Axial v p e Flat PM Motor with Large Air Gap

Masayuki Sanada, Shigeo Morimoto, Yoji Takeda

Dept. of Electrical and Electronic Systems, College of Engineering
Osaka Prefecture University
1-1 Gakuencho, Sakai, Osaka 593, JAPAN
Fax: +81-722-52-6782, Phone: +81-722-52-1161 Ext. 2265
E-mail : sanada@gto.ees.osakafu-u.ac.jp

Abstract --- An axial type flat permanent magnet motor Moreover, it is shown that the steady state
(AFPM motor) is used for audio visual equipment and characteristics of the AFPM motor driven by the 6-step
information actuators, and so on. However, it is limited to inverter can be estimated with the d-q coordinates
small capacity with small air gap. modeling.
In this paper, the characteristics of the AFPM motor with
large air gap to protect andlor separate between the rotor and 11. STRATEGY OF CHARACTERISTICSANALYSIS
the stator for new applications are examined.. Tested
motor has 8mm air gap length and 170W out put capacity. A. Basic Equation of PM Motor
Maximum efficiency of the tested motor is about SOYO,and if
Generally, the steady state characteristics of a PM
the air gap length is spread to 12mm, the tested motor keeps
motor driven by the sinusoidal PWM inverter can be
66% efficiency.
calculated with the d-q coordinates model. The voltage
Moreover, it is shown that the steady state characteristics
equation of a PM motor in the d-q coordinates are
of the AFPM motor driven by the 6-step inverter can be
expressed as follows [3],[4].
estimated with the d-q coordinates modeling.

I. INTRODUCTION

There is an application such as the pump application in Va=d-

the water, which demands the sealing separation between
rotating part and the motor. It is generally used that the where,
motor power transmit to the load by magnetic coupling for id, i, : d- and q-axis components of armature current,
this purpose. The radial type permanent magnet (PM) Vd, v, : d- and q-axis components of terminal voltage,
motor with large air gap and the partition to reduce the size $a: =m $ I

of the equipment has been examined [l]. However, this
radial construction becomes somewhat complex.
The equipment construction can be simplified, if an
axial type flat PM motor (AFPM motor) with large air gap
and partition has enough performance. The total
thickness of the equipment can be decreased. Moreover,
reliability of the system is improved by reduction of mud
sticking. This AFPM motor has been used for audio
visual equipment and information actuators, and so on.
However, it is limited to small capacity with small air gap
PI * phase of an induced voltage by the permanent magnet and
In this paper, the characteristics of the AFPM motor
with large air gap to protect and/or separate between the
rotor and the stator for new applications are examined.
: maximum flux linkage due to permanent
magnet per phase,
R : armature resistance,
Ld, L, : d- and q-axis components of armature self-
inductance,
V, : terminal voltage on a steady state,
o : electrical angular velocity.
Fig. 1 shows the basic vector diagram of the PM motor
in the d-q coordinates. The phase angle p between the
phase of an armature current is controlled more than 0' in
the flux-weakening control. As shown in Fig. 1, the
permanent magnet flux $a is demagnetized by the d-axis

0-7803-3823-5/97/$10.000 1997 IEEE 643 PCC-Nagaoka '97

 q -axis
I
Fig. 1. Vector diagram of the PM motor.
armature reaction Ld id. This operation is similar to the
field-weakening control in the dc machines. As the
result, the terminal voltage Va becomes small.
As the armature linkage flux and the armature winding
inductance becomes small in the large air gap PM motor,
terminal voltage can be kept low level in the high speed
condition. This advantage is preferable for high speed
pump application and so on.
Generally, the PM motor is driven by the id =O control,
because the torque is in proportion to the current and free
from the demagnetization of permanent magnet. In the
id=O control, the phase angle 8 always keeps 0’ .
The torque of PM motor is given by the following
equation.
T = Pn{4u + (Ld - Lq) id}iq. (31
where,
T : torque,
P, : number of pole pair.
The magnet torque is expressed by the term of P, $a is,
and the reluctance torque is expressed by the term of P, (Ld
- Lq) id iq in the equation (3). As the tested AFPM
motor does not have the saliency, only the magnet torque
can be obtained. If the motor has the inverse saliency
such as a interior PM motor, the positive reluctance torque
can be also obtained by the negative d-axis current.
B. Voltage and Current Equation of 6-Step Inverter Driven
AFPM Motor
The basic equation is guaranteed strictly under the
condition of the sinusoidal flux distribution and current.
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Fig. 2 . Trapezoidal voltage and its fundamental component.
And it is able to calculated the characteristics of a PM
motor driven with the PWM inverter which has distributed
armature winding. However, voltage and current wave
form of PM motor driven with 6-step inverter becomes
trapezoidal, and includes many harmonic component.
Figure 2 shows trapezoidal voltage wave form and its
fimdamental component.
The characteristics of the AFPM motor driven by the 6-
step inverter can be calculated with the d-q coordinates
model considering the following fundamental component.
(4)
(5)
where,
Vu’, Iu ’ : fundamental component of the armature
voltage and current,
V, : amplitude of the trapezoidal voltage wave form,
iD : rms value of the trapezoidal current.
In this paper, characteristics calculation of the AFPM
motor is used the revised voltage and current equation
shown in Eq.(4) and Eq.(5).
MOTOR CONSTRUCTION
111. TESTED
Figure 3 shows the scheme of the tested motor. The
specifications of the tested motor are shown in Table 1.
It has 3-phases 6-coils concentrated winding stator, 8-poles
Nd-Fe-B permanent magnet rotor.
As the aluminum ring can be used to prevent scattering
of permanent magnet in the axial construction, it is able to
sustain the magnet without damage to the motor
characteristics. The stator is constructed with the ferrite
core which has a good high-frequency characteristics,
 R

