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Published in IET Electric Power Applications
Received on 5th February 2014
Revised on 16th April 2014
Accepted on 6th May 2014
doi: 10.1049/iet-epa.2014.0022

ISSN 1751-8660

Design optimisation of an axial flux-switching hybrid

excitation synchronous machine at no-load
Xiping Liu, Yanmei Diao, Chao Zhang, Dong Chen, Liangping Zuo, Liang Yi
School of Electrical Engineering and Automation, Jiangxi University of Science and Technology, Ganzhou,
People’s Republic of China
E-mail: LIUXP211@163.com

Abstract: This paper presents an optimization analysis of an axial flux-switching hybrid excitation synchronous machine
(AFHESM) to improve its no-load electromagnetic performances. The shapes of permanent magnet (PM), rotor-teeth and
stator slot of AFHESM are investigated for a better design scheme by finite element analysis (FEA). Some optimal results
under no-load are achieved, which mainly including the induced electromotive force (EMF), cogging torque and field control
ability. Both FEA and experimental results show that the induced EMF can be improved when PM shape coefficient is 0.95
and the rotor-teeth bevel angle is 6°.

1 Introduction
Recently, axial flux permanent magnet (PM) machines are
very often studied for vehicle propulsion [1, 2] and
direct-drive wind power system [3–7] because of
high-power density and excellent efficiency.
An axial flux-switching hybrid excitation synchronous
machine (AFHESM) is a new type of axial flux PM
machine with field control ability. It integrates the
advantages of hybrid excitation synchronous machine
(HESM), axial flux PM electrical machine and
flux-switching PM electrical machine [8, 9]. Among
AFHESMs, many topologies exist [10], such as single
stator-single rotor, single stator-double rotor and double
stator-single rotor.
In this paper, a three-phase 12/10 pole AFHESM with
single stator-double rotor is introduced and some structural
parameters of AFHESM are investigated for obtaining a
better design scheme.
2 Structure and operation principle of
AFHESM
2.1 Structure of machine
Fig. 1a shows the structure of a three-phase, 12/10 pole
AFHESM, which consists of single stator and double rotors.
The stator mainly includes ‘H’ type stator core, PMs, field
windings, armature windings etc. The stator core is
subdivided into an internal and external part by a
non-magnetiser. In external part, the field windings are
axially winded on the surface of field brackets. For internal
part, some alternately magnetised PMs are embedded
between the adjacent stator cores. The stator is
symmetrically located in the middle of two rotors axially.
The rotor teeth are radially arranged on the surface of rotor
yoke. Figs. 1b and c give the explosion of AFHESM and
expansion of stator, respectively.
2.2 Operation principle of AFHESM
In AFHESM, the magnetic field is mainly generated by
magnetic motive force (MMF) of PM excitation when DC
current is not applied in field windings. According to the
principle of least reluctance for magnetic circuit, most of
magnetic flux passes through N pole of PM, ‘H’ type
stator core, air-gap, rotor tooth, rotor yoke, adjacent rotor
tooth, air-gap, adjacent ‘H’ type stator core and S pole of
PM. The magnetic circuit of AFHESM varies for one
period when it rotates from one ‘H’ type unit stator core
to the neighbouring one. At the same time, the flux
linkage of armature winding will also vary for one
period, that is, it goes into and pierces out of armature
winding, as shown in Figs. 2a and b. The magnetic
field in the air-gap of AFHESM is axial, and its
magnetic circuit is different from that of a radial flux
PM electrical machine. As same as the traditional radial
flux HESMs [11–13], the MMF of electrical excitation
and MMF of PM excitation can also work at the
same time to achieve different field control abilities in
AFHESM.
Figs. 3a and b describe the principle of field enhancement
and weakening in AFHESM at the same rotor position. In
Figs. 2 and 3, the magnetic flux produced by PMs and field
current is represented by the black solid lines and magenta
dashed lines. The direction of field current is not same
under field enhancement and field weakening, so the
magnetic flux because of field current should be reversed
correspondingly.

342 IET Electr. Power Appl., 2014, Vol. 8, Iss. 9, pp. 342–348
& The Institution of Engineering and Technology 2014 doi: 10.1049/iet-epa.2014.0022
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Fig. 1 AFHESM
a Structure of AFHESM
b Explosion of AFHESM
c Expansion of stator

Additionally, the rotor diameter is the same as that of its

stator. In this machine, NiFeB with type of N50 is adopted
for PMs, and the stator core consists of DW470-50 without
lamination direction. The non-magnetiser is made up of
alumimum. Table 1 gives the main parameters of AFHESM
in an initial design scheme.

