2044 IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON MAGNETICS, VOL. 31, NO.

3, MAY 1995

Analysis of Cogging Torque of Permanent Magnet Motor

by 3-D Finite Element Method
Yoshihiro KAWASE, Tadashi YAMAGUCHI and Yoji HAYASHI
Department of Electronics and Computer Engineering, Gifu University, Gifu, 501-1 1, Japan

-
A b s t r a c t A new method to obtain the torque of a 11. METHODOF NUMERICAL
ANALYSIS
permanent magnet motor by the 3-D finite e l e m e n t
method t a k i n g Into account the rotation of t h e Fig.1 shows the flowchart for an automatic analysis of
armature has been d e v e l o p e d . The method has a n motors. The details of the analysis method are described as
advantage that the 3 - D f i n i t e e l e m e n t mesh i s follows.
changed a u t o m a t i c a l l y according to the rotation o f
the armature. The r e s u l t s calculated by our 3 - D
analysis are compared with the results by the 2 - D
analysis. T h e v a l i d i t y of the n e w method i s
confirmed by e x p e r i m e n t s .

I. INTRODUCTION
Mesh Rotation I
Torque Analysis
Permanent magnet motors are widely used for machine of Armature I
tools and robotics. It is necessary for the optimum design to
analyze the torque of motors accurately. Until recently, it has step 2 N*
been obtained by the 2-D analysis or experiments [l].
Recently, the 3-D analysis method has been used for N* : step of STOP
command reference
designing electromagnets having 3-D shape instead of the
Fig.1. Flowchart for automatic analysis of motors.
conventional 2-D analysis method. Attractive forces of
electromagnets have been analyzed accurately by the 3-D
finite element analysis with edge elemcnts [2]. The 3-D A . 3-0 Finite Element Analysis with Edge Elements
magnetic field analysis of motors should be taken into
account the rotation of the armature. Therefore, it is difficult The fundamental equation of the magnetic field using the
to analyze the torque at each rorary angle automatically [3]. 3-D finite element method with edge elements can be written
The earlier model was limited to the 2-D magnctic field using only magnetic vector potential A as follows [2],[6].
[ 1I 1[43. rot(vrofA)= JO + rotvoM (1)
In this paper, a new method to obtain the torque of
permanent magnet motors by the 3-D finite element method where v is the reluctivity, Jo is the current density, and M is
with edge elements taking into account the rotation of the the magnetization.
armature is described. The torque is calculated by the
Maxwell stress tensor. The 3-D finite element mesh is B. Torque Analysis using Maxwell Stress Tensor
changed automatically according to the rotary angle of the
armature. The new method is applied to cogging torque The torque T,,, of the armature is obtained by using the
calculations of a permanent magnet motor [ 1],[5]. And then, Maxwell stress tensor [7],[8]. The fundamental equation is
the usefulness of our method is clarified by comparing the 2- given as follows.
D and 3-D calculated results. That is, the distributions of the
leakage flux density at the rotor end, which can not be
considered by the 2-D method, is quantitatively investigated
by the 3-D method. The validity of the 3-D method is whereT is the Maxwell srress tensor, n is the unit outward
confirmed by the comparison bctwecn the calculated and the normal vector on the integral surface S, 2 is the unit vector
measured cogging torques [5]. of a rotary direction, r is the directional vector towards the
integral surface S, and R is the directional vector of the rotary
center as shown in Fig.2.
The stress tensor in the air is given by the following
Manuscript received July 5, 1994. equation.

0018-9464/95$04.00 0 1995 IEEE

 air
PP

annature
integral surface S center .
Fig.2. Calculation of torque.
(a) initialmesh (e = 0) (b) 0 9 0 < ( 4 wse<4

Fig.4. Nodes connection.

