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Torque Ripple Alleviation of Interior Permanent

Magnet Brushless DC Motor Drives

Conference Paper · October 2016

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 No. E-16-AAA-0000

Torque Ripple Alleviation of Interior Permanent

Magnet Brushless DC Motor Drives
Jawad Faiz, Mehdi Heydari, and Alireza Nemat Saberi
Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, School of Engineering
University of Tehran
Tehran, Iran
jfaiz@ut.ac.ir

Abstract— Interior permanent magnet (IPM) electric motor

offers higher torque and higher power density compared to
surface mounted permanent magnet (SPM) type. However, it
suffers from higher torque ripples produced by existing reluctance
torque. This paper focuses on the reduction of torque ripples in
IPM type brushless DC (BLDC) motor drives. Firstly, a
straightforward control method is proposed minimizing torque
ripples and copper loss simultaneously. Then, a new shape design
of rotor structure is introduced in which the notches are applied
on the rotor q axis leading to a substantial reduction of the
reluctance torque ripples. The proposed design is attractive owing
to the fact that it only slightly reduces the average total torque.
The validity of the control method and rotor shape design are
confirmed through simulation results obtained by finite element
method.
Keywords—IPM; BLDC; torque ripple; reluctance torque;
control; design.
I. INTRODUCTION
Permanent magnet synchronous motor (PMSM) and
brushless direct-current (BLDC) motor have been widely used
in high-performance industrial applications. The reasons
include simplicity of control, high efficiency, high power
density, and low maintenance. In the PMSM, the waveforms of
the input voltage and back electromotive force (BEMF) are
sinusoidal. Hence, it requires an expensive high resolution
encoder to detect the real-time position of the rotor. The torque
ripple of the motor is almost negligible but it suffers from
complicated distributed winding and high cost. On the other
hand, in the BLDC motor, the BEMF is of trapezoid shape and
the stator generally consists of non-overlapping concentrated
windings. Moreover, there is no need to install encoder and the
rotor position is typically determined by three hall-effect
position sensors separated 120 electrical degrees or through
sensor less methods. However, it must be noted that the torque
ripple in BLDC motors is considerably higher than the former
motors [1]–[4].
According to the location of the PMs, the BLDC motors are
divided into two categories: surface mounted PM (SPM)
Fig. 1. Schematic representation of BLDC motors [5].
motors and interior PM (IPM) motors, which are depicted in
Fig.1 [1].
In the IPM type motor, besides the mutual torque caused by
the interaction between the rotor magnetic field and stator
winding current, a reluctance torque is developed as a result of
the rotor reluctance variation due to the rotor anisotropy.
Therefore, IPM motor offers a higher torque, higher power
density, and higher torque-to-ampere ratio compared to the
SPM type. Also, the IPM motor benefits from shorter
manufacture time and easier shaping and installation of rare
earth PMs [6]. The major drawback of IPM-type BLDC motor
is that it suffers from four factors contributing in generating
pulsating torque components. These factors include: harmonic
content of the BEMF and current waveforms, ripples of cogging
torque generated by interaction between the stator teeth and PM
mounted on the rotor even in the open-circuit case, ripples
caused by non-identical slopes of the phase currents
participating in commutation, and ripples of reluctance torque
[7]-[8]. A number of design modifications and control
approaches have been so far proposed to minimize the torque
ripple of BLDC motors [9]–[13] and maximize the efficiency
simultaneously [3], [14], [15]. However, focusing on the first
three factors of torque ripple production, the majority of
proposed methods are more useful for SPM motors in which
there is no reluctance torque generation. There is almost no
literature on considerable alleviation of reluctance torque
ripples in IPM-type BLDC motors. In fact, unlike the cogging
 Torque Ripple Alleviation of Interior Permanent Magnet Brushless DC Motor Drives
31th Power System Conference - 2016 Tehran, Iran

torque, the reluctance torque contributes to the average torque

development. Hence, in an appropriate torque ripple
minimization method for IPM motors, the amplitude of 2 2 2
3 3
reluctance torque should not be reduced, leading to a 2 2 2 2 
complicated problem. 3 3
, , ,…
2 2 2 2
In the present paper, the control method presented in [15] is 3 3
modified in order to take reluctance torque into account and
(5)
accommodate IPM motors. By employing 180º conduction
control, the harmonic components in the BEMF are applied to The cogging torque can be defined as follows:
improve torque smoothness and increase the average torque. In
addition, this paper introduces a new shape design of rotor ∑ 6 6 (6)
structure which leads to a substantial reduction of reluctance In a three phase wye connected machine we have:
torque ripples. The proposed design is attractive because it only
slightly reduces the average total torque. 7 
II. CONTROL METHOD
The values of Ha, Hb, and Hc are obtained offline and set up
A. Basic Principles in look-up tables. Therefore, by combining (1) and (3)-(7),
In the applying the control approach, there is no need to current can be formulated as function of current as follows:
assume balanced currents and balanced BEMFs. Furthermore,
it is not necessary to apply Fourier analysis or dq 8 
transformation. The method is based on the solution suggested
in [15]. However, in order to yield the reference value of the Another objective of the control approach is to minimize the
generated torque in the IPM motor, the reluctance torque is copper loss. By considering (7), the copper loss can be
added to the mutual torque as follows calculated as follows:

