25 kW, 15 krpm, 6/4 PMSM: Optimal Design and Torque Pulsation Reduction via FEM

Vlad Grdinaru, Lucian Tutelea, Member, IEEE, Ion Boldea, Fellow, IEEE
University Politehnica of Timisoara, Dept. of Electrical Engineering, 2 Vasile Parvan Blvd., 300223 Timisoara, Romania email: boldea@lselinux.utt.ro
Abstract In these days, the choice of the right motor topology for industrial applications and household electrical appliances is a challenging quest. Since universal motors can not meet the ever-growing standards of electrical equipment design, new generations of electric machines compete to conquer this market. For industrial applications and home appliances, PMSMs seem to be the most fitted solution, especially at high speed operation. In this paper, a 25 kW, 15 krpm, 6/4 PMSM is presented and analyzed via FEM, as a cost effective solution. Optimal design through Hooke-Jeeves method is presented. The problem of cogging torque reduction is discussed and several techniques are used to reduce total torque pulsations. Results obtained via FEM are analyzed, in order to apply the best technique for our case, without compromising design requirements, low manufacturing costs and high efficiency.

I. INTRODUCTION Nowadays, we find ourselves in front of a tough choice in the matter of finding the right motor topology for industrial applications and home appliances. Since in both domains we confront with goals like low cost and high efficiency, and their production on a large scale leaves us with no choice but to find methods to improve accordingly the performance and still maintain and even decrease the cost of manufacturing, the right choice has to be made. Though all induction, PM-synchronous, reluctancesynchronous, switched-reluctance motors qualify in principle for our investigation, the constraints in terms of system losses (smaller than the losses in line start 50Hz constant speed standard devices) eliminates all motor types but the PMSMs which are characterized by highest efficiency and highest torque density [1]. For the case to be discussed, a high speed PMSM, at a rated power of 25 kW, for industry applications is considered to be the best cost-effective solution. But from now on we have to consider in detail the requirements for our case in order to narrow down our search. The two main issues are the total cost of producing the chosen motor and the overall efficiency. Particular design choices must be adopted when the motors have to operate at high speed. Iron losses, centrifugal forces, fringing effects, acoustic noise, and so on, are dominant items in the motor design [2]. For a speed of 15 krpm and a fundamental frequency of up to 500 Hz, only 2p1=2 and 2p1=4 poles rotors are to be considered. Also, the rather large starting torque prevents the usage of single phase self-starting topologies. Consequently, only three phase motors are to be considered.

The 500 Hz fundamental frequency limit is set to keep the switching frequency within the limitations of IGBT PWM inverters with reasonable conduction and commutation losses. Since we reduced our search area even more, we may take the next step and focus only on the advantages and drawbacks of several particular configurations: with iron core slotted stator windings with air core (slotless) stator windings with tooth wound coils with circular shape stator coils (transverse flux PMSM) with distributed stator coils with radial air-gap with axial air-gap interior or exterior rotor. Each of these configurations has been previously analyzed in the literature. To refine the search even more, we eliminate the configurations which do not meet the desired requirements. Slotted or un-slotted stator winding is an important issue [1] - [3]. The slotless (air core) stator winding leads to less iron losses in the stator and rotor (in the PMs and the back iron core) but more PM weight and more copper is needed for same torque /volume and losses in the motor. The airgap flux density is smaller, but more room to place copper in the stator exists. Distributed coil stator windings are typical for 2p1=2,4 when low torque pulsations (vibration, and noise) are seek upon. However, this advantage is obtained at the cost of notable additional copper weight and losses and frame additional axial length, to accommodate large endconnections. On the other hand, tooth-wound coil PMSMs have been introduced recently for many applications due to their lower copper weight and losses and their lower manufacturing cost [4]. Tooth wound coil PMSMS are characterized by q (slots/pole/phase) <0.5 and include many stator slot (tooth) Ns and rotor poles 2p1 combinations. For our specifications (2p1=2,4), only the Ns/2p=3/2,6/4 combinations are considered (Fig.1). The axial airgap configuration might provide smaller rotor inertia but it requires more PM weight for given torque due to the two airgaps, thus raising the PM cost and also making of rotor core of rolled laminations is not a very easy to manufacture solution. So, only radial (single) airgap cylindrical stator/rotor configurations are considered. In our case, the PMSM needs about full torque up to largest speed, so no important flux weakening is required. For sinusoidal current control it means pure iq control (id=0) and, for trapezoidal emf & current control, the

