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Brushless Interior Permanent Magnet Motors
Brushless Interior Permanent Magnet Motors
Permanent magnet (PM) brushless (BL) motors have emerged in recent years as a very strong
contender to replace induction motors used in electronically controlled variable speed applications. In
most cases, BLPM motors can provide superior performance in terms of increased efficiency and reduced
noise, while the total cost differential for motor plus electronics is subject to relatively fast payback,
especially considering the increasing cost of energy.
At the core of a BLPM motor are the PMs, which are placed in the rotor and provide the magnetizing
flux. One immediate advantage is that in a typical design, there are virtually no rotor losses.
Different magnet grades can be employed for rotor manufacturing, with ceramic-ferrites and rare-earth,
especially neodymium-iron-boron (NdFeB), being the common choices. In particular, the sintered NdFeB is
a strong material with energy density higher by one order of magnitude than that of the lower cost ferrites.
Although NdFeB is a more expensive material, it enables overall motor size reduction and/or energy
increase and, through careful design, can lead to an attractive motor solution.
Fig. 3 Stator and cut-away rotor for a 2-pole line-fed IPM motor,
which operates at synchronous speed without electronic controls.
The rotor includes a squirrel cage and PMs.
In principle, both SPM and IPM rotor types can be mated with
the same stator design. However, the design should be carefully completed in order to ensure that, among other characteristics, a sinusoidal back emf is achieved so that the electromagnetic torque ripple is reduced. In this respect, a low
harmonic content of the air-gap magnetic field is preferable
and is also beneficial for reducing core losses.
A distributed stator winding e.g. concentric or lap, typical for
induction machines can also be used with a lamination
having more than one slot per pole and phase (e.g. Figs. 1 and 3).
For fractional slot designs, a concentrated winding with coils
wound around a tooth can be employed. This second choice
may result, depending on the actual application requirements, in reduced copper losses that could boost efficiency,
Applications
Some of the most popular IPM applications, possibly not
familiar enough to the wide general audience, are the electric
motors/generators of hybrid or all-electric vehicles. In the
servo motor world more and more designs are shifting away
from SPM to IPM to take advantage of the inherent advantages
previously discussed. In principle, there are no size limitations to
IPM designs and these can be developed from small fractional
horsepower (hp) to large hundreds of hp ratings.
Fig.5 AOS ECM (Electronically Commutated Motor) - motor and electronics platform.