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IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON MAGNETICS 1

Influence of Output Voltage Harmonic of Inverter on Loss and

Temperature Field of Permanent Magnet Synchronous Motor
Cunxiang Yang, Yong Zhang , and Hongbo Qiu
School of Electrical and Information Engineering, Zhengzhou University of Light Industry, Zhengzhou 450002, China

In order to better start and control the surface-mounted permanent magnet synchronous motor (SMPMSM), the inverter is widely
used in the SMPMSM. However, a large number of voltage harmonics are generated by the inverter, which can directly affect motor
loss and temperature. In order to analyze its influence, taking a 3 kW, 1500 r/min SMPMSM as an example, a 2-D finite-element
model is established. The correctness of the model is verified by comparing the experimental data with the calculated results.
First, the coupling method of the electromagnetic field and temperature field is used to analyze the electromagnetic field and the
temperature field of the SMPMSM, and the data of loss and temperature rise are obtained. Based on these calculation results,
the influence of voltage harmonic on SMPMSM is analyzed quantitatively. Second, when the voltage harmonics contained different
harmonic orders and amplitudes, the core loss, eddy current loss, and temperature rise are studied. The variations of losses and
temperature rise are obtained. Finally, the change mechanism of eddy current loss is revealed by studying the eddy current density.
The conclusions of this paper can provide reliable theoretical guidance for improving the motor performance.
Index Terms— Eddy current density, harmonic voltage, loss, surface-mounted permanent magnet synchronous motor (SMPMSM),
temperature field.

I. I NTRODUCTION

B ECAUSE of the advantages of high stability, high effi-

ciency, and high power factor, the surface-mounted per-
manent magnet synchronous motor (SMPMSM) has been
widely used in the robot, aerospace, transportation, and
other fields [1], [2]. In order to better start and control the
SMPMSM, it is very necessary to combine the inverter with
the SMPMSM. The output voltage contains massive harmonic
components. The harmonic makes the skin effect more obvi-
ous, which will increase the losses. In addition, these losses
will increase the temperature of the SMPMSM. When the
temperature reaches a certain degree, it will cause some acci-
dents, such as thermal demagnetization of permanent magnets
and shedding of the insulation layer on the winding surface.
Therefore, it is of great theoretical research significance and
engineering practical value to study the influence of inverter
output voltage harmonic on the motor performance.
In recent years, many scholars have carried out some
research on the influence of harmonic on the SMPMSM. In [3],
the influences of the main components of the slot wedge mater-
ial and rotor structure on the eddy current loss and temperature
rise of the rotor were studied. In [4], the temperature field
distribution of a piezoelectric plate-type ultrasonic motor was
analyzed with a different preload and motor size by the finite-
element method. In [5], the calculation method of the motor’s
temperature rise is analyzed based on the temperature field
theory. However, many studies are limited to the analysis of
the temperature fields and loss in theory and the structure of
the motor, and those scholars analyze the loss and temperature
field without considering the higher voltage harmonics.
Manuscript received November 3, 2018; revised January 8, 2019;
accepted February 8, 2019. Corresponding author: Y. Zhang (e-mail:
zhangxiaoyong10056@163.com).
Color versions of one or more of the figures in this paper are available
online at http://ieeexplore.ieee.org.
Digital Object Identifier 10.1109/TMAG.2019.2899468
0018-9464 © 2019 IEEE. Personal use is permitted, but republication/redistribution requires IEEE permission.
See http://www.ieee.org/publications_standards/publications/rights/index.html for more information.
Fig. 1. Finite-element model of the prototype.
In this paper, taking a 3 kW, 1500 r/min SMPMSM as an
example, the 2-D finite-element electromagnetic field model is
established. The coupling method of the electromagnetic field
and temperature field method is used to analyze the loss and
temperature field of the SMPMSM at different conditions, and
the variation laws are obtained. The change mechanism of the
eddy current loss is revealed by studying the distribution of the
eddy current density. Through the above-mentioned analysis,
some useful conclusions are obtained.