latter is in phase with the former. So no advancing commutation angle is required. Further, for trapezoidal current only two phases work at a time (except for the phase commutation intervals which should not be over 100 (max. 300) to avoid continuous current operation). This way, motion sensorless control based on zero emf detection in the passive phase is possible. For rectangular current, the surface PM rotor should be preferred, to reduce the value of synchronous inductance Ls. Also the differential leakage inductance of the tooth wound coil winding should be reduced. For a two layer (two coils in one slot) winding subharmonics may be reduced. Unfortunately, this condition leaves out the possibility of 3 coils in the stator with 3 wound teeth and 3 additional teeth in between also required to provide for trapezoidal emf [5]. The single layer windings produce larger armature reaction and thus larger rotor losses due to its space and time harmonics [5]. So it is advisable to avoid it anyway. For sinusoidal current control, to reduce the PM costs, parallelipiphedic shape PMs may be used in an interior PM rotor. In this case, however, the mechanical rigidity of the rotor structure at 15 krpm should be carefully checked, as in case of eccentricity large radial forces occur. The iron stator core surface PM rotor 6/4 PMSM seems the best overall solution in terms of radial forces (that is noise, vibration etc.) with good energy conversion and reasonable manufacturing and active material costs.

Figure 1. Tooth wound PMSMs: a) 3/2 iron core; b) 6/4 iron core

The 3/2 iron core machine has way too large radial forces while the air core 3/2 PMSM has smaller torque pulsations, lower radial forces lower noise and vibration than the latter, lower electrical time constant and thus faster rectangular current commutation but it costs more (more PM weight). Still, the manufacturing costs, the radial forces, the rotor weight and inertia are notably larger than for the 6/4 machine. All in all it seems that the iron core 6/4 PMSM with radial airgap surface PM interior rotor and two layer stator windings is the best overall solution. II. OPTIMAL DESIGN

the optimal design method is established considering its ease of implementation, the accuracy of the optimized results, user friendly interface and how comprehensible it is. Based on these particular requests, the optimal design can be realized by Hooke-Jeeves method [2], through Genetic Algorithms or alternative methods derived from GA, such as Population Based Incremental Learning (PBIL) [3]. For the optimal design of the 6/4 PMSM motor, the modified Hooke-Jeeves algorithm was implemented for a power range from 25 W to 25 kW, showing good results. Next, a design exercise with this optimization algorithm is to be shown for PMSM configuration at 25 kW, 15 krpm. The optimization algorithm is divided in the following steps: Choose the optimized variables to group them in a vector and the constant dimensions. Find the technological limitations, geometrical constraints and choose the optimized variable range. Choose the objective scalar function. The constraints could be included in the objective function considering a penalty function. Choose the initial values of optimized variables, the initial step vector, minimum step vector and the step actualization ratio r, with 0<r<1. Compute all necessary geometrical dimensions, the motors performance from analytical model and then evaluate the objective function. Make a research movement along each optimized variable in positive and negative direction, (grid search), using the initial step. Make optimized variable movement with step until the objective function is decreasing. Repeat the research movement (fifth step) in order to find a new gradient direction and then repeat the gradient movement (sixth step), until the research movement is not able to find better points around the current point. Reduce the variation step by ratio r, and repeat the previous steps until the minimum of the variable variation is reached and the gradient norm vanish. When the research movement can not find better points even using the smallest variable variation, then a minimum objective function is reached with the given resolution. The algorithm should be run several times with different initial values of variables in order to increase the probability to find the global minimum. The modified Hooke-Jeeves algorithm is applied to the following dimensional variables, in order to obtain the desired motor configuration, yielding better efficiency at low manufacturing costs: D out stator outer diameter,
Dsi stator inner diameter, h s1 stator coil height, h ss

stator slot opening, N1 number of turns per coil, h s3 stator wedge place height, h s4 stator tooth pole tip height, h sc stator yoke width, w sp stator tooth width,
l stack stator core stack length, sp stator pole span

