shift is used to estimate the severity. A quasi-3D computation is used to model the axial flux motor under healthy operation and the three types of faults. A three dimensional (3D) Finite Element Analysis and experimental tests are performed on a 6 slots, 8 poles axial flux motor to validate the quasi-3D computation. Finally, an algorithm is proposed to detect and discriminate between the different faults under different operating conditions.

Analysis and selection of harmonics sensitive to demagnetisation faults intended for condition monitoring of double rotor axial flux permanent magnet synchronous machines

Yokeless and segmented armature (YASA) axial flux permanent magnet synchronous machines may have asymmetrical demagnetisation defects in their two rotors. Condition monitoring, therefore, becomes more complicated than in conventional single rotor machines. To develop a real-time condition monitoring algorithm for demagnetisation faults in YASA machines – which requires solving an inverse problem – a fast forward model is necessary. A frequency-based analytical model is used to calculate the three-phase terminal voltages based on the three-phase current waveforms and the demagnetisation defects including asymmetrical defects in the two rotors. To reduce the computational time of the forward model, this study focuses on the sensitivity of different voltage harmonics on several demagnetisation faults. To this end, the Cramer–Rao lower bound technique is used to analyse the harmonics sensitivity to the demagnetisation faults. The goal of the sensitivity analysis is to select an appropriate set of harmonics that gives maximal information about the defects. It becomes much faster and useful for real-time condition monitoring. The results of the analysis show that the subharmonics around and including the fundamental are the most sensitive harmonics to the demagnetisation defects. The analytical model is validated with experimental data and finite element simulations.

Analytical Modeling of Static Eccentricities in Axial Flux Permanent-Magnet Machines with Concentrated Windings

The aim of this paper is to calculate the static eccentricity (SE) of a double rotor axial flux permanent magnet (AFPM) machine by using a general analytical model. The flux density in the air gap under healthy conditions is calculated firstly, where the axial and circumferential magnetic flux densities are obtained using a coupled solution of Maxwell’s equations and Schwarz-Christoffel (SC) mapping. The magnetic flux densities under SE conditions are calculated afterwards using a novel bilinear mapping. Some important electromagnetic parameters, e.g., back electromotive force (EMF), cogging torque and electromagnetic (EM) torque, are calculated for both SE and healthy conditions, and compared with the finite element (FE) model. As for the double rotor AFPM, SE does not contribute much effect on the back EMF and EM torque, while the cogging torque is increased. At each calculated section, FE models were built to validate the analytical model. The results show that the analytical predictions agree well with the FE results. Finally, the results of analytical model are verified via experimental results.