3.1 Optimisation of PM

Fig. 4a shows the cross-section shape of PM, in which the

inner and outer radii of PM are represented by r1 and r2,
Fig. 2 Flux-switching principle of AFHESM respectively and l1 and l2 represent the inner and outer arc
a Flux going into windings lengths of PM.
b Flux piercing out of windings For describing the shape of PM clearly, a shape coefficient
of k is defined as the ratio of l1 to l2

l1
k= (1)
l2

In the initial design scheme of AFHESM, the shape

Fig. 3 Flux regulation principle of AFHESM
a Field enhancement
b Field weakening
3 Optimisation of AFHESM
In an initial design scheme of AFHESM [10], the shapes of
PMs, stator-slot and stator-teeth are all trapezoidal, and each
part accounts for a quarter of one stator unit, that is, 7.5°.
The shape of rotor-teeth is also trapezoidal, and its inner arc
of rotor-teeth (called rotor-teeth width) is 10.5°.
coefficient of PM is 0.73. When k is less than 0.73, the top
part of PM will become wider and the bottom part of PM
will be narrower correspondingly. Thus, the MMF of PM
excitation is uniform and the utilisation of PMs will become
lower. In the following, the influences on performances of
AFHESM are studied when k is larger than 0.73.
Keeping the volume of PMs fixed, the cross-section area of
PMs will maintain constant because of the same axial length
of PMs. Therefore the relationship between four parameters
(l1, l2, r1 and r2) and S (cross-sectional area of PM) can be
given by


l1 l 2S + l1 r1 − l2 r2
sin − 2 = (2)
2r1 2r2 2r1 r2
Keeping r1 and l1 constant and calculating l2 to obtain the
shape of PM. Figs. 4b and c show two typical shapes of
PM when k is 0.73 and 0.95, separately.

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Table 1 Initial parameters of AFHESM
Items Values Items Value

rated speed, rpm 400 phase number 3

stator pole number 12 rated current, A 1.5
inner radius of stator, mm 40 rotor pole number 10
stator-slot height, mm 15 outer radius of stator, mm 76.5
axial length of stator core, mm 40 inner radius of rotor, mm 40
stator-slot width, ° 7.5 field brackets height, mm 4.5
stator-teeth width, ° 7.5 PM width, ° 7.5
PM height, mm 15 rotor-teeth width, ° 10.5
armature coil turns 65 PM remanence density, T 1.15
diameter of arma ture coil, mm 0.6 field coil turns 100
armature winding N of parallel paths 1 diameter of field coil, mm 0.45
armature winding factor 1 air-gap length among rotor pole and stator core, mm 1
axial length of non-magnetiser, mm 30 width of non-magnetiser, ° 22.5
PM shape coefficient 0.73 rotor-teeth bevel angle β, ° 0

Fig. 4 PM shape
a Cross-section
b k is 0.73
c k is 0.95

Fig. 5 Optimisation result

a EMF waveforms
b Cogging torque

Fig. 6 Rotor-teeth shape

a Cross-section shape
b β = 0°
c β = 6°

344 IET Electr. Power Appl., 2014, Vol. 8, Iss. 9, pp. 342–348
& The Institution of Engineering and Technology 2014 doi: 10.1049/iet-epa.2014.0022
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Fig. 7 Optimisation results

a EMF waveforms
b Cogging torque

Fig. 5a shows that electromotive force (EMF) (k adopts
0.95) is 4 V larger than that of k adopting 0.73 and a
smaller cogging torque is obtained when k is 0.95 by finite
element (FE) analysis, as shown in Fig. 5b. In this machine,
the rated full-load torque is 2.36 N m, so the reduction of
cogging torque is also important.
3.2 Optimisation of rotor
From the above optimisation analysis for PMs in AFHESM, it
can be known that the upper of stator-teeth will become wider
than that in initial scheme, and the upper of rotor teeth should
also become wider accordingly for the least magnetic resistance.
The rotor-teeth shape varies with β, as shown in Fig. 6a. It
can be seen that the magnetic resistance will reduce and the
induced EMF will increase with β increased. Figs. 6b and c
show the structure model of rotor when β is 0 and 6°,
respectively.
Fig. 7 gives the induced EMF and cogging torque
waveforms. Fig. 7a shows that EMF becomes lowest when
β is 0°. With β varied from 0 to 8°, the EMF will also
increase because of an increasing overlapping area between
rotor-teeth and stator-teeth. Fig. 7b shows that cogging
torque will become large slightly with β increased, and a
smaller value will be obtained when β adopts 6°.
Considering EMF and cogging torque, an optimal value of
β (6°) is selected for applying in AFHESM.
3.3 Optimisation of stator-slot