Once the configuration settled, we have to apply an optimization algorithm in order to improve its performances, by modifying certain variables, with respect to losses, overall efficiency, dimensions and nevertheless, total cost. Once the objectives are defined,

angle, h PM permanent magnet height and g air-gap length (Fig.2). The PMs cover the whole rotor periphery. In Table 1, the initial geometric data and optimized geometric variables are shown, considering two different optimization criteria: Optim 1 we take into account the energy price value, which is 0.1 USD/kW for 15000 operation hours, as a penalty function for not achieving the proposed efficiency and Optim 2 we dont consider the penalty function, thus reducing the total cost.
TABLE I 25KW, 15 KRPM, 6/4 PMSM Variable name Initial data 180 90 31.8 5.9 54 2.2 1 18.8 19.6 50 51 7.5 0.7 205.14 286.15 10 98.03 22.9143 26.9606 31.4631 8.6211 47.0389 136.9980 0 0 136.9980 Optim 1 184.8 72.5 39.3 5.7 42 1.4 1 14.5 22 64.4 51 6.7 0.7 119.31 426.13 10 97.83 32.2184 33.0116 34.6529 10.1064 59.2272 169.2166 6.7857 0 176.0022 Optim 2 183.2 75.6 29.1 7.1 48 1.4 1 13.5 26 50 51 3.5 0.7 230.96 398.64 10 97.51 20.4813 23.2865 18.7332 12.2750 45.8022 120.5783 0 0 120.5783 Units mm mm mm mm mm mm mm mm mm
40

D out Dsi h s1 h ss N1 h s3 h s4 h sc w sp l stack

Figure 2. 25 kW, 15 krpm, 6/4 PMSM (Optim 2) variables vector

As can be observed in Fig.3, the waveform of the radial component of airgap PM flux density at load contains ripples which may lead to torque pulsation. In Fig.4 the cogging torque, total torque and current interaction torque are represented for the Optim 2 case.
Coil total current 60

mm degree mm mm W W W % $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $
-40 Current (A) 20

Phase A Phase B Phase C

sp
h PM
g Copper Losses Iron Losses Mechanical losses Efficiency Copper cost Lamination cost PM cost Rotor Iron cost PM weight cost Initial cost Energy cost Temperature cost Total cost

-20

-60

0.1

0.2

0.3

0.4

0.5 0.6 Time (s)

0.7

0.8

0.9 x 10

1
-3

a)

b) Figure 3. a) stator trapezoidal coil current on each phase b) radial component of flux density produced by PM and trapezoidal current at full torque

Using the Optim 2 geometric data, the motor topology will be modified in order to reduce the torque pulsations. There are several techniques applied in designing the PMSMs implying alterations either of the stator slots configuration [8],[11] or of the rotor configuration [8], [11], [12] or combined [10].

For further constructive design optimization, several techniques will be applied to the rotor configuration, to reduce cogging torque: symmetric short-span PMs: with

air, lamination or tangential PMs in between; displaced PM poles technique; rotor pole segmented skewing.
Specific torque 10

6 Specific torque (Nm) Cogging Total Electric

-2

-4

10

20

30 40 50 60 70 Rotor position (mechanical degrees)

80

90

Figure 4. Torque components for 25 kW, 15 krpm, 6/4 PMSM (Optim 2)

Other technique discussed in this paragraph is the displaced poles design of the rotor. The PMs are separated with different angles at each end. Two by two, the PMs are coupled at one end and separated at the other one with an equal number of degrees, the interaction between PMs and stator slots should be smoother, generating less ripple torque. Still we have to see the effect of the technique on the value of the total average torque. Last, but not least, skewing is chosen to be applied to rotor design for our case. It is a known method and can be realized both for rotor and stator design. In this paper, skewing of the PMs is realized yielding best results. The skewed stator requires manual slot filling and thus is suitable only for prototypes or small production [8], [10], [11]. The three techniques briefly presented here will be studied in what follows, analyzed in detail and applied to the 25 kW, 15 krpm, 6/4 PMSM in order to minimize the cogging torque and consequently the total torque pulsation. REDUCTION OF TORQUE PULSATIONS WITH SYMMETRIC SHORT POLES TECHNIQUE This design optimization technique is about choosing the right PM pole arc width comparing to the pole pitch. Hence, the design exercise covers an interval of possible PM pole arc widths, from the value of the stator pole pitch to covering the whole surface of the rotor (initial case). A compromise is usually required in this case, because the optimum value of the PM pole arc is to be found with high precision [10]. The optimum rotor PM pole arc, PM , for minimum cogging torque in PMSM, for fractional stator winding is stated in (1): IV.

