IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON PLASMA SCIENCE, VOL. 43, NO.

5, MAY 2015

1381

Modeling and Analysis of Homopolar

Motors and Generators
Thomas G. Engel, Senior Member, IEEE, and Evan A. Kontras, Graduate Student Member, IEEE

Abstract The dc homopolar motor converts electrical energy

into mechanical rotational energy using the Lorentz force. The
same machine can be operated in reverse to convert mechanical
energy into dc electrical energy. To better understand homopolar
motors and their suitability for use in various applications, a
computer model was created using PSpice. Forces opposing the
motor rotation include back voltage, eddy currents, moment of
inertia, and sliding contact friction and are analyzed in detail.
Forces and torques are discussed and calculated analytically. The
capabilities of the homopolar machine operating as both a motor
and a generator are considered. Using current research from
the University of Missouri on helical guns and railguns, which
utilize similar electromagnetic forces for linear acceleration, the
maximum efficiency of the homopolar motor during transient
start-up phase is examined. The measured homopolar motor
efficiency in this paper asymptotically approaches 50% and is
determined by several variables. Experimental data are collected
and used to compare the simulation results and verify the
accuracy of motor performance. Sensitivity analysis and the
estimated maximum machine efficiency obtained from simulation
are presented.

the transient start-up phase of operation. A literature search

found only two investigations where efficiency was reported,
that of a simulated generator [10] and of an experimental
generator [11]. No references were found that investigated
the effects of various parameters on homopolar efficiency.
The goal of this paper is to develop a computer model of
the homopolar motor with which to analyze the performance
and efficiency of a wide range of homopolar machines so that
efficient, low-cost, and compact homopolar machines can be
easily realized.
In general, the system resistance of a homopolar machine
is quite low, which makes the homopolar motor operate at
relatively high current and low voltage [15], in contrast to more
common rotating electrical machines. To verify the accuracy
of the computer model developed in this paper, a benchscale homopolar motor was constructed. Fig. 1(a) shows a
photograph of the homopolar motor constructed in this paper
illustrating its component parts.

Index Terms Coilguns, dc motors, electromagnetic launching,

energy conversion, homopolar motors, railguns.

II. F UNDAMENTAL E QUATIONS

I. I NTRODUCTION

OMOPOLAR motors and generators have been investigated since their invention in the early 1800s. Much
of the work throughout the past few decades has been on
large-scale motors for pulse power applications, the generation
of high currents, energy storage mechanisms, and high-power
propulsion drives [1][14]. Many successful designs have
utilized single- and multiturn coils to produce the magnetic
field necessary for motor excitation, with more complicated
superconducting coil designs being the focus of [12][14].
Homopolar machines may be able to reach new performance
levels as large-scale devices and as compact dc electric
motors or generators with modern high-strength permanent
magnets. The efficiency and optimum design parameters of
homopolar machines have not been fully investigated in
Manuscript received October 12, 2014; revised December 30, 2014;
accepted February 17, 2015. Date of publication March 13, 2015; date of
current version May 6, 2015.
T. G. Engel is with the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, University of Missouri, Columbia, MO 65211 USA (e-mail:
engelt@missouri.edu).
E. A. Kontras was with the Department of Electrical and Computer
Engineering, University of Missouri, Columbia, MO 65211 USA. He is now
with Honeywell Federal Manufacturing and Technologies, Kansas, MO 64131
USA (e-mail: ekontras@kcp.com).
Color versions of one or more of the figures in this paper are available
online at http://ieeexplore.ieee.org.
Digital Object Identifier 10.1109/TPS.2015.2405531

Fig. 1(b) shows a schematic of the homopolar motor

constructed in this paper illustrating its operation. The underlying mechanism that generates a rotational torque in the
homopolar motor is the well-known Lorentz force. The PSpice
model of the homopolar motor incorporates this and other
fundamental equations. The high currents in homopolar motors
generate Joule heating, which is of particular importance in
this paper due to its effect on system efficiency. An increasing conductor temperature causes a proportional resistance
increase as a function of , the temperature coefficient of
resistivity. The resistance of a conductor as a function of
temperature is given by
R = R0 [T + 1]
= R0 + R(T )

(1)

where R0 is the disks room-temperature resistance. The

resistive voltage drop can be written as
Vr = IR0 + IR(T ).

(2)

Current flows through the conducting disk of Fig. 1 producing a resistive voltage drop. The disks resistive voltage drop
is found by integrating over the disk material as
 r1
I
dr
Vd =
r0 2r h
 
I
r1
=
ln
(3)
2t
r0

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IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON PLASMA SCIENCE, VOL. 43, NO. 5, MAY 2015

Fig. 2. Schematic showing PSpice model for calculating thermal resistance.

where q is the charge and v is the moving charge velocity.