- Tachometer
Coil
Fig. 4. Characteristics measurement system.

30 1.0

20
0.5
10
Fig. 3. Scheme of the tested motor. E T
.
d

I SDecification of the tested motor

TABLE
-9 0 0.0
_ _ _ _ _ _ ~ ~ _ _ _ _
~ _ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ >" -10 5
Item Value [Unit] 0.5
Stator winding 3-phase 6coils -20
Stator diameter 96 [mm] -1.0
Turns of coil 50 [turns] 0 5 10 15 20
Tim [m]
Number of rotor poles 8 [poles]
Rotor diameter 80 [mm] (a) No-load condition.
Permanent magnet N d-Fe B - 40 , 5
Air gap length 8 "[I 30 4
Rated voltage . 110 [VI
20
3
Rated speed 9000 [rpm] 2

2 [kg-cm]
E lo 13
Rated torque
3 O!
-1V
>" -100
-2
because the number of pole pair of the tested motor is 4 and -20
3
fundamental frequency becomes twice as high as the -30 ----Current -4
5
normally designed motor [ 5 ] . The tested motor has 8" 0 5 10 15 26
Time [m]
air gap length and 4mm rotor yoke thickness. As a
(b) 1.5kg-cm load condition.
permanent magnet is magnetically equal to the air, the Fig. 5. Wave form of voltage and current.
length of d-axis flux path and the q-axis path becomes
almost equal. As the tested motor is non-salient machine Iv. ANALYSIS AND EXPERIMENT
OF CHARACTERISTICS
d- and q-axis inductance becomes the same value. This
tested motor is driven with the id = 0 control. Figures 6 and 7 show the calculated steady state
Figure 4 shows the scheme of the experimental system. characteristics of the tested motor, compared with the
The motor is driven with the 6-step inverter. The rotor experimental characteristics. Table 2 shows the
position is detected by the hole sensor [6]. analytical parameter. In Figs. 6 and 7, the plotted points
Figure 5 shows experimental results of the phase express the experimental results and broken line shows
voltage and phase current wave form. As the phase calculated results. The calculated results agree well with
difference between voltage and current is almost zero, it the experimental results. The steady state characteristics
can be seen that the tested motor is driven with the id = 0 of the AFPM motor driven by the 6-step inverter can be
control mode. As the current wave form is nearly the calculated with the d-q coordinates model considering the
trapezoidal, the revised equation can be used to estimate fundamental component. Figure 6(a) shows torque
the steady state characteristics. versus speed and current characteristics under the condition
of 25V dc-link voltage.

