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In this study, an investigation of winding structures is performed for 3-phase unbalanced and asymmetric winding permanent magnet (PM) machines including different slot-pole combinations. There are two different cases for unbalanced winding (UBW) structure: 1) Stator slot number of the machine is divisible by three, 2) Stator slot number of the machine is not divisible by three. Only the first case is examined in this paper. The unbalanced winding layouts are created for minimum unbalance and maximum winding factor. Total magneto motive force (MMF) distributions for nine different slot-pole combinations and their harmonic contents are presented. Variation of the amount of unbalance for different slot-pole combinations is also provided in the paper. Key issues arising from the asymmetric and unbalanced windings such as degree of asymmetric and unbalanced magnetic pull are explored. A prototype motor with 39-slots and 12-poles has been manufactured for experimental verification. A comparison between the finite element analysis (FEA) results and experimental results is presented for the prototype motor for both no-load and on-load conditions. It is shown that the asymmetric and unbalanced winding PM motors have significant potential for applications requiring smooth torque operation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper investigates the influence of stator/rotor pole number combinations and permanent magnet (PM) numbers on electromagnetic performance of consequent-pole hybrid excited flux reversal machines (CP-HEFRMs), which have different numbers of PM poles and iron poles and concentrated AC and DC windings on the stator and a salient pole rotor. PMs in the slots of one stator pole are magnetized radially in the same direction, while opposite on adjacent stator poles. Magnetic field paths of DC, PM, and hybrid excitations are investigated. The phenomenon of flux cancellation, i.e., PM and DC MMFs in CP-HEFRMs are of opposite polarities in the flux-enhancing operating mode, is revealed and verified, for the first time, as the key feature that makes CP-HEFRMs different from other hybrid excited machines. Consequently, the saturation in stator pole and yoke can be mitigated and hence the overload capability of DC excitation is enhanced, which is verified by finite element analysis (FEA). Global optimizations are utilized to obtain the optimal rotor and stator pole number combinations and PM numbers for each stator pole. Torque, torque ripple, inductance, unbalanced magnetic force, and flux regulation capability are compared for different PM numbers and rotor pole numbers. Comparisons are made on consequent-pole and non-consequent-pole topologies in terms of torque capacity, flux regulation capability, and PM consumption to further illustrate the advantages of consequent-pole topology. A prototype machine is built and tested to validate the analyses. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Consequent-pole (CP) permanent magnet (PM) configuration suffers asymmetric electromagnetic characteristics although it saves PM usage. The CP-based stator-PM synchronous machines are investigated in this paper, with particular reference to symmetrical issues. The electromagnetic performances of the CP-based stator-PM synchronous machines are firstly evaluated. Afterwards, the rule of even order harmonics cancellation is presented for different slot/pole number combinations and winding layouts, based on which symmetrical phase flux-linkages can be obtained although the unbalanced magnetic flux naturally occurs. Moreover, based on the three-dimensional finite element analysis, the unipolar end leakage-flux caused by the asymmetric magnetic field is identified, and the risk of the shaft magnetization is revealed. Finally, a pair of prototype machines are fabricated and measured to validate the analyses. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Asymmetric interior permanent magnet (AIPM) rotor topologies can achieve torque enhancement in IPM synchronous machines without the increase of PM usage due to utilizing magnetic-field-shifting (MFS) effect by reducing the current angle difference between maximum PM and reluctance torque components. This paper investigates the influence of armature reaction on MFS effect in AIPM machines. A general model of IPM machines considering MFS effect is analytically developed and the AIPM and IPM machines using the same stator, rotor diameter and total PM amount are comparatively studied. It shows that the armature reaction affects the MFS effect in both AIPM and IPM machines and the influence is more significant in AIPM machine. The relationships between MFS effects in PM flux-linkage and inductance characteristics and current angles for maximum PM and reluctance torque components are revealed. It confirms that the change of current angles of torque components is due to the MFS effect in PM flux-linkage and inductance characteristics in both AIPM and IPM machines. Besides, the developed machine model considering MFS effect is verified by finite element analysis. Finally, a small-scale AIPM machine prototype is fabricated and measured to validate the finite element analysis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Linear permanent magnet Vernier machines (LPMVMs) is an attractive solution for stroke and direct-drive applications. Several LPMVM topologies have been presented for different applications that operate based on magnetic flux modulation. LPMVMs have some advantages including high force, and torque density at low speeds. This paper introduces a double-excited linear Vernier machine for wave energy conversion. To model the machine, finite element analysis and nonlinear equivalent network model are used. To improve the accuracy of the model and compact the network, a new meshing method is proposed. For better continuity in the output waveforms of the machine, special positioning is utilized. The end-effect is modeled using two separate networks. Finally, the modeling and simulation results are compared with each other and validated experimentally. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The design rules of winding configurations and stator-pole/rotor-tooth (SP/RT) number combinations of doubly-fed flux-switching permanent magnet (DF-FSPM) machines are investigated in this paper based on coil electromotive force (EMF) vectors. The relationships between the components of stator and rotor coil-EMF vector diagrams are unveiled at first, including the numbers of stator and rotor phases, and the numbers of stator and rotor spokes. Then, the SP/RT number combinations are derived considering feasible stator/rotor phase number combinations and different winding configurations. The SP/RT number combinations are optimized considering the winding factors, magnetic field harmonics, unbalanced magnetic forces and machine diameter. It is shown that both of the stator and rotor pitch factors increase when the SP and RT numbers get closer. Furthermore, the influence of winding configurations and SP/RT number combinations on electromagnetic performances of DF-FSPM machines are analyzed by finite-element method. Finally, the analysis results are validated by experiment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper formulates the difference in base frequency and maximum torque between distributed and concentrated windings taking into account the air-gap modulation of concentrated-winding permanent magnet (PM) motors. The design superiority is typically confirmed for each winding type during a development period by using time-consuming finite element analysis (FEA). We propose a quantification that enables motor designers to easily judge, at the initial design stage, a superior winding type and to shorten a design period. Throughout our formulation, we found that the distributed-winding PM motors, in principle, have larger q-axis inductance and smaller d-axis inductance than the concentrated-winding motors, which leads to a decrease in the base frequency. On the other hand, the distributed winding inherently has higher winding factor and needs shorter stack length of core than the concentrated winding for identical torque output, which results in an increase in the base frequency. And also, we theoretically quantified the difference in reluctance-torque contribution between the two winding types and found that it was too small to have much impact on practical design. We applied the proposed formulae to a 0.2-kW concentrated-winding Nd-Fe-B magnet motor and were able to quantify the base frequency, the maximum torque, and the minimum stack length of core for a distributed-winding motor with high accuracy without having to rely on FEA. The FEA and measurement results demonstrated the validity of the proposed approach for the fabricated distributed-winding PM motor. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Partial demagnetization is a condition that may occur in Permanent Magnet machines due to overloading or thermal stress. Whenthis happens, the magnetic field locally weakens leading to an asymmetry of the air-gap field. This asymmetry will cause harmonics, which will be expressed as extra losses and mechanical oscillations. Moreover, since the field becomes weaker, more current is required to serve the load leading to less efficiency, increased losses and consequently increase of the temperature, which will cause further progression of the demagnetization severity until a total machine breakdown. Several methods have been proposed in the literature for the online detection of the demagnetization, however they have not related the fault to the manufacturing characteristics of the machine, which play an important role on the expected harmonic index and the associated fault signatures. This paper presents for the first time a detailed analytical investigation of the expected harmonics in the stator current spectrum in case of demagnetization, as a function of the stator winding and number of poles. The analytical results are verified by extensive simulations via the finite element method and experimental testing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A novel asymmetric interior permanent magnet (AIPM) machine is proposed in this paper for electric vehicle application. It has a skewed V-shape permanent magnet (PM) cavity, two PMs with different dimensions and an additional flux barrier outside the V-shape cavity in each pole. This asymmetric rotor topology can inherently utilize the magnetic-field-shifting (MFS) effect to reduce the current angle difference between the maximum PM and reluctance torque components, thereby enhancing the maximum synthetic torque with the same PM usage. The influences of cavity positions in the proposed AIPM and an existing AIPM with extra flux barrier inside the V-shape cavity are investigated and compared using finite element analysis. It is found that the proposed structure with outside flux barrier has higher average torque than the one with inside flux barrier. Both AIPM topologies are designed with the same stator, rotor diameter, and PM usage as the conventional V-shape IPM benchmark for Prius 2010. Electromagnetic, mechanical and steady-state thermal performance of three machines are compared. The results confirm that the proposed AIPM machine can achieve significant torque enhancement due to utilizing MFS effect, compared with the existing AIPM and the IPM benchmark. Finally, a small prototype of the proposed AIPM machine is designed, manufactured and tested to validate the FE analysis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]