The ratio of work done and the amount of charge is an
electromotive force (emf). This emf is better known as the
back voltage and is given by
Vb = vB.

(6)

The back voltage has a large impact on motor performance and

is responsible for limiting its maximum angular velocity and
has a direct correlation with motor efficiency. The polarity of
the back voltage opposes the source voltage driving the motor,
and eventually a rotational velocity is reached such that the
back voltage is equal to the source voltage and the current
approaches zero [17].
The self-inductance of the circuit also creates an opposing
voltage when the current is changing with respect to time [16].
The voltage is found from the basic equation for inductance as
dI
(7)
dt
where L s is the self-inductance of the homopolar motor.
Kirchoffs voltage law is then applied by summing the
opposing voltages and source voltage as
VL = L s

Fig. 1. (a) Photograph and (b) schematic of the experimental homopolar

motor used to verify PSpice model output. Components of the homopolar
motor are labeled.

where is the conductor resistivity, I is the current, h is the

disk thickness [the dimension into the drawing of Fig. 1(b)],
r1 is the outer disk radius, and r0 is the inner disk radius [16].
The inner and outer disk radii are determined by the region
where current is actually flowing in the disk.
The Lorentz force produces torque on the disk causing it
to rotate. The Lorentz force expression used in this paper is
written as [16]
F = IB

(4)

where I is the current, B is the magnetic field strength, and

 is the length of conductor in the magnetic field. Equation (4)
assumes that I and B are uniform over the force producing
region. The work done in moving the charge through the
magnetic field region is given by the product of the force and
distance as
W = qvB

(5)

Vs = Vr + Vc + Vd + VL + Vb

(8)

where Vs is the source voltage powering the motor and Vc is

the contact voltage drop.
III. C OMPUTER M ODEL
The fundamental equations (1)(8) were used to create an
analog model of the homopolar motor in PSpice. The thermal
resistance is found by computing the change in temperature for
a given current input using the specific heat and mass of the
conducting material. Then, using the temperature difference
from the initial value and the temperature coefficient of
resistance, a new value for circuit resistance is found at each
time step. The PSpice analog model to calculate the thermal
resistance is shown in Fig. 2.
The individual opposing voltages in the homopolar motor
circuit were computed using (8) with the PSpice schematics

ENGEL AND KONTRAS: MODELING AND ANALYSIS OF HOMOPOLAR MOTORS AND GENERATORS

Fig. 5.

1383

Schematic showing PSpice model to calculate the Lorentz force.

Fig. 6. Schematic showing PSpice model to calculate all the rotor motion
variables.
Fig. 3.
Schematic showing PSpice model to calculate opposing circuit
voltages.

Fig. 7.

Fig. 4.
forces.

Schematic showing PSpice model to calculate opposing mechanical

shown in Fig. 3. The computation for each opposing voltage

shown in Fig. 3 follows directly from (8) except for the contact
resistance term. Because every brush material has different
electrical resistance characteristics, an approximation of the
increase in electrical resistance with rotational velocity must
be found for a given brush type. For the brush materials used in
testing, a linear approximation was used, but any relationship
between motor speed and brush resistance could be used. The
slope and intercept of the linear approximation, represented
by the variables m_contact and b_contact, respectively, are
then used to compute the contact resistance as a function of
rotational velocity. Then, multiplying by current, the opposing
voltage due to contact resistance is found.
The mechanical forces opposing motor rotation are also
important to accurately model motor performance. These
forces are modeled PSpice, as shown in Fig. 4. The force from
rotational friction is assumed constant, while the eddy-current
force is a function of velocity. Both forces are experimentally
measured. The opposing mechanical forces are computed and
subtracted from the Lorentz force driving the motor rotation.
The Lorentz force is calculated from the current, the magnetic
field strength, and the rotor disk radii, as shown in Fig. 5.
The inner radius radius_0 is defined as the distance from the
axis of rotation to the inside edge of the magnetic field, and

Schematic showing PSpice model of the homopolar motor circuit.