III. REDUCTION OF TORQUE PULSATIONS The main sources of torque pulsations are: cogging PWM current harmonics non-ideal back EMF waveforms phase commutation events dc-link voltage pulsations and inverter dead-time. The cogging torque reduction techniques, as described in [2], [5], [8], [12], are: skewing the magnets or the slots, displacing and shaping the magnets, employing auxiliary slots or teeth, optimizing the magnet pole-arc to polepitch ratio and employing a fractional number of slots per pole. The whole idea of reducing the cogging torque is to minimize as much as possible the interaction between permanent magnet edges and slot openings. In order to do that, we either modify the stator slot design, or we change the design of the magnets. Slotless configurations can be adopted for the stator [2] as well as other modifications like reduction of the tooth length, choosing the right number of slots and selection of the winding type [2], [5], [13] and notches in the tooth (dummy slots) [8], [10], [11]. From existing cogging torque reduction techniques which affects the rotor design [8], [11], [12], the shorter symmetric poles, displaced poles and skewing are to be considered. With the symmetric short poles, which mean the reducing of the PM pole arc width, three cases are studied, by using different materials between the PMs like airgap, extending the lamination of the rotor and interleaving tangentially magnetized PMs with the radial magnetized PMs. By reducing the pole arc width and keeping the PMs in symmetrical positions, some harmonics of the total torque can be eliminated by modifying the distance between two pole edges. However, the value of the exact pole arc width is hard to find, because it can be a matter of fractions of a degree. This aspect can make the rotor design difficult, which is a major drawback of this technique.

PM =

PM

lPM

(1)

where lPM is the varying length of the PM pole arc and PM is the full PM pole pitch (equal to 90 mechanical degrees). To develop furthermore the symmetric short poles technique, we tried to overcome the drawback of the reduced average torque by using different materials between PM poles. A. Symmetric poles with air between PM poles Since the aim is to minimize the cogging torque by using shorter poles, the first material used between rotor PM poles was air. In Fig.5, the 25 kW, 15 krpm, 6/4 PMSM configuration and the magnetic field distribution is shown for this technique, at PM =0.7. In Fig. 6, peak to peak cogging torque (Tecogg) versus average rated total torque (Tav), peak to peak total torque (Tetotal) versus average rated torque and the average torque ratio (Teav) are evaluated for several values of the PM pole arc, starting with a PM pole arc equal to stator pole span angle (52 mechanical degrees) and rising its value to almost full PM pole pitch (90 mechanical degrees).

As can be seen in Fig. 6, the best case is at a PM =0.7 and from the waveforms from Fig. 7 the amplitude of the cogging torque is reduced with 75%. At the same ratio, we can observe that the peak to peak total torque is also drastically reduced, at 63% of the initial value. At the same time, the average torque ratio is 83%, which means this design optimization technique is not convenient for our case. B. Symmetric poles with lamination between PM poles In Fig.8, the configuration and the magnetic field path of the 25 kW 6/4 PMSM with rotor lamination interleaved with rotor PM poles are shown.

Figure 5. PM magnetic field path for 25 kW motor, 15 krpm, 6/4poles PMSM, with shorter symmetric poles, with airgap between magnets ( PM = 0.7 ) at er = 0 from phase a axis
Torque ratio comparison (shorter PM poles vs. full pole pitch PMs) 1 0.9 0.8 0.7 delta T Torque ratio 0.6 0.5 0.4 0.3 0.2 0.1 0 0.55 delta T T
eav etotal av ecogg av

/T

/T

/T

av

Figure 8. PM magnetic field path for 25 kW motor, 15 krpm, 6/4poles PMSM, with shorter symmetric poles with lamination between magnets ( PM = 0.7 ) at er = 0 from phase a axis

0.6

0.65

0.7

0.75 0.8 0.85 Rotor PM pole arc

0.9

0.95

Figure 6. Peak to peak cogging torque, peak to peak total torque and average total torque with shorter PM poles (airgap between magnets) versus average rated total torque with full PM pole pitch

