Five-phase interior permanent-magnet motors with low torque pulsation

High torque pulsation is a major disadvantage of most interior permanent-magnet (IPM) motor configurations. Choosing the proper number of stator slots and winding distribution as well as increasing number of phases are among the possible solutions for reducing torque pulsation. In this paper, five-phase IPM motor with fractional-slot stator is studied. It is shown that despite other IPM motors, the new five-phase IPM motor with fractional slot has a very low torque pulsation. For comparison purposes, a five-phase IPM motor with common configuration is also considered. It is shown that the torque pulsation of the proposed fractional-slot five-phase IPM motor is much lower than the conventional five-phase IPM motor. Nonlinear finite-element method is used to analyze different machine configurations. A prototype four-pole five-phase IPM motor with 15 stator slots has been built and is used for experimental verification. Index Terms--Cogging torque, finite-element analysis, five-phase interior permanent-magnet (IPM) motor, torque pulsation.