UPEC2010
31st Aug - 3rd Sept 2010
Optimal Design of PM Motors for quasi-sinusoidal
air-gap flux density
S. Chaithongsuk1,2 : sisuda.chaithongsuk@ensem.inpl-nancy.fr B. Nahid-Mobarakeh1: babak.nahidmobarakeh@ensem.inpl-nancy.fr
N. Takorabet1 : noureddine.takorabet@ensem.inpl-nancy.fr
1
Nancy University, INPL-GREEN, France
2
Rajamangala University of Technology Suvarnabhumi, Thailand
Abstract -- This paper presents an optimal design method for
the rotor structure of permanent magnet synchronous motor by
using Finite Element Method (FEM) combined with Pulse Width
Modulation (PWM). The PWM technique is applied to the shape
of the surface of the solid iron rotor and the magnets are buried.
Calculation is straightforward and show that the radial air-gap
flux density harmonics are eliminated leading to almost
sinusoidal air-gap flux density. The well known Field Orientated
Control (FOC) strategy is applied to control the machine. It is
reinforced by a proper field weakening strategy for high speed
applications. Simulation results on the entire speed range are
satisfactory. In addition, analysis of the harmonics content of
air-gap flux density, back-EMF and torque waveform is given
and verifies the above claim.
Index Terms – Direct drive, FEM, Field weakening, FOC,
PM Motor, Pulse width modulation (PWM), radial air-gap flux
density, variable speed control.
I. INTRODUCTION
In numerous drive applications, and particularly in
transportation, Permanent Magnet Synchronous Motors
(PMSM) are used due to their advantages such as high power
density, high efficiency, compactness and wide speed
operation range [1-3]. However, there are many investigations
for improving the drive performances and mainly the
reduction of the cogging torque by working on the magnet
shape or on the stator lamination, the winding design,
skewing the stator slots or modifying their opening angle as
described in [4-6]. In [7], the authors reduce the cogging
torque by segmentation of the magnets. Another approach
based on PWM is presented in [8].
In this paper, the authors investigate a new concept of rotor
design in order to reduce harmonics of the air-gap flux
density. The main idea consists in modifying the surface
shape of the rotor by creating a given set of grooves on the
surface. The number and dimension of the grooves are
determined by the used of PWM technique.
The well known Field Orientated Control (FOC) is applied
to the motor drive, while the field weakening operation is
used in the high speed range by applying a negative direct
current as described later in the paper.
F. Meibody-Tabar1 : farid.meibody-tabar@ensem.inpl-nancy.fr
g (θ )
θm
π
π − 2θ m θ elec
Fig. 1. An optimized iron arc shape pole.
II. PRINCIPLE OF THE PWM-DESIGN METHOD
It is known that the shape of air-gap flux density has an
important effect on the harmonic content of the back-EMF.
That is why it is interesting to achieve sinusoidal air-gap flux
density by acting in the rotor and magnet shapes.
The method is based on the principle of optimized pole
shape of salient pole synchronous motors as shown on Fig. 1.
The magnets are buried inside the rotor and the pole is made
up with solid iron. The shape of the iron pole is defined so
that the air-gap flux density produced by the rotor magnets is
sinusoidal. Therefore, the back-EMF waveform is sinusoidal.
Under the hypothesis of high permeability of the iron and
neglecting the slotting effect, the air-gap flux density depends
on the air-gap length and the magnets geometry and
properties. A simplified calculation of the magnetic field in
the air-gap gives the relation between the magnets height,
hm , the air-gap, g , the flux density, Bg and the remanence of
the magnet, Br of the form:
hm
Bg = Br (1)
hm + g
The aim of this study is focused on the shape of radial flux
density which must be of sinusoidal form:
Bg (θ ) ≈ Bm sin ( pθ ) (2)
where p is the pole number and Bm is the desired amplitude
of the flux density. Therefore the air-gap length, g must be
of the form:
α
g (θ ) ≈ −β (3)
sin( pθ )
where α = hm Br / Bm and β = hm
 The iron pole has an angular span (π − 2θ m ) / p so that
θn θ
equation (3) is to be applied for pθ ∈ [θ m , π − θ m ] . The n −1