II. PARAMETERS AND M ODEL OF SMPMSM
A. Parameters and Model
In this paper, a 3 kW, 1500 r/min SMPMSM is taken as
an example to study the influence of voltage harmonic on the
motor loss and temperature field. Based on the actual structure
and parameters of the prototype, the finite-element model of
the SMPMSM is established, as shown in Fig. 1. The basic
parameters of the SMPMSM are shown in Table I.
In the analysis of the electromagnetic field of the
SMPMSM, the following assumptions are made to simplify
the calculation [6].
1) The influence of temperature on the conductivity and
permeability of the material is negligible.
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2 IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON MAGNETICS
TABLE I
BASIC PARAMETERS OF THE SMPMSM P ROTOTYPE
Fig. 2. Prototype test platform.
2) In addition, the stator core and the rotor yoke and the
permeability and conductivity of the other materials are
constant.
3) The heat exchange between the stator and rotor is only
through the air gap.
4) The influence of temperature on the thermal conductivity
of the SMPMSM is ignored.
B. Experimental Testing and Data Comparison
In order to verify the correctness of the finite-element
model, the prototype is tested. The test system consists of
a Magtrol dynamometer machine, HIOKI PW6001 power
analyzer, DSP data acquisition system, and other forms of
equipment. The experimental platform of the prototype is
shown in Fig. 2.
Through the above-mentioned experimental platform, the
torque, the armature current, and the no-load back electromo-
tive force at different loads of the prototype are obtained. The
experimental data are compared with the calculated results, as
shown in Table II.
It can be seen from Table II that the errors of the model are
less than 5% at different operating conditions. The calculated
results are in good agreement with the experimental data at
different operating conditions. The accuracy of the model is
verified.
III. I NVERTER O UTPUT VOLTAGE H ARMONIC A NALYSIS
When the pulsewidth modulation technology is used to
control the SMPMSM, the inverter output voltage source
TABLE II
C OMPARISON OF THE T EST D ATA AND C ALCULATED R ESULTS
Fig. 3. Harmonic voltage distribution spectrogram.
is not a standard sine wave. The frequency of the output
voltage harmonic mainly distributes in the carrier frequency
and the around of the carrier frequency. The carrier frequency
is 10 kHz. The frequency of modulated signals is 100 Hz.
In order to verify the correctness of the above analysis, a power
analyzer is used to decompose the inverter output voltage, and
the harmonic amplitude of the voltage is obtained as shown
in Fig. 3.
In this prototype, besides the fundamental voltage,
the largest harmonic voltage orders appear at 96th, 98th,
102nd, and 104th. They are 10.3%, 13.1%, 14.8%, and 12.3%
of the fundamental voltage, respectively. The above analysis
is verified.
It can be seen from Fig. 3 that the inverter can output
the zero-sequence voltage harmonic components with large
amplitude. However, the SMPMSM is the star-type connection
in the three-phase, three-wire symmetrical system, and there is
no zero sequence harmonic current conduction circuit, so the
96th and 102nd zero-sequence harmonics have no effect in the
loss and temperature field.
Based on the above analysis, the influences of 98th and
104th voltage harmonics on SMPMSM loss and temperature
field are analyzed mainly.
IV. I NFLUENCE OF VOLTAGE H ARMONICS
ON M OTOR L OSS
The output waveform of inverter contains abundant voltage
harmonic components. Therefore, the magnetic field distribu-
tion of the motor core is seriously uneven, and the core loss of
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YANG et al.: INFLUENCE OF OUTPUT VOLTAGE HARMONIC OF INVERTER ON LOSS AND TEMPERATURE FIELD
TABLE III
S TATOR C ORE L OSS OF SMPMSM
the motor is increased in different degrees. These losses will
not only reduce the efficiency of the motor but also increase the
temperature rise of the motor. In the design of the SMPMSM,
it is necessary to analyze the main causes of the loss and the
change of the motor loss in different working conditions.
A. Calculation of Motor Core Loss Based on the Harmonic
Analysis Method
A reasonable calculation method of iron loss directly deter-
mines the correctness of calculation motor iron loss. The core
loss is expressed as follows [7]:
PFe = Ph + Pc + Pe = K h f B α + K c f 2 B 2 + K e f 1.5 B 1.5
where Ph is the hysteresis loss, Pc is the classical eddy current
loss, Pe is the abnormal eddy current loss, K h , K c , and K e
are the loss factor. f and B are the operating frequency and
the peak flux density in the stator core, respectively.