645
 2500 12
0

2000 10 - ,i*

-!$500I -2 8 -
g = 8["1
L = 2.5[mH]
$a = 0.015 [Wb]
i
i*
/

z
&IO00

500

0 -0
I,,/ Experimental
Calculated 1
, ; 2; , , , , , - : _ , _Calculated
;eyd,
8
0 0.5 1 1.5 2
Torqtle [kg-cm] 0
0 500 1000 1500
(a) Torque versus speed, current characteristics Speed [rpm1
Fig. 7. Induced voltage characteristics.
70 1 I
P
60 :
g=8[-1 Vdc = 98.2 [VI
L = 2.5 [mH]
- - 50 - $ a = 0.015 [mH] ,i
2 : ," 80
540 1 0

-s
O D -
- <
, 70
g30 -- ,"
c
a .
60
I
-
.
,/' 5
.-5

I/
20
, Experimental 50

10 -
d
0-
,d _ _ _ _ Calculated
40 #
0 ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ " " " " " ' " ' ' ' " ' ~ Torque Efficiency
0 2000 4000 6000 8000 10000 Experimental
Speed [rpm1 0.5 --- --- Calculated
10
(b) No load characteristics.
I , , , ,
Fig. 6. Steady state characteristics of the AFPM motor. 0 0
0 5000 10000
Speed [rpml
TABLEI1 Analytical parameter.
Fig. 8. Speed versus torque, efficiency characteristics.

Armature linkage flux 0.015 [Wb]

Winding inductance 2.5 [mH] the normally designed PM motor as shown in Fig. 7.
Therefore, the voltage has the room at very high speed
region. The cost of inverter and controller can be
1500rpm speed is obtained in the 2kg-cm load condition,
decreased for the application which using utility source as
and input current is about 2A,,/phase. Figure 6(b) the flux-weakening control is not need.
shows characteristics in the no load condition.
Figure 8 shows the steady state characteristics under the
Nevertheless this tested motor has many rotor pole,
98.2V dc-link voltage and 3A current limit condition.
terminal voltage is only 65V at 9000rpm speed. Figure 7
Maximum torque is about 3kg-cm and terminal voltage is
shows the induced voltage characteristics. The induced
saturated at 7000rpm speed. And the load torque is
voltage is about 1OV at 1500rpm.
decreased in the region higher than 7000rpm. As a result,
As the linkage flux is small due to the large air gap,
8260rpm speed is obtained at 2kg-cm load and 9000rpm at
induced voltage becomes very small in comparison with

646
 0.07

0.06 1 V. CONCLUSIONS

-0.05 :A \
\ In this paper, the AFPM motor with large air gap was
3 - \
0.04 - q reported. This AFPM motor driven with the 6-step
U

x \
G3 \
inverter under utility source shows good performance.
\
P.O3
.C

A
-
&‘

-\
‘..
And it was shown that the steady state characteristics of the
PM motor driven by the 6-step inverter can be calculated
0.02 \
with the d-q coordinates model with the fundamental
0.01
L
%.
---=,- --q,
component of voltage and current.
This AFPM motor is expected to new applications such
0 I , , , , , , , , , ,

REFERENCES
Fig. 9. Relation between gap length and linkage flux.

[l] Y Nakamura, et, al. : “Brushless DC Motor with Large Airgap”, T.

IEE Japan, Vol. 117-D, No. 4, pp. 519-525 (1997).
[2] H. Takano, et, al. : “Optimum Values for Magnet and Armature
Winding Thickness for Axial-field Permanent Magnet Brushless DC
Motor”, Record of 1990 IEEE-IAS Ann. Meeting, pp. 157-162.
[3] S. Morimoto, et, al. : “Motor Parameters and Operating Limits of PM
Motor”, T. IEE Japan, Vol. llO-D,No. 11, pp. 1171-1176(1990).
[4] S. Morimoto, et, al. : “Variable Speed Drive System of Permanent
Magnet Synchronous Motors with Flux-weakening Control”, T. IEE
Japan, Vol. 112-D, No. 3, pp. 292-298 (1992).
[5] K. Zaizen, et, al. : “A Novel type of Axial PM Motor with Large
Airgap”, Record of JIASC ’95, No. 116.
[6] M. Sanada, et, al. : “An Axial Type PM Motor with Large Air Gap”,
a- Efficiency lo00 Proc. of IEEJ Tech. Meeting on RM, RM-95-146, pp.59-64 (1995).
*- Speed

0 0
0 0.5 1
Torque [kg-cm]
Fig. 10. Steady state characteristicswith 12” air gap length.

lkg-cm load condition. Maximum efficiency of the

tested motor with 8mm air gap is about 80% in spite of
large air gap and small armature linkage flux.
It is important that the relation of motor characteristics
between air gap is clarified for the application demands
partition between the rotor and stator. Figure 9 shows air
gap versus armature linkage flux characteristics calculated
by FEM. As shown in Fig. 9, the linkage flux at 12mm
air gap is about half at 8mm air gap, for example.
Figure 10 shows the steady state characteristics with
12” air gap length. At 2200rpm and 1.2kg-cm load
condition, the tested motor still keeps 66% efficiency

647