As in the previous case, in Fig.9, we follow the influence of this technique on minimizing the cogging torque and how it affects the average total torque and peak to peak total torque for different values of PM . The entire above are reported to the average rated total torque (full PM pole pitch).
Torque ratio comparison (shorter PM poles vs. full pole pitch PMs) 1 0.9 0.8 0.7 delta T Torque ratio 0.6 0.5 0.4 0.3 0.2 0.1 0.55 delta T T
eav etotal av ecogg av

Fig.7 represents the comparison of cogging torque waveforms, at full PM pole pitch (initial case) and at PM =0.7 (63 mechanical degrees PM pole arc).
Variation of cogging torque with rotor PM pole arc 2.5 2 1.5 1 Cogging torque [Nm] 0.5 0 -0.5 -1 -1.5 -2 -2.5 Full pole pitch 63 deg PM pole

/T

/T

/T

av

0.6

0.65

0.7

0.75 0.8 0.85 Rotor PM pole arc

0.9

0.95

10

20

30

40 50 60 Mechanical degrees

70

80

90

Figure 9. Peak to peak cogging torque, peak to peak total torque and average total torque with shorter PM poles (lamination between magnets) versus average rated total torque with full PM pole pitch

Figure 7. Comparison of cogging torque waveforms with shorter PM poles ( PM = 0.7 ) and with full PM pole pitch

By following the results shown in Fig.9, we can observe that, in the ideal situation ( PM =0.7), the cogging torque is reduced with 70% compared to the initial case. It also can be seen that the peak to peak total

torque is approximately the same as in the initial case and the average total torque is about 0.8 of the average rated total torque with full PM pole pitch, but this reduction is not going to improve the performance of the machine. The effect of using laminations on the amplitude and shape of the waveform of the cogging torque is presented in Fig.10 for a value of the PM pole arc of 63 mechanical degrees compared with the initial waveform.
Variation of cogging torque with rotor PM pole arc 2.5 2 1.5 Full pole pitch 63 deg PM pole

In Fig.12, peak to peak cogging torque per average rated total torque ratio variation is shown along with the variation of PM . Applying this technique, we also alter the average total torque per average rated total torque with full PM pitch ratio and the peak to peak total torque per average rated total torque with full PM pitch ratio.
Torque ratio comparison (shorter PM poles vs. full pole pitch PMs) 1

0.9

0.8 delta Tetotal/Tav Torque ratio 0.7 delta Tecogg/Tav T 0.6

eav

1 Cogging torque [Nm] 0.5 0 -0.5 -1 -1.5 -2 -2.5

/T

av

0.5

0.4

0.55

0.6

0.65

0.7

0.75 0.8 0.85 Rotor PM pole arc

0.9

0.95

10

20

30

40 50 60 Mechanical degrees

70

80

90

Figure 10. Comparison of cogging torque waveforms with shorter PM poles and lamination between magnets ( PM = 0.7 ) and with full PM pole pitch

Figure 12. Peak to peak cogging torque, peak to peak total torque and average total torque with shorter PM poles (tangentially magnetized PMs between magnets) versus average rated total torque with full PM pole pitch

C. Symmetric Poles with Tangentially Magnetized PMs between PM poles In order to minimize the fringing flux between PM poles edges and thus diminish the cogging effect between radial PM poles and slot openings, tangentially magnetized PMs are interleaved with the original radial rotor PM poles. From start, this option has a major drawback. Using additional PMs can increase the total manufacturing cost, which is not a desirable thing. Fig.11 is a representation of the motor configuration and the distribution of the magnetic field through the PMSM.

