The 1st International Conference on Information Science and Engineering (ICISE2009)
Analysis and Calculation of the Electromagnetic
Field in Permanent Magnet Synchronous Motor
Based on ANSYS
Cao Yongjuan Li Qiang
Department of Electrical Engineering Department of Electrical Engineering
Nanjing University of Information Nanjing University of Science and
Science & Technology Technology
Nanjing, China Nanjing, China
yjcao@nuist.edu.cn chnliqiang@163.com
Abstract—Permanent magnet (PM) synchronous motor has the
magnet devices with variable shapes and location, so the
electromagnetic field in PM synchronous motor is more complex.
Finite element method (FEM) provides an accurate means of
determining the electromagnetic field distribution, with due
account magnetic saturation characteristics. With the ANSYS,
the distribution of electromagnetic field in PM synchronous
motor was analyzed and calculated. Through a prototype
machine, no-load and load electromagnetic field in PM
synchronous motor were obtained. When the PM synchronous
motor was loaded, direct axis (d-axis) and quadrature axis (q-
axis) armature reaction magnetic field were obtained. By back-
dealing model of ANSYS, the pictures of magnetic flux density
(B) and magnetic vector potential (A) were gained. Then back
EMF of PM synchronous motor was figured out with two
different means, and the calculation results were compared and
analyzed, which are helpful for the design and performance
analysis of PM synchronous motor.
Keywords-ANSYS Software; Electromagnetic Field;
Electromotive Force (EMF); Permanent Magnet (PM)
Synchronous Motor
I. INTRODUCTION
Permanent magnet (PM) synchronous motor has many
advantages, such as simple structure, small volume and high
efficiency. It has been developing rapidly and researching at
home and abroad in recent years as the result of the
development of a new kind of permanent magnet material,
which has high performance and low cost. PM synchronous
motor has the magnet devices with variable shapes and
location, so the electromagnetic field in PM synchronous
[1]
motor is more complex . The conventional magnetic circuit
method results in a great error for the calculation of the
magnetic field of a motor with equivalent flux paths. Finite
element method (FEM) provides an accurate means of
determining the magnetic field distribution, with due account
magnetic saturation characteristics.
In this paper, by using ANSYS, a large-scale current FEM
analysis software, the distribution of magnetic field inside PM
978-0-7695-3887-7/09 $26.00 © 2009 Crown Copyright 133
Yu Li
Department of Electrical Engineering
Nanjing University of Information
Science & Technology
Nanjing, China
yuli@nuist.edu.cn
synchronous motor was analyzed and calculated. No-load and
load electromagnetic field in PM synchronous motor were
obtained. When the PM synchronous motor was loaded, direct
axis and quadrature axis armature reaction magnetic field were
obtained. Besides, back EMF of PM synchronous motor was
figured out with two different means, and the calculation
results were compared and analyzed. By back-dealing model of
ANSYS, the pictures of magnetic flux density (B) and
magnetic vector potential (A) were gained. Back EMF is a
critical parameter of PM synchronous motor. Based on
magnetic flux density and magnetic vector potential, flux
linkage can be calculated. Then back EMF of PM synchronous
motor was figured out with two different means, and the
calculation results were compared and analyzed.
II. MAGNETIC FIELD SOLUTION IN PM SYNCHRONOUS
MOTOR
A. Model of PM Synchronous Motor
In order to simplify the analysis and calculation, some
assumptions about machine model of PM synchronous motor
should be made as follows [2]:
(a) Magnetic field is constant in axial direction, so the
magnetic field calculation can be simplified 2-D field.
(b)Ignore external magnetic field of PMSM, namely, the
magnetic filed intensity out of the solving area is zero. The
magnetic vector potential along the stator external diameter
circle is zero.
(c) Permeability of iron core is isotropy.
Under these assumptions, a typical 3-phase PM
synchronous motor was analyzed using ANSYS software in
this paper. Fig.1. shows the shapes of the stator and rotor of
the prototype machine, equipped with a vertical magnetized
PM rotor and a slotted stator core. The permanent magnets of
the motor are made from Nd-Fe-B, which is mainly made of
Neodymium Iron and Boron, with excellent Energy Product
and high Coercive Force.
 Fig.3. No-load magnetic flux line distribution
a) stator b) rotor
The energy transfer of electric machine is done by air gap
Fig.1. the shapes of PM synchronous motor between rotor and stator, so the distribution of magnetic flux
The main design specifications of the PM synchronous density along air gap is important for the operation
motor are given in Table Ⅰ. characteristic of the machine. By the back-dealing model of
TABLE I ANSYS, the distributed plot of air gap magnetic flux density
DESIGN SPECIFICATION OF PM SYNCHRONOUS MOTOR (B) is gained and shown in Fig.4. It can be seen that the
Design specifications Value waveform of magnetic flux density is near to sinusoidal wave.
Pole number 6 The picture of magnetic vector potential at stator inner
Stator outer radius 130mm diameter circle (A) is also gained and shown in Fig.5.
Stator inner radius 90.4mm
PM outer radius 90mm
Shaft radius 30mm
Stator slot number 36
Rotor slot number 42
Because of the structure symmetry and periodical repetition,
the region of one pair of poles is required for magnetic field
analysis. Fig.2 shows the 2-D model of one-pole range of the
typical 3-phase PM synchronous motor.
Fig.4. no-load air-gap magnetic flux density