In this paper, the harmonic analysis method and the finite-
element method are combined to analyze the iron loss of
SMPMSM. The influence of voltage harmonic on the iron loss
is obtained.
B. Influence of Voltage Harmonic on the Stator Core Loss
The stator core loss is one of the main losses of SMPMSM,
and the stator-side core loss is more than 95% of the total
iron loss. The studies can provide support for the efficiency
improvement and heat dissipation optimization of the motor.
Using the finite-element method, the voltage harmonic with
different amplitudes is analyzed, and the variation of the stator
core loss is obtained, as shown in Table III.
From Table III, it can be seen that with the 98th and 104th
voltage harmonic amplitudes increasing, the stator core loss of
the SMPMSM gradually increases, and the maximum change
is within 3.4%. At the same voltage amplitude, compared with
the 98th and 104th harmonic voltages, the stator core loss is
little change. The voltage harmonic amplitude and harmonic
orders have little effect on the core loss of the motor.
C. Influence of Voltage Harmonic on the Eddy Current Loss
The rotor loss is mainly eddy current loss, and the eddy
current loss is mainly concentrated on the permanent magnet
3
Fig. 4. Eddy current loss and growth trend (curve 1 and curve 2 represent
the growth curve of the eddy current loss when the amplitude of the
98th and 104th harmonic voltages increases).
Fig. 5. Eddy current density distribution of the SMPMSM. (a) Eddy current
density distribution under the fundamental voltage. (b) Eddy current density
distribution under the 98th voltage harmonic.
and rotor surface. The eddy current loss is relatively small.
However, due to the poor heat dissipation condition of the
rotor, the rotor temperature rise is too high to cause perma-
nent magnet thermal demagnetization. Therefore, this section
focuses on the influence of voltage harmonics on the eddy
current loss.
The voltage harmonics with different orders and different
amplitudes in armature windings are analyzed, and the varia-
tion of the eddy current loss is shown in Fig. 4.
From Fig. 4, it is known that because there is harmonic
voltage in the armature winding, the eddy current loss is expo-
nential growth. When the amplitudes of the 98th and 104th
voltage harmonics increase to 15% of the fundamental voltage
amplitude, i.e., 30 V, the eddy current loss of SMPMSM
increases to 4.4 and 4.2 W, respectively.
The eddy current loss of the 98th voltage harmonic is greater
than the eddy current loss of 104th voltage harmonic, and the
gap between them is increasing with the increase in voltage
amplitude. It can be seen that the influence of the voltage
harmonic content on the eddy current loss is very serious.
In order to reveal the variation mechanism of eddy current
loss, a 30 V voltage harmonic is taken as an example to
analyze the eddy current density distribution of permanent
magnets when the armature winding contains fundamental
voltage and 98th harmonic voltage. The distribution of the
eddy current density at different working conditions is shown
in Fig. 5. In order to facilitate the analysis and comparison,
the same scale is adopted.
From Fig. 5, it is found that the eddy current density of
the additional 98th voltage harmonic increases by 1.04 times
compared with the eddy current density only with the
fundamental voltage. The distribution area of the eddy current
density is obviously larger. There are two factors that increase
the eddy current loss.
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4 IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON MAGNETICS
Fig. 6. Motor temperature field with different voltage harmonics.
(a) Temperature field of the motor under fundamental voltage. (b) Temperature
field of the motor with additional 50 V voltage harmonics.
It can be concluded that the eddy current density of
SMPMSM is mainly concentrated on the permanent magnet.
With the increase in the amplitude of voltage harmonic,
the maximum eddy current density of the permanent magnet
becomes larger accordingly, and the region of the eddy current
density distribution becomes larger. The variation of the eddy
current density corresponds to the variation of the eddy current
loss, and the change mechanism of the eddy current loss is
revealed.
V. I NFLUENCE OF VOLTAGE H ARMONIC ON
T EMPERATURE F IELD
The temperature rise of SMPMSM is an important
performance index. The temperature rise is not only related
to the motor operating stable and safe but also affects the
operating efficiency and service life of the motor. Therefore,
it is particularly important to study the temperature field
distribution of the motor.