Fig. 8 shows two structure models of unit stator core when the
shape of stator-slot is trapezoidal and rectangular,
respectively.
It can be found that the EMF adopting rectangular slot is
larger than that of adopting trapezoidal slot. Meanwhile,
and a smaller cogging torque is obtained as shown in
Fig. 9. It is because the cross area adopting rectangular slot
is smaller than that of adopting trapezoidal slot; in other
words, the stator-teeth adopting rectangular slot covers a
larger area so that the magnetic circuit reluctance is smaller
than that of adopting trapezoidal slot.
With the rectangular slot width varied from 7.5 to 10°, the
Fig. 8 Slot structure EMF will become small, but the cogging torque decreases at
a Trapezoidal slot first then becomes large, and a minimum value is obtained at
b Rectangular slot about 8.5°. Therefore considering between EMF and cogging

Fig. 9 Optimisation results

a EMF waveforms
b Cogging torque

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Fig. 10 Optimisation results

a EMF waveforms
b Cogging torque

torque, an optimal stator-slot width will be about 8.5°. Fig. 10 comparison with the initialised AFHESM, the coil number
shows the calculated results by FE analysis. is same. Some parameters of AFHESM are given in
Table 2, which mainly consider PM shape coefficient and
rotor angle.
4 Optimisation results From Fig. 11, it is found that the optimised EMF increased
by 8 V than that of initialisation, and the cogging torque can
The effect of stator-slot optimisation is not obvious if the slot
also be reduced. Overall, the electromagnetic performance of
shape is only changed. For obtaining more reasonable
AFHESM has been improved effectively.
Table 2 Optimised parameters of AFHESM
Items Values
5 Prototype testing
stator/rotor outside radius/mm 158
stator-slot width, ° 8.5
stator-teeth width, ° 7
According to the optimised scheme of AFHESM, a prototype
PM shape coefficient 0.95 motor is manufactured shown in Fig. 12 according to some
rotor-teeth bevel angle β, ° 6 partial structure parameters are shown in Table 2.

Fig. 11 Optimisation results

a Coil flux
b EMF waveforms
c Cogging torque

346 IET Electr. Power Appl., 2014, Vol. 8, Iss. 9, pp. 342–348
& The Institution of Engineering and Technology 2014 doi: 10.1049/iet-epa.2014.0022
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Fig. 12 Manufactured AFHESM

a Initialised stator
b Optimised stator
c Initialised rotor
d Optimised rotor

5.1 EMF at no-load
Fig. 13 shows the three-phase EMF at no-load without field
current at the speed of 400 rpm. It can be noted that the
three-phase symmetrical EMF waveforms are obtained. The
amplitude of initialised EMF and optimised EMF in
AFHESM is about 16 and 22 V shown in Figs. 13a and c,
separately. The testing results were shown in Figs. 13b and
d are in good agreement with that obtained from FE analysis.
5.2 EMF at different field currents
The phase EMF will be varied with different field currents, as
shown in Fig. 14. It can be seen that a good field control
ability has been achieved, and the FE analysis results given
in Figs. 14a and c show a satisfactory agreement with
experimental results given in Figs. 14b and d, separately.
6 Conclusion
This paper presents an AFHESM with optimal structure
parameters to improve its electromagnetic performance. The
influences of PM, rotor-teeth and stator-slot shape on
induced EMF, cogging torque and field control ability are
investigated for a better design scheme of AFHESM. It is
found that the induced EMF can be improved when PM
shape coefficient is 0.95, the rotor-teeth bevel angle is 6°
and the rectangular stator-slot is adopted. A good field
control ability of AFHESM is also obtained, which has
been validated by the prototype motor.

Fig. 13 EMF at no-load

a Initialised FEA
b Initialised experiment
c Optimised FEA
d Optimised experiment

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doi: 10.1049/iet-epa.2014.0022 & The Institution of Engineering and Technology 2014
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Fig. 14 EMF at different field currents
a Initialised FEA
b Initialised experiment
c Optimised FEA
d Optimised experiment
7 Acknowledgments
This work was supported in part by the National Natural
Science Foundation of People’s Republic of China
(numbers 51007033 and 51267006) and the Plan Project of
Jiangxi Province of People’s Republic of China (numbers
GJJ12332 and 20122BAB206031).
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IET Electr. Power Appl., 2014, Vol. 8, Iss. 9, pp. 342–348
doi: 10.1049/iet-epa.2014.0022