Fig.2. Analysis region of the PM synchronous motor

B. No-Load Magnetic Field Analysis
According to Fig.2, after completing the parameter setting,
using the ANSYS solving instruction, the finite element
calculating program of machine magnetic field can be started.
The calculating time depends on the computer performance
and the density of the finite element gridding. Using the back-
dealing model of ANSYS after calculation, the corresponding
result can be obtained, such as magnetic flux lines distribution,
magnetic flux density and so on[3].
When the magnetic field is only excited by magnetic
devices, namely, the current of stator winding is equal to zero,
the magnetic field obtained by ANSYS is no-load magnetic
field. The no-load magnetic flux lines distribution of PM
synchronous motor can be obtained after FEM’s calculation.
Using the instruction of plotting magnetic flux lines, the no-
load magnetic flux lines distribution is shown in Fig.3.
Fig.5. Magnetic vector potential at stator inner diameter circle
C. Load Magnetic Field Analysis
When the PM synchronous motor is loaded, stator current
is not zero. If the winding’s axis of A-phase is accordant to
time and is coaxial to quadrature axis, three phase
instantaneous current can be expressed as the following
equations：
⎧i = 2 I cos α = I cos α
⎪A m
⎪
⎨iB = 2 I cos (α − 120 ) = I m cos (α − 120 ) (1)
⎪
⎪⎩iC = 2 I cos (α + 120 ) = I m cos (α + 120 )
In consequence, there are a changeless angle ( 180 − α )
between armature reaction magnetic motive force and
quadrature axis, as shown in Fig.6 [4].

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Fig.6. Armature reaction magnetic motive force
Seen from Fig.6, suppose that α equals to 0 degree,
equation (1) turns into:
iA = I m , iB = iC = − I m 2 (2)
In this case, there is only quadrature axis component of the
magnetomotive force. Based on the similar analysis of “no-
load magnetic field”, three phase current density, as described
in (2), is applied to the model shown in Fig.2. Using the
ANSYS solving instruction, quadrature axis component of
armature reaction magnetic flux line and magnetic flux density
are respectively obtained by Fig.7 and Fig.8.
Fig.10 Direct axis component of magnetic flux density
III. BACK EMF CALCULATION
The electromotive force (EMF) of stator winding is critical
to the design and analysis of PM synchronous motor. No-load
EMF, namely, E0 is induced by no-load air gap flux density.
The value of E0 is relative to stator current, motor efficiency
and the amount of permanent magnets.
In this paper, two methods based on the evaluation of air
gap magnetic flux density Br and magnetic vector potential Az ,
as shown in Fig.3 and Fig.4 respectively, are used to compute
the no-load EMF E0 .