1  

. The mutual torque and reluctance torque can be defined as 2 ∙ 

follows [5]:
where is the copper loss. Combining (8) and (9) leads to
expressing as function of . Hence, in order to calculate the
2  current reference ∗ minimizing the copper loss and the torque
ripple, the derivative of copper loss with respect to must be
1 set to zero as:
3
2
10 

0 11 
where p is the number of pole pairs, is the electrical angle,
, and are the phase currents, is the inductance between
the phase i and the phase j and is the flux-linkage for phase Solving (11) results in the current reference ∗ calculation.
Then, the current references for phase c ( ∗ , and phase a ( ∗
i related to PMs. By considering ( ), ( are calculated by (12) and (13) respectively as follows:

), and (ei = ), (2) can be rewritten as: ∗ ∗

12 
∗ ∗ ∗
13 

4  The three phase currents can be regulated according to their

where is the speed, is the BEMF for phase i, and is
- / . The inductance matrix can be described as follows [5]:
reference values by hysteresis or PWM controllers.
B. Simulation Results
In order to analyze the proposed control method, t an 8-pole
3-phase BLDC motor with the characteristics shown in Table Ι
are simulated. After storing the values of Ha, Hb, and Hc in look-
up tables, the three phase current references are calculated using
the equations described earlier and the specified reference value
of total torque.

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 Torque Ripple Alleviation of Interior Permanent Magnet Brushless DC Motor Drives
31th Power System Conference - 2016 Tehran, Iran

Fig. 2 illustrates the simulation results obtained from Table 1. Specifications of BLDC motor
MATLAB. According to Fig. 2, the total torque is perfectly
controlled and its ripples are minimized as a result of the Item Value
optimal current waveforms. Unlike the conventional 120º Power rating (kW) 40
rectangular wave current control, it is seen that in the proposed Base speed (rpm) 1500
method, 180º conduction control is applied with semi-
trapezoidal shaped currents. In IPM motors, a phase difference Stator outer diameter (mm) 270
between phase currents and BEMF is required in order to create Stator inner diameter (mm) 169.4
d-axis current Id which results in reluctance torque Rotor inner diameter (mm) 110.6
development. In the proposed method, this phase difference is
Stack length (mm) 83
obtained 30º as shown in Fig .2b. In conventional control
method, the slopes of the phase currents are not controllable and Stator slot number 48
therefore the 30º commutation causes high electromagnetic Rotor pole number 8
torque ripples due to the mismatch between excitation currents
Rotor pole arc (degree) 38
and BEMF. Also, sudden changes of currents cause significant
reluctance torque ripples. On the other hand, by applying the Air-gap length (mm) 1
proposed current waveforms, the ripples of reluctance and Phase number 3
electromagnetic torques are minimized appropriately. Winding type Concentrated-
overlapping
It is noted that in this control method only the fundamental
component of reluctance torque and the first two coefficients of
cogging torque expression are considered. Furthermore, the
harmonic content of the BEMF and the critical saturation and
fringing effects are neglected. Hence, the proposed analytical
expressions cannot be used to analyze the torque ripples
accurately and a numerical analysis such as finite element
method (FEM) is required. The resultant total torque
waveforms associated with the conventional rectangular
excitation and the proposed excitation scheme are depicted in
Fig. 3a and Fig. 3b respectively which are obtained by FEM.
As shown in Fig. 3, by implementing the new excitation
scheme, the total torque ripple has been decreased from 24% to
(a)
10 %, whereas the average value of total torque is decreased
only 3 Nm.
III. ROTOR DESIGN FOR TORQUE RIPPLE RIDUCTION
. Besides the previously proposed control approach leading to a
significant reduction of torque ripple, in this section a new
shape design for rotor structure is proposed which reduces the
remaining peak-to-peak value of total torque. Methods of stator
teeth notching or applying a notch on the rotor d axis have been
performed in [16] and [17] respectively. Both methods result in
cogging torque reduction. Here, a trapezoidal notch is applied
on the rotor q axis. This method does not change the cogging
torque, because the notches are not located on the d-axis. (b)
However, it modifies the reluctance torque waveform. This is
due to the fact that notching decreases the inductance of q-axis
leading to the reduction of the maximum value of reluctance
torque. Hence, the peak-to peak value of reluctance torque
waveform is reduced correspondingly. In addition to the
remarkable alleviation of the torque ripples, this method
reduces the average reluctance which can be considered as a
negative influence. However, due to the increased reluctance of
the leakage path of PM fluxes, the air-gap flux density enhances
and therefore the average total torque reduces slightly. The
notches must be designed precisely in order to yield the optimal
performance characteristics. The cross section of the initial and (c)
the proposed notched IPM-type BLDC motor are illustrated in Fig. 2. Simulation results of the control method. a) , , . b) Three
Fig. 4 respectively. phase current references. c) Total torque

