Roles of coercivity and remanent flux

density of permanent magnet in interior

permanent magnet synchronous motor
(IPMSM) performance for electric vehicle
applications
Cite as: AIP Advances 8, 056811 (2018); https://doi.org/10.1063/1.5007789
Submitted: 02 October 2017 . Accepted: 16 November 2017 . Published Online: 02 January 2018

Hoyun Won, Yang-Ki Hong, Woncheol Lee, and Minyeong Choi

COLLECTIONS

Paper published as part of the special topic on 62nd Annual Conference on Magnetism and Magnetic Materials,
Chemical Physics, Energy, Fluids and Plasmas, Materials Science and Mathematical Physics

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AIP Advances 8, 056811 (2018); https://doi.org/10.1063/1.5007789 8, 056811

© 2017 Author(s).
 AIP ADVANCES 8, 056811 (2018)

Roles of coercivity and remanent flux density of permanent

magnet in interior permanent magnet synchronous motor
(IPMSM) performance for electric vehicle applications
Hoyun Won, Yang-Ki Hong,a Woncheol Lee, and Minyeong Choi
Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering and MINT Center,
The University of Alabama, Tuscaloosa, Alabama 35487, USA
(Presented 10 November 2017; received 2 October 2017; accepted 16 November 2017;
published online 2 January 2018)

We used four rotor topologies of an interior permanent magnet synchronous motor

(IPMSM) to investigate the effects of remanent flux density (Br ) and coercivity
(Hc ) of permanent magnet on motor performance. Commercial strontium hexafer-
rite (SrFe12 O19 : energy product, (BH)max, of 4.62 MGOe) and Nd-Fe-B ((BH)max of
38.2 MGOe) magnets were used for the rotor designs. The same machine specifica-
tions and magnet volume keep constant, while the H c and Br vary to calculate torque
and energy efficiency with the finite-element analysis. A combination of high H c and
low Br more effectively increased maximum torque of IPMSM when the hexaferrite
magnet was used. For Nd-Fe-B magnet, the same combination did not affect maxi-
mum torque, but increased energy efficiency at high speed. Therefore, the H c value
of a permanent magnet is more effective than the Br in producing high maximum
torque for SrM-magnet based IPMSM and high energy efficiency at high speed for
Nd-Fe-B magnet based IPMSM. © 2017 Author(s). All article content, except where
otherwise noted, is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license
(http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). https://doi.org/10.1063/1.5007789

I. INTRODUCTION
Due to high torque density and high efficiency, the interior permanent magnet synchronous motor
(IPMSM) is widely adopted in electric vehicle (EV) application.1–3 The performance of IPMSM is
strongly affected by magnetic properties of the permanent magnet (PM), such as remanent flux density
(Br ) and coercivity (H c ). Therefore, selection of PM is an important factor in motor design. Generally,
a product of Br and H c , called (BH)max , is utilized as a figure of merit to assess the performance of
PM.4