angular distance (2θ m ) / p between two adjacent poles can be

optimized in order to eliminate and given harmonic of the
flux density. θ3
θ2
θ1
It is possible to manufacture iron poles with a surface shape
which fulfils (3). This solution has been used for high power
synchronous motors. The main idea proposed in this paper Fig. 3. Circular representation of Classical PWM shape iron pole.
consists on the use of circular iron pole with some grooves on
its surface. The grooves dimensions are calculated to x = [θ1 ,θ 2 ,θ 3 ,...θ n ]T in the optimization process described
approximate the given theoretic shape by using the principle
below.
of pulse width modulation widely used in power electronics.
An optimum value of vector x can be found by solving the
This will be achieved by two methods:
problem:
F ( x∞ ) = [ f1 , f 2 ,", f n ] ( x ∞ ) = 0
T
(4)
A. Classical PWM π π
The first method consists in a comparison between the where: f1 (x) = ∫ 0
B (θ ) sin (θ ) dθ −
2
B1 (5)
normalized theoretic functions g N (θ ) = g (θ ) / g max where
π
g max is the maximum value of the function g (θ ) and a f i ( x) = ∫ 0
B(θ ) sin (hiθ ) dθ hi = 3,5,7 ,... (6)
carrier function with an adequate number of triangles over
and
half a period (Fig.2-a).
- B (θ ) is the flux density.
The intersection between the two functions gives the shape - B1 is the required first harmonic of the flux density
of pulses which can be achieved by making groove on the - hi = 3,5,7 ,... is a set of harmonic orders to be eliminated
iron pole as shown on Fig. 2-b. The number of triangles is to
be optimized in order to obtain the best shape of the flux The vector x represents the angles that are projected on the
density waveform. The choice is based on the analysis of the
solid iron surface which are defined between 0 and π . Fig. 4
spectrum of the flux density.
shows the circular and linear representation of the technique.
B. Pre-calculated PWM
The second method uses the principle of pre-calculated Some constraints have to be added to this optimization
PWM method which consists in choosing the angles problem in order to take into account some physical and
θ1 ,θ 2 ,θ 3 ,...θ n so that a set of harmonics is eliminated. Based geometrical aspects. For example, the vector x represents the
angles that define pulses widths. So a constraint is added to
on this principle, the shape of the solid iron can be defined by
the problem which is defined by:
a set of angles which are defined as an input variable
0 < θ1 < θ 2 < ... < θ n −1 < θ n < π (7)
g N (θ )
Some other constraints related to mechanical aspects can be
1 added. For example, the size of the grooves must be higher
0.8
than a fixed value θ lim :
0.6
0.4 θ 2 k +1 − θ 2 k ≥ θ lim (8)
0.2

0
0 50 100 150 In order to eliminate even harmonic of the flux density the
θ (electrical degrees)
grooves are symmetrically defined around the pole axis. So
(a)
only θ1 ,θ 2 ,...θ n / 2 are required and a symmetry is used to find
1 the other angles.

STATOR
0.5 0 θ1 θ 2 θ 3 θ4 g min θ n −1 θ n π

g max θ elec
0 Iron pole
0 50 100 150 magnet
θ (electrical degrees) ROTOR
(b)
Fig. 2. Principle of PWM with function g (θ ) . Fig. 4. An optimum angles project on iron surface.
 III. OPTIMISATION OF THE NUMBER OF GROOVES
1 1

In the case of classical PWM method, the angles

Harmonic magnitude (Tesla)

0.8
0.5

θ1 , θ 2 , θ 3 , ...θ n related to the theoretic air-gap function g (θ )

Flux density (Tesla)