(3)
111. CALCULATED MODELAND RESULTS
where & is the permeability of air, 4 is the Kronecker delta,
andB is the flux density. Fig.5 shows the analyzed model of a permanent magnet
motor [1],[5]. Becauseof the symmeuic of the model, the
C . Automatic Mesh Rotation of Armature periodic boundary condition can be applied to reduce the
analyzed region.
The mesh should be changed according to the rotary angle Fig.6 shows the 2-Dfinite element mesh. Fig.7 shows
of the armature. Our newly developed method is as follows. the 3-D finite element meshes near the air gap. The 3-D
First of all, the initial mesh as shown in Fig.3 (a) is region is divided by the tetrahedral edge elements. Table I
prepared. The mesh is divided into 2 areas as shown in Fig.3 shows the discretization data and CPU time.
(b). One is a rotary area and the other is a stationary area.
The new coordinates of each node in the rotary area can be stator
calculated by the rotary angle of the armature as shown in core
Fig.3 (c). The nodes between the rotary area and the
stationary area are connected automatically at each rotary
angle as shown in Fig.3 (a). stator
core
Fig.4 shows the method for the connection of nodes. The
initial mesh in the air gap should be divided regularly as
shown in Fig.4 (a). When the rotary angle 8 is small, the
connection of each node is not changed and only the
core magnet
coordinate values of nodes in the rotary am ipe changed as
shown in Fig.4 (b). When the rotary angle 8 is large, the (a) plan view (b) front view
connection of nodes as well as the coordinate values of nodes Fig.5. Analyzed model.
is changed as shown in FigA (c).
The torque can be analyzed by applying (1) to (3) at each
rotary angle of the armature.

(a) initial mesh (b) separating mesh

(c) rotating armature core (d) mcsh aftcr connection ' permanent magnet
Fig.3. Automatic rotatim of mcsh. Fig.6.2-D fmite element mesh (initial mesh, 1/4 of whole region).
2046

(a) angle = 5 (b) angle = 15

Fig.8. Flux distributions by 2-D analysis.

(a) initial mesh

r----..

Fig.9. Definition of symbols.

(b) mesh after rotation

Fig.7.3-D finite element meshes (1/8 of whole region).

TABLEIDISCRETJZATION A CPU TIME

D ~ AND

analyzed method 2-D 3-D

number of unknowns 3,049* 333.271'

total CI'U rime (hours) 1 0.09

~
I ~~
55.1
computer used: Sun Microsystems SPARC station 10 model 30

Fig.8 shows examples of the flux distribution by the 2-D

analysis. The angle is defined as shown in Fig.9 [I]. Fig.10
and Fig.11 show examples of the distribution of the flux
density vectors by the 3-D analysis. The definition of angle
and o-a section is shown in Fig.9. The leakage flux can be
seen in Fig.10 (b) and Fig.1 1 (b) which can not be considered
by the 2-D analysis. . . .
Fig.12 shows the radial components Br and rotary . .
components B, of the flux density B in the air gap along the (b) o-a section
z-direction. The definition of B, and B, are shown in Fig.9.
Fig.10. Distributions of flux density vectors
The 3-D calculatcd radial component Br at the center (z-0)is by 3-D analysis (angle = 5).
almost same with the 2-D calculatedresult. But, the flux
density in the air gap becomes smaller according to the z-
direction because of the leakage flux. Fig.13 shows the IV. CONCLUSIONS
cogging torques by the 2-D and 3-D analysis. The measured
result [SI is also shown in the same figure. The 3-D The practical 3-D analysis method to calculate the
calculated results are much better than the 2-D calculated magnetic field and the torque of motors is developed. The
results compared with the measured result. The effect of non- magnetic field and the torque are analyzed automatically at
linearity of the cores is negligibly small in this model. each rotary angle. The effects of the 3-D shape on the
 2047

100 1 -measured

. 50

5
d
M
- 0
3
e
-50
---L
X

(a) x-y plane (z=O)

-100

Fig.13. Cogging torque.

leakage flux are also clarified. The validity of our 3-D

method is investigated by comparing with the measured
cogging torque.
The 2-Danalysis method of the dynamic behavior of the
vector controlled motors has been already developed by the
author [9]. Therefore,'our method can be easily expanded to a
3-D dynamic motion analysis of motors.

REFERENCES
(b) o-a section
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(b) romry components B,

Fig.12. Distributions of flux density B in air gap.