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 Torque Ripple Alleviation of Interior Permanent Magnet Brushless DC Motor Drives
31th Power System Conference - 2016 Tehran, Iran

approximate design with the adjustable geometric variables

including notch width Wn, notch height Hn, and the angle of
notch’s edge which is defined by α. Fig. 5 shows the adjustable
variables.
Fig. 6 illustrates the total torque waveforms with different
dimensions of notches. The purpose of the analysis is to obtain
the specific design parameters offering a suitable compromise
between the average total torque and reduction of torque
ripples. Hence, based on the parametric sweep the optimal
values of notch width, notch height and α are chosen as 10.6
mm, 3.4 mm, and 153.4º respectively.
The total torque result based on the optimal design
(a) parameters is illustrated in Fig. 7. It is observed that the total
torque ripple of the proposed notched design has been
decreased from 10% to 5% compared with the initial design. On
the other hand, the average total torque has been slightly
decreased (from 280 Nm to 273 Nm). It is noted that in both
cases, the new control method proposed in section ΙΙ is applied.
The proposed design technique seems to be a promising
solution in some applications such as electric vehicles in which
reduction of torque ripples and also the torque density are of
crucial importance.
The reluctance torque waveforms of the proposed notched
design and the initial design are plotted in Fig. 8. The results are
(b) as anticipated and the main role of applied notches on the q-axis
Fig. 3. Total torque waveforms obtained by FEM. a) conventional excitation is to reduce the reluctance torque ripples. According to Fig. 8,
method b) proposed excitation method the reluctance torque ripple has been decreased from 52% to
20% by applying the notched design.
Fig. 9 shows the cogging torque results of both designs. As
mentioned previously, the proposed design method does not
affect the cogging torque characteristic and both waveforms are
approximately similar in terms of peak-to-peak value and
shape.
IV. CONCLUSION
In this paper, a new control method for IPM-type BLDC
motor was described in which the optimal waveforms of
(a) excitation currents were obtained by minimizing copper loss
and solving the equations associated with the electromagnetic
torque, reluctance torque, and cogging torque. By applying this
control method, total torque ripples were reduced remarkably
but owing to the sudden changes of inductance in the q-axis,
reluctance torque ripples are still generated. In order to reduce
the reluctance torque ripple, notching method on the rotor q-
axis was proposed. Based on an optimization approach, the
optimal parameters of notches were obtained and the FEM
simulation results confirmed that the proposed method of
(b) notching is very useful and applicable to reduction of the
Fig. 4. Cross section of IPM-type BLDC motor. a) initial design. b) proposed reluctance torque ripple of the IPM-type BLDC motor drive.
notched design

In this paper, a parametric approach is performed in order

to optimize the design parameters of the notches for minimizing
the total torque ripples. The geometric optimization includes a
series of parametric sweeps which are obtained using ANSYS
MAXWELL software employing FEM to solve static and time-
varying electromagnetic fields. The approach starts from a first

4
 Torque Ripple Alleviation of Interior Permanent Magnet Brushless DC Motor Drives
31th Power System Conference - 2016 Tehran, Iran

Fig. 5. Adjustable variables of trapezoidal notch

Fig. 7. Total torque result with the optimal design parameters

(a)

(a)

(b)

(b)
Fig. 8. Reluctance torque waveforms obtained by FEM. a) Initial design. b)
Proposed notced design.

(c)
Fig. 6. Total torque obtained by parametric sweep. a) Variation of Wn. b)
Variation of Hn. c) Variation of α

(a)

5
 Torque Ripple Alleviation of Interior Permanent Magnet Brushless DC Motor Drives
31th Power System Conference - 2016 Tehran, Iran
(b)
Fig. 9. Cogging torque waveforms obtained by FEM. a) Initial design. b)
Proposed notced design.
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