0.6

given in (3), are determined by the intersection of a 0

0.4

normalized function g N (θ ) and the carrier signal. The shape -0.5

0.2

of the pulses is shown on Fig. 2-b. The function g (θ ) is

truncated in the domain [θ m , π − θ m ] in order to avoid the
-1 0
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 0 10 20 30 40
Theta (Radian) Harmonic order

(a) N p = 6
divergence of the function 1 / sin( pθ ) . The general structure
of the obtained rotor is represented in Fig. 3. 0.8 1

0.6

Harmonic magnitude (Tesla)

0.8
The number N p of pulses depends on the number of 0.4

Flux density (Tesla)

0.2 0.6

periods of the carrier function. It has an influence on the 0

0.4
harmonics which are eliminated. Indeed, the pulses
-0.2

-0.4

correspond to the grooves that generate some harmonics on -0.6

0.2

the magnetic permeance of the air-gap and eliminate some -0.8

0 1 2 3 4
Theta (Radian)
5 6 7
0
0 10 20
Harmonic order
30 40

other harmonics. In general, the harmonics ranks which are (b) N p = 19

affected by the grooves are almost twice number of the
grooves. For example, in Fig. 5, we show the cross section
view of the rotors in the cases: N p = 6 and N p = 10 . The
0.8 1

0.6

Harmonic magnitude (Tesla)

0.8
size of the grooves and their positions are different. Fig. 6 we 0.4
Flux density (Tesla)

show the flux density waveforms and the spectral analysis in 0.2 0.6
0
the cases: N p = 6 , N p = 10 and N p = 19 . It can be seen that -0.2 0.4

the harmonics which are eliminated are different from a case -0.4
0.2
-0.6
to another. The set of harmonics to be reduced is of the form -0.8 0

h = 6k ± 1 for 3-phase motors with k integer (5, 7, 11, 13,

0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 0 10 20 30 40
Theta (Radian) Harmonic order

…). (c) N p = 10
Unlike, the case of N p = 6 (Fig. 6-a) leads to reduce high
Fig. 6. Influence of N p on the harmonic content of the flux density.
order harmonics but generates low order harmonics such as 3,
5. Besides, the choice of high values of N p does not affect
has to control its direct (d-) and in quadrature (q-)
low order harmonics. The case of N p = 19 is given on Fig. 6- components. It is known that the evolution of these d-q
b. Finally, a compromise can be found which reduces currents is given by the following model:
simultaneously the harmonics 5, 7 , 11, 13 of the air-gap flux
density. The final choice is N p = 10 is represented in Fig. 6-c. ⎧ d
⎪⎪vd = Rs ⋅ id + Ld dt id − ω ⋅ Lq ⋅ iq + ed
⎨ (9)
⎪v = R ⋅ i + L d i + ω ⋅ L ⋅ i + e
⎪⎩ q s q q
dt
q d d q

in which, the back-EMF d-q components are:

⎧ed = 0
⎨ (10)
⎩eq = ψ f ⋅ ω = K f ⋅ Ω
Np=6 Np=10

Fig. 5. Circular representation of PWM shape iron pole.