As we can see from Fig.12 the point where cogging torque has the smallest value, although higher than in our initial case, is at an PM =0.85 ratio. Compared to the previous results, cogging torque is not minimized at all. Average total torque at PM =0.85 is 0.95 of the average rated total torque with full pitch PMs and, at the same time, peak to peak total torque value has a value of 0.46 of the average rated total torque. For a clearer image about the effect of interleaving tangentially magnetized PMs with radial rotor PM poles, in Fig.13 we represented the variation of amplitude and shape of the cogging torque for a 76.5 degrees PM pole arc width compared to the initial case.
Variation of cogging torque with rotor PM pole arc 3

1 Cogging torque [Nm]

-1

-2 Full pole pitch 76.5 deg PM pole

-3

-4 0

10

20

30

40 50 60 Mechanical degrees

70

80

90

Figure 11. PM magnetic field path for 25 kW motor, 15 krpm, 6/4poles PMSM, with shorter symmetric poles with tangentially magnetized PMs between magnets ( PM = 0.7 ) at er = 0 from phase a axis

Figure 13. Comparison of cogging torque waveforms with shorter poles (63 and 67.5 mechanical degrees and tangentially magnetized PMs between PM poles) and without shorter poles

As verified through finite element analysis, tangentially magnetized PMs does not seem a viable solution for designing a 25 kW high speed 6/4 PMSM.

Cogging torque [Nm]

TORQUE PULSATION REDUCTION WITH DISPLACED POLES TECHNIQUE Pole shifting technique, as described in [8] and [12], is meant to suppress second order cogging torque harmonics. Our choice was to keep the PMs united at one end and to vary the opening at the other end by various angle values, from 2 to 12 mechanical degrees. The motor configuration and the PM magnetic field path are represented in Fig.14.

V.

in Fig.16, for the maximum displacement angle (12 mechanical degrees).

Variation of cogging torque with rotor PM pole arc 2.5 2 1.5 1 0.5 0 -0.5 -1 -1.5 -2 -2.5 Full pole pitch 12 deg displaced poles

10

20

30

40 50 60 Mechanical degrees

70

80

90

Figure 16. Comparison of cogging torque waveforms with PM pole displaced with 12 degrees and PM full pitch pole

Figure 14. PM magnetic field path for 25 kW motor, 15 krpm, 6/4poles PMSM, with poles displaced at 12 mechanical degrees at er = 0 from phase a axis

The evolution of the cogging torque reduction with the variation of the displacement angle is shown in Fig.15, together with the variation of the average total torque per average rated total torque ratio and peak to peak total torque per average rated total torque ratio with the displacement angle.
Torque ratio comparation (displaced PM poles vs. full pole pitch PMs) 1 0.9 0.8 delta Tetotal/Tav 0.7 Torque ratio 0.6 0.5 0.4 0.3 0.2 78 delta Tecogg/Tav T
eav

TORQUE PULSATION REDUCTION WITH POLE SKEWING TECHNIQUE Skewing is one of the most popular cogging torque reduction techniques, applicable to the stator slots or the PM on the rotor, obtaining similar results. Cogging torque may be almost eliminated, with reasonable average torque reduction if the magnets are skewed by one slot pitch [11], for distributed stator windings. Several magnet skewing methods are discussed and tested in the literature, such as triangular skew, parallelsided magnets, trapezoidal skew, circular magnets, dual skew magnets [11] and stepped skewing [8]. Intervening on PM shape could be a major obstacle when it comes to mass production, manufacturing costs and complexity of realizing skewed magnets. For mass production motors, stepped skew technique is chosen because its simpler and easy to implement, and also leads to reduced PM eddy current losses. To make the rotor manufacturing easier, the skewing may be approximated by placing the PM axially skewed by Nst discrete steps, as illustrated in Fig. 17 [8].

VI.

/T

av

80

82 84 86 Rotor PM length (mechanical degrees)

88

90

Figure 15. Peak to peak cogging torque, peak to peak total torque and average total torque with pole displacements versus average rated total torque with full PM pole pitch

The peak to peak total torque per average rated total torque with full pitch PMs ratio has rised at 0.34 in the best case and average total torque per average rated total torque ratio is still less than unity. The changes in amplitude and shape of the cogging torque waveform, compared to the initial case, are shown

Figure 17. Stepped rotor skewing with three modules [8]

We choose for our 25 kW high speed 6/4 PMSM Nst=3. The skewing angle between the adjacent sections of the rotor is 2.5 mechanical degrees.