A. The method based on magnetic flux density

Using the back-dealing model of ANSYS after calculation,
the corresponding coordinate values of magnetic flux density
can be obtained. Based on these values, magnetic flux density
Fig.7. Quadrature axis magnetic field distribution waveform can be get in Matlab software, as shown in Fig.11-a.
Using FFT (Fast Fourier Transform), magnetic flux density
can be expressed as (3) . （ Considering the fundamental
component and the 1st, 3rd, 5th harmonic component ）
⎛ xπ ⎞ ⎛ xπ ⎞ ⎛ 3 xπ ⎞
Br = −0.01325 − 0.6042 cos ⎜ ⎟ + 0.0425sin ⎜ ⎟ + 0.1408 cos ⎜ ⎟
⎝ L ⎠ ⎝ L ⎠ ⎝ L ⎠
⎛ 3 xπ ⎞ ⎛ 5 xπ ⎞ ⎛ 5 xπ ⎞ (3)
−0.0302 sin ⎜ ⎟ − 0.1233cos ⎜ ⎟ + 0.0442sin ⎜ ⎟
⎝ L ⎠ ⎝ L ⎠ ⎝ L ⎠
Where L is the length of arc of half period (one pair pole).
Fig.8 Quadrature axis component of magnetic flux density Fig.11-b shows the fundamental component of magnetic
In the same way, suppose that α equals to 90 degree, flux density.
namely, iA = 0 , iB = 3I m 2 , iC = − 3I m 2 , armature
reaction magnetomotive force only has direct axis component.
Fig.9 and Fig.10 show direct axis component of armature
reaction magnetic flux line distribution and magnetic flux
density.

Fig.11 air-gap magnetic flux density and its fundamental component

Now calculate as following steps.

Fundamental amplitude of air-gap magnetic flux density is:
Fig.9 Direct axis magnetic field distribution
Bm =0.6057T

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Fundamental amplitude of air-gap magnetic flux is:
2
Φm = Bm Lef τ = 0.0034Wb Besides, according (5), we can see that the magnetic vector
π potential difference is the magnetic flux between two points
Where Lef is armature available length; τ is the distance per length. Cosine and sinusoidal fundamental wave
coefficient are respectively the half of quadrature axis
between two poles. In this prototype machine, component and direct axis component of fundamental flux
Lef = 90.8mm ; τ = 2π × 90.2 / 2 p = 94.46mm . per pole per length. So the magnetic flux amplitude per pole
Thus no-load EMF is: can be figured out as follows.

E0 = 2π fNK dp Φ m =0.0152fNK dp (4) Φ m =2 Lef 0.00132 + 0.01782 = 0.00324Wb

No-load back EMF is:
Where f is rated frequency; N is turns of armature
E0 = 2π fNK dp Φ m =0.0144fNK dp (7)
winding per phase in serials; K dp is winding coefficient.
After comparing the above calculation results (4) and (7)
with two different means, we can see that the two results
B. The method based on magnetic vector potential are equivalent and the two methods are both effective.
The magnetic vector potential simplifies the evaluation of
the flux passing through a surface. The magnetic flux linked IV. CONCLUSIONS
by a closed surface S is given by the integration of the Through modeling, loading, solving and back-dealing
magnetic flux density over S. By the Stokes’ theorem, this can model of ANSYS, one-pole model of PM synchronous motor
be represented as the line integral of magnetic vector potential was analyzed and calculated. No-load and d-axis, q-axis
A around the contour C enclosing the surface, as shown in (5).. armature reaction electromagnetic field distribution in PM
1 1
synchronous motor were obtained. Based on magnetic flux
Φ ( Δz =1) = ∫ Az i dz = ∫ Az 2dz −∫ Az1dz = Az 2 − Az1 = ΔAz (5) density and magnetic vector potential, no-load back EMF was
C 0 0 calculated by two different methods, and the calculation results
Using FFT, magnetic vector potential can be expressed as were compared and analyzed. The calculation results showed
(6). Fig.12-b shows the fundamental component of magnetic that the two means are both effective, which are helpful for the
vector potential. Using FFT, magnetic vector potential can be design and performance analysis of PM synchronous motor.
expressed as (5).
⎛ xπ ⎞ ⎛ xπ ⎞ ⎛ 3xπ ⎞
Az = −0.0013cos ⎜ ⎟ − 0.0178sin ⎜ ⎟ + 0.0005cos ⎜ ⎟ (6)
⎝ L' ⎠ ⎝ L' ⎠ ⎝ L' ⎠
REFERENCES
⎛ 3xπ ⎞ ⎛ 5 xπ ⎞ ⎛ 5 xπ ⎞
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⎝ L ' ⎠ ⎝ L ' ⎠ ⎝ L' ⎠
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[4] E. Zhou. Electric Machines, Beijing: China Electric Power Publishing
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[5] Z.Q. Zhu. “Finite element analysis in the design of permanent magnet
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Fig.12 magnetic vector potential at stator inner diameter circle and its
fundamental component

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