IV. CONTROLLING BY FILED WEAKENING MODE
The vector control is frequently used for PMSM because
of its high dynamic performances. The main difficulty lies in
the necessity of controlling the torque, which implies the
control of the stator currents. To do that, the stator current and
voltage vectors are mapped into a new plane called d-q Park
reference frame. Then, to control the stator current vector, one
and vd , vq , id and iq are d-q voltages and currents, ω = pΩ
is the rotor electrical angular speed, Ω is the rotor
mechanical angular speed and p is the number of pole pairs.
The system inputs are vd and vq while its outputs are id and
iq . These currents are controlled according to a proper
control law that gives the stator voltage to be applied by a
voltage source inverter. ψ f , Rs , Ld and Lq are parameters
of the model. The torque expression is the following: B. External parameters calculation
Ones the design of the rotor is achieved, the parameters of
Γm = p ⋅ (ψ f + ( Ld − Lq ) ⋅ id ) ⋅ iq (11) the external model of the PM motor have to be determined in
order to achieve an efficient drive using flux weakening
A. Flux weakening strategy strategy. The phase-to-phase back EMF waveforms are
The current regulators are used to regulate d-q currents to almost sinusoidal with amplitude proportional to the rotor
their references. For non-salient pole PMSM’s, d-current speed. The resistance of the stator phases is determined and
reference (idref ) is fixed to zero for minimizing the losses does not depend on the rotor geometry.
and the motor torque and speed are controlled by q-current
The calculation of the inductances Ld and Lq of the motor
reference (iqref ) . The losses are minimized in salient pole
can be performed by finite element method (FEM). In the
PMSM’s when idref is the following: case of inset PM motor or salient pole motor the inductances
−ψ f + ψ 2f + 8(Ld − Lq ) I max
2 2 in d- and q- axes are different ( Ld ≠ Lq ) and in some cases
idref = (12)
4(Ld − Lq )
there is a cross coupling effect represented by a mutual
inductance M dq . The obtained parameters are:
For high speed applications, it is obvious from (9) that the
maximum achievable speed depends to the maximum
available voltage. Thus, an efficient flux-weakening strategy ⎧ Ld = 50.8 mH
is needed to satisfy: ⎪
⎪ Lq = 110.3 mH
vd2 + vq2 ≤ Vmax
2
= cte (13) ⎨ (17)
⎪M dq = 0.15 mH
From (9) and (13), the following expression may be obtained ⎪ψ = 0.96 Wb
for the flux-weakening: ⎩ f
−ψ f L2q (ω02iq2max − ω 2iq2 ) + 2ψ f Rs (ω0 iq max − ωiq ) +ψ 2f ω02
idref = + The obtained values of the parameters are close to those given
Ld Ld ω by the optimal flux weakening strategy.
(14)
Although the d-current increases the losses of the motor, it
may be useful for increasing the motor torque. Therefore, it V. PERFORMANCES OF THE MOTOR
can define an optimization problem as follows: Table I and (17) give the parameters of the motor. Fig. 8
⎧ Maximize Γm shows the back-EMF waveform and its spectral analysis of
⎪⎪ classical PWM and pre-calculated PWM methods. The block
2 2 2
⎨S .T . vd + vq = Vmax = cte (15) diagram of the simulated system is given in Fig. 9.
⎪ 2 2
⎪⎩ id + iq = cte
300 300

The optimization parameters are ψ f , Ld and Lq . 250

Harmonics amplitude (Volts)

200
No-Load EMF (Volts)

Resolving this problem for a salient-pole PMSM, a better 100 200

motor torque can be obtained with the former if the reluctant 0 150

torque (and so Ld − Lq ) is sufficiently high. For our -100 100

application, we got the following parameters: -200 50

⎧ Ld = 52 mH -300
0 50 100 150 200
0
0 5 10 15 20 25

⎪⎪ Position (Elec. degrees)

Back-EMF waveform Spectral analysis of back-EMF

Harmonics order

⎨ Lq = 105.5 mH (16)
(a) Classical PWM
⎪
⎪⎩ψ f = 1.0 Wb
300 300
Fig. 7 is shown the torque-speed characteristic of the motor. 200 250
Harmonics amplitude (Volts)
No-Load EMF (Volts)

14
100 200

12 0 150
Torque [N.m]

10 -100 100

-200 50
8
-300 0
0 50 100 150 200 0 5 10 15 20 25
6 Position (Elec. degrees) Harmonics order

Back-EMF waveform Spectral analysis of back-EMF

4
0 50 100 150 200 250
(b) Pre-calculated PWM
Speed [rad/s]

Fig. 8. PWM-inset motor.