the outer radius radius_1 is the distance to the outside edge

of the magnetic field.
The forces are added to produce an overall torque about the
axis of rotation. Dividing the total torque by the moment of
inertia yields the angular acceleration of the rotor. Integration
of the angular acceleration gives angular velocity and position
used elsewhere in the PSpice model. For convenience, the
revolutions per minute (rpm) is also computed in the PSpice
model. Fig. 6 shows the PSpice model used to calculate all
the rotor motion variables.
The circuits shown in Figs. 26 are connected together and
used with the homopolar motor circuit to yield the complete
homopolar motor model. The central homopolar motor circuit
is shown in Fig. 7. The dc resistance and self-inductance
are represented in the main circuit by analog devices from
the PSpice library. The complete homopolar motor model
can be run for any combination of user-defined input
parameters.
The overall system efficiency of the homopolar motor is
computed by dividing the kinetic energy of motor rotation by
the total electrical energy used in the motor. The electrical
energy is calculated by integrating electrical power, as shown
in Fig. 8. Fig. 8 also shows the efficiency calculation in the
PSpice model.
IV. H OMOPOLAR M OTOR C ONSTRUCTION
An experimental homopolar motor was built to verify the
accuracy of the PSpice simulation. The homopolar motor

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Fig. 8. Schematic showing PSpice model to calculate the electrical energy

used by the homopolar motor and the overall system efficiency.

Fig. 10. Experimentally measured system resistance as a function of angular

velocity for various brush materials.

Fig. 9. Magnetic flux density between magnets in a C-shaped flux concentrator as a function of radial position.

is shown in Fig. 1 and consists of an aluminum frame,

aluminum axle with two 6-cm-diameter conducting disks, flux
concentrators, and adjustable brushes. Only the conducting
disk drives the motor, and the rear disk measures the angular
velocity via an infrared diode sensor.
The static magnetic field for the motor is supplied by
NdFeB (N52) magnets supplied by K&J Magnetics, Inc. [18].
Control of the magnetic flux was done with magnetic flux
concentrators constructed of low-carbon steel. Core losses
are not present in the homopolar motor since the magnetic
field is static. Various flux concentrator designs utilizing two
0.4-cm-thick and 1.3-cm-diameter magnets were modeled
using Finite Element Method Magnetics (FEMM) 4.2 [19].
The simple C-shaped design was the simplest to fabricate and
allowed good flux control [20]. The simple FEMM 4.2 model
was experimentally verified using a Gauss/Tesla meter and
was found to be accurate to within 15%. The magnetic field
slightly varies across the diameter of the magnets, as shown
in Fig. 9, where the range from 0 to 13 mm represents the
length between the leading and trailing edges of the magnets.
The effectiveness of the concentrator can be observed in Fig. 9,
as the magnetic flux rapidly decreases to near zero outside of
the space between the magnets.
Axle friction was reduced to the smallest possible value
using single-point supports located at each end of the axle.
The axle friction was found experimentally, and can be further
reduced with the use of lubricants. The brushes are the
main source of friction for homopolar motors, and there
is tradeoff between good electrical contact and low friction
forces [1], [21]. Regardless of brush pressure, increasing the
motor velocity increases the system resistance, as there is

a separation between the brush and the conducting disk on

the order of angstroms [18]. This contact resistance is often
referred to as the velocity skin effect in the contact and is
thought to be the primary phenomenon responsible for the
voltage drop across the contacts [22].
Different brush materials had different effects on contact
resistance. Curves for system resistance as a function of
velocity using six different brush materials were experimentally measured, and are shown in Fig. 10. Although exotic
metal fiber brushes have been produced that have ideal
characteristics for electric motors, tin-coated braided copper
brushes were used for the homopolar device in this paper for
convenience, cost, and ease of fabrication.
A composite disk made of circuit board with a copper layer
of 0.01-mm thickness was used to pass current through the
magnetic flux. A minimum thickness is ideal to reduce eddy
currents. Analytically determining or characterizing the eddy
currents in this application is beyond the scope of this paper,
but the opposing force due to eddy currents was experimentally
found as a function of velocity. The nearly linear equation for
eddy-current force in newtons as a function of angular velocity
in radians/second is given by
1.1912
.
Feddy = 4 103 motor

(9)

The constant in (9) will increase if the conducting disk is

thicker than that used in this paper.
The simplest experimental measurement was rotational
velocity. The PSpice simulation predicted the velocity to be
a maximum of 2077 r/min, using the model parameters listed
in Table I. Velocity was not experimentally measured as a
function of time, and therefore, multiple maximum velocity
measurements were taken and averaged. The average peak
velocity measured was 1860 r/min, resulting in a 10.44% error
from simulation. Conducting disk diameter was then decreased
from 10 to 8 cm, and the results were compared once more.
The simulation predicted a peak velocity of 2422 r/min, and
the average maximum velocity measured was 2310 r/min,
resulting in a 4.62% error.

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1385

TABLE I
M ODEL PARAMETERS FOR H OMOPOLAR M OTOR

Fig. 12. Effect of rotor mass on efficiency as predicted by the PSpice model.

Fig. 11. Effect of magnetic field strength on efficiency as predicted by the

PSpice model.

Fig. 13. Effect of conductor length on efficiency as predicted by the PSpice

model.