After imposing stepped skewing requirements, Nst=3 and skewing angle equal to 2.5 degrees, we investigated the effects of the method on cogging and on total torque. The obtained results are shown in Fig.18.
Specific torque 10

Further reduction of total torque pulsations may be explored via control (current shaping etc.). REFERENCES
[1] N. Bianchi, S. Bolognani, and F. Luise, Potentials and limits of high-speed motors, IEEE Transactions on Industry Applications, vol.40, no.6, pp. 1570-1578, November/December 2004 N. Bianchi, S. Bolognani, and F. Luise, Analysis and design of a PM brushless motor for high-speed operations, IEEE Transactions on Energy Conversion, vol.20, no.3, pp. 629-637, September 2005 N. Bianchi, S. Bolognani, and F. Luise, High speed drive using a slotless PM motor, IEEE Transactions on Power Electronics, vol.21, no.4, pp. 1083-1090, July 2006 F. Magnussen, P. Thelin, and C. Sadarangani, Performance evaluation of permanent magnet synchronous machines with concentrated and distributed windings including the effect of fieldweakening, PEMD 2004, vol.2, pp. 679-685, 2004 N. Bianchi, S. Bolognani, M. Dai Pre, and G. Grezzani, Design considerations for fractional-slot winding configurations of synchronous machines, IEEE Transactions on Industry Applications, vol.42, no.4, pp. 997-1006, July/August 2006 Lucian Tutelea and Ion Boldea, Optimal design of residential brushless dc permanent magnet motors with FEM validation, ACEMP 2007, Bodrum, Turkey, 2007 S. Y. Yang, S. L. Ho, G. Z. Ni, Jose Marcio Machado, and K. F. Wong, A new implementation of PBIL method for optimization in electromagnetics, IEEE Transactions on Magnetics, vol.43, no.4, pp. 1601-1604, April 2007 Nicola Bianchi and Silverio Bolognani, Design techniques for reducing the cogging torque in surface-mounted PM motors, IEEE Transactions on Industry Applications, vol.38, no.5, pp. 1259-1265, September/October 2002 J.F. Gieras, Analytical approach to cogging torque calculation of PM brushless motors, IEEE Transactions on Industry Applications, vol.40, no.5, pp. 1310-1316, September/October 2004 S.-M. Jang, H.-W. Cho, and D.-J. You, Cogging torque minimization in permanent magnet brushless dc motors for highspeed applications, KIEE International Transactions on Electric Machinery and Energy Conversion Systems, vol.5-B, no.2, pp. 146-153, 2005 M. Aydin, Z.Q. Zhu, T.A. Lipo, and D. Howe, Minimization of cogging torque in axial-flux permanent-magnet machines: design concepts, IEEE Transactions on Magnetics, vol.43, no.9, pp. 3614-3622, September 2007 M. Marinescu, N. Marinescu, and W. Wagner, Reduction of cogging torques of permanent-magnet excited motors with radial flux by the pole-shifting method, ICEM 2006, Athens, Greece, September 2006 N. Bianchi, S. Bolognani, and P. Frare, Design criteria for highefficiency SPM synchronous motors, IEEE Transactions on Energy Conversion, vol.21, no.2, pp. 396-404, June 2006

[2]

Specific torque (Nm)

6 Cogging Total Electric

[3]

[4]

[5]
-2 0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 Rotor position (mechanical degrees) 80 90

Figure 18. Torque waveforms for skewed rotor (Nst =3) with full PM pole pitch

[6]

Comparing torque waveforms from Fig.18 to the ones from the initial case from Fig.4, a reduction of the total torque pulsation by 40% can be observed, also a reduction of cogging torque value with 54%, with a decrease of 0.5% of the average torque and the elimination of cogging torque high frequency ripples is evident, this will significantly improve PMSMs performance by reducing acoustic noise and vibrations. From all the studied cogging torque reduction techniques, stepped skewing yields best results, so it is a viable solution for optimal design of the proposed 25 kW, 15 krpm, 6/4 PMSM. VII. CONCLUSIONS A case study is developed in this paper for a 25 kW, 15 krpm, 6/4 PMSM design. Specifications requirements are low cost and high efficiency. Optimization design by Hooke-Jeeves method is applied first. Torque pulsations reduction for trapezoidal current control is then investigated. After finite element analysis of a few cogging torque reduction techniques, stepped skewing yielded best results for reducing the cogging torque and thus limiting total torque pulsations. Also, it is a cost efficient technique.

[7]

[8]

[9]

[10]

[11]

[12]

[13]