Fig. 7. Torque-speed characteristic.
 U Sq _ lin
U Sd U Sα

U Sq U Sβ
U Sd _ lin

I Sq I Sα I Sa
U Sd U Sq
I Sb
I Sd I Sβ I Sc

Fig. 9. Block-diagram of the simulated system.

TABLE I 350 200

Common parameters of the motor 300

150
Designation Unit value sqrt (vd+vq) [V] 250

Speed [rad/s]
200 100
Speed RPM 1500
2
2

150
Frequency Hz 50 50
100
Number of pole - 4 0
50
Stack length mm. 51.4
0 -50
Internal diameter mm. 40 0 0.5 1
Time [s]
1.5 2 0 0.5 1
Time [s]
1.5 2

External diameter mm. 146 Fig. 10. Salient-pole motor in normal mode.
The height of the magnet (a) mm. 6 14 250

Number of slot - 36 12 200

Number of slot/pole/phase (q) - 3/pole/ph 10
150
Torque [N.m]

Speed [rad/s]
Magnet Type NdFeB 8
Iron Core Type XC10 6
100

50
4

It is evident that the back-EMF waveform and spectral 2 0

analysis of the classical PWM method is better than the 0 -50

0 0.5 1 1.5 2 0 0.5 1 1.5 2
method of the pre-calculated PWM. Indeed, in the pre- Time [s] Time [s]

calculated PWM method, only a set of harmonics (5, 7 and Fig. 11. In the Flux Weakening mode as response to Ω ref = 250 rad / s.
11) is chosen to be eliminated while in the classical method 8 7
we try to reduce all the harmonics. Therefore, an optimal 6
id
iq 6

structure of this PM motor is the classical PWM. 4 5

dq-Currents [A]

Two tests are carried out in order to show the flux-

sqrt (id+iq) [A]

2 4
2

weakening strategy efficiency which is defined by (14). In the

2

0 3

first one, the motor is controlled at high speeds without the -2 2

flux weakening (see Fig. 10). In the second test, idref varies -4 1

according to the equation (14), as shown in Fig. 12. As it can -6

0 0.5 1 1.5 2
0
0 0.5 1 1.5 2
be seen in these figures, strategy of the flux weakening is well Time [s] Time [s]
Fig. 12. Stator currents with flux weakening.
efficient.
Fig. 11 presents the motor torque and speed obtained by 400
simulation in MATLAB-Simulink for the flux-weakening 350

strategy. The speed reference is set to 250 rad/s. The d- and q- 300

components of the stator current are shown also on Fig. 12. It

sqrt (vd+vq) [V]

250
2

is shown in these figures that with the flux-weakening 200

2

strategy, the motor is controlled to turn at a higher speed than

150

100
its nominal speed. Fig. 13 shows the motor voltage for this 50

test. Obviously, the maximum available voltage is respected 0

0 0.5 1 1.5 2
without violating the maximum authorized current. Time [s]

Fig. 13. Stator voltage with flux weakening.

 VI. CONCLUSION
In this paper, a PWM method is used to design the rotor of
a PM motor which can reduce the harmonics of the flux
density in the air-gap and can lead to an optimal structure for
the rotor. This PM motor can operate in direct drive
applications with the field weakening control strategy. For
this purpose, an optimal expression of idref is given for the
motor. Therefore, the motor turns in a higher speed than its
rated speed.
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[5] T. Ishikawa, G.R. Slemon, “Reduction of cogging torque in permanent
magnet motors”, IEEE Trans. Magn. Vol. 24, No. 2, pp. 2028-2031,
1988
[6] N. Bianchi, S. Bologniani, "Design techniques for reducing cogging
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[7] R. Lateb, and al, “Design technique for reducing the cogging torque in
large surface mounted magnet motors”, Recent developments of
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[8] S. Chaithongsuk, N. Takorabet and F. Meibody-Tabar, “On the Use of
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Harmonics in the air-gap of Surface PM Motors”, IEEE Trans. Magn.
Vol. 45, NO. 3 pp. 1736-1739, March 2009.