V. S ENSITIVITY A NALYSIS
With the accuracy of the simulation now verified within
reasonable limits, a sensitivity analysis was performed. The
sensitivity analysis is used to optimize a homopolar motor
for efficiency based on the trends observed in the simulation. The results given in the following are taken from
the simulation with the homopolar motor parameters listed
in Table I.
A. DC Circuit Resistance
Static resistance is critical since its value determines the
Lorentz driving force and Joule heating effects. Increasing the
static resistance causes a decrease in efficiency to near-zero
levels. Decreasing the static resistance causes the motor to
reach its peak efficiency. This limit occurs when the static
resistance equals the effective load resistance. With a larger
static resistance, more energy is lost due to Joule heating. The
thermal resistance voltage drop will subsequently increase and
account for a larger portion of the opposing voltages. It is easy
to observe that a low static resistance is preferable.
B. Magnetic Field Strength
Maintaining a high flux density will increase motor performance. The efficiency over the range from 0.1 to 10 T was
analyzed using PSpice, and the results are shown in Fig. 11
where the efficiency is 1/1000 on the y-axis. There is a steady
increase in efficiency with increasing magnetic field strength,

which asymptotically approaches a maximum efficiency

of 0.5 at approximately 5 T. The curve nears maximum
efficiency well out of the range of permanent-magnet
capabilities.
C. Mass
Peak operating efficiency slightly decreases as rotor mass
increases. Mass increase also changes the shape of the
efficiency curve. A small mass rotor accelerates quickly, as
does the back voltage, and the motor reaches peak efficiency
and steady-state operation quickly. A large mass rotor cannot
develop its back voltage as quick as a small mass rotor, which
broadens the efficiency curve. The curve also has a lower
rate of rise and lower peak efficiency. In general, a low mass
rotor results in high peak efficiency for a short period of time,
whereas large mass rotor results in lower peak efficiency over
a longer period of time. The effect of changing rotor mass on
efficiency is shown in Fig. 12, where mass is in kilograms,
and efficiency is scaled 1/1000.
If high velocity is the only concern, such as in low torque
or pulse applications, a homopolar machine with low rotor
mass is ideal. If a large range of efficient operation is
required, such as those in a vehicle propulsion application,
a homopolar machine with a larger rotor mass is a better
choice. The mass of the rotor is also related to the energy
storage capacity of the device. Just as the energy stored

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in a capacitor is proportional to the square of the voltage,

for a homopolar motor, the voltage is proportional to the motor
speed and the energy stored is proportional to the square of
the motor speed. In this sense, the homopolar motor can be
thought of as a mechanical capacitor. Therefore, the mass of
the homopolar motor is an important consideration to optimize
for different applications, as it affects not necessarily the peak
efficiency, but the performance characteristics of the motor.
D. Geometry
Increasing the difference between the inner and outer disk
radii lengthens the current path through the magnetic field.
As this difference becomes large, the motor efficiency is
greatly improved and approaches a maximum of 0.5. Fig. 13
shows the results of increasing the outer radius (m) and
effectively increasing the length of the conductor passing
through the magnetic field. No matter the configuration, the
more the length of conductor passing through the magnetic
field, the more efficient and higher the performance of the
homopolar device. Unlike the broad change associated with
increasing the magnetic field, increasing the outer radius does
little to the overall shape of the efficiency curve. For the most
part, changing the outer radius only increases the maximum
efficiency.
VI. C ONCLUSION
The transient homopolar motor simulation showed
consistent convergence to a maximum efficiency of 0.5.
This is consistent with the behavior demonstrated for linear
railguns [23]. Regardless of the design changes, the homopolar
motor analyzed here is capable of operating at no more than
50% efficiency, consistent with the efficiency values reported
in [10] and [11], which ranged from 0.26 to 0.48. However,
design changes can drastically affect the performance
characteristics of the homopolar motor. The simplest way
of improving efficiency is by increasing the length of the
conductor passing through the magnetic field. Although
efficiency can likewise be increased solely by increasing the
magnetic field strength, this is a much more formidable task
for permanent-magnet-based homopolar machines at values
above 1 T. The biggest detriments to high efficiency for the
homopolar motor are resistive heating and contact resistance,
which can be minimized with proper machine design and
brush selection.
The simulation results obtained in this paper demonstrate
the homopolar machine sensitivity to certain parameters and
allow the user to change design variables to tailor machine
performance to a specific application. Overall and from a
practical standpoint, there is still much to be learned about
homopolar machines. Now that the maximum efficiency of
this device has been found through simulation and verified
experimentally to be 0.5, the equations that characterize the
efficiency of the motor are sought and will be the subject of
the future investigations.

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