Based on the finite-element method, the coupling method of
the electromagnetic field–temperature field is used to analyze
the temperature rise. The distribution of the motor temperature
field at different operating states is obtained. Taking the
98th voltage harmonic whose amplitude is 50 V as an exam-
ple, the distribution law is mainly studied. The temperature
distribution of the motor is shown in Fig. 6.
As shown in Fig. 6, when there is voltage harmonic in the
armature winding, the temperature of the permanent magnet,
outer winding, inner winding, and shell of SMPMSM is
110.2 °C, 116.5 °C, 114.6 °C, and 106.8 °C, respectively.
However, when the amplitude of the 98th voltage harmonic
increases by 25% of the fundamental voltage amplitude,
the temperature of the permanent magnet, outer winding, inner
winding, and shell of PMSM is 117.9 °C, 122.5 °C, 121.3 °C,
and 112.3 °C, respectively. Based on the above analysis, the
conclusion could be obtained that there is voltage harmonic
in the armature winding, the temperature rise of SMPMSM
is 8 °C, and increases by 7.3%. The temperature shows
a sharply increasing trend with the increase in the voltage
harmonic amplitude. Therefore, when the harmonic reaches
a certain degree, there is a risk of magnetism irreversible
demagnetization.
In order to more clearly compare the relationship between
the eddy current loss and temperature rise. The temperature
rise law of the components at the same amplitude also is
Fig. 7. Temperature rise of motor for each component with different harmonic
voltage amplitudes.
obtained. When the harmonic voltage amplitude of the motor
is different, the temperature rise of each component of the
motor is as shown in Fig. 7.
It can be seen from Fig. 7 that in the same voltage harmonic
amplitude, when the 98th voltage harmonic is contained in the
winding, the temperature of windings, permanent magnets,
and shells are higher. Combined with Fig. 4, it can be seen
that the change trend of the temperature rise of motor for
each component and eddy current loss is basically close.
In addition, because of the voltage harmonic has little effect
on the copper loss and core loss of the SMPMSM. It is
proven that the eddy current loss is the main cause of the
temperature rise of the motor.
VI. C ONCLUSION
In this paper, a 1500 r/min, 3 kW SMPMSM is taken as an
example. The coupling method of the electromagnetic field–
temperature field is used to analyze the electromagnetic field
and the temperature field of the SMPMSM. The influences
of voltage harmonic on the losses and temperature field are
studied and the mechanism of eddy current loss is revealed.
The following conclusions could be obtained.
1) With the increase in the voltage harmonic amplitude,
the eddy current loss is exponential growth. When the
fundamental voltage only is contained, the eddy current
loss is 2.34 W. When the voltage harmonic amplitude
increased by 15%, the eddy current loss of the 98th volt-
age harmonic increases by 90%. This rule still applies
to 104th voltage harmonic.
2) The eddy current loss of 98th voltage harmonic is greater
than the eddy current loss of 104th voltage harmonics.
With the increase in voltage harmonic amplitude, the gap
between them becomes larger. When different voltage
harmonic amplitudes are contained in armature wind-
ings, the maximum change of stator core loss is 3.4%.
The voltage harmonic amplitude has little effect on the
core loss.
3) The temperature of permanent magnet shows a sharply
increasing trend with the increase in the voltage har-
monic amplitude. The eddy current loss is the main
cause of the temperature rise of the motor. When the
fundamental voltage only is contained in the armature
windings, the temperature of the permanent magnet
is 110.2 °C. However, when the voltage harmonic
amplitude increased by 25% of the fundamental voltage
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YANG et al.: INFLUENCE OF OUTPUT VOLTAGE HARMONIC OF INVERTER ON LOSS AND TEMPERATURE FIELD
amplitude, the temperature of the permanent magnet
increased by 8%.
ACKNOWLEDGMENT
This work was supported in part by the National Nat-
ural Science Foundation of China under Grant 51507156, in
part by the University Key Scientific Research Programs of
Henan Province under Grant 17A470005, in part by the Key
R&D and Promotion Projects of Henan Province under Grant
182102310033, in part by the Doctoral Program of Zhengzhou
University of Light Industry under Grant 2014BSJJ042, and
in part by the Foundation for Key Teacher of Zhengzhou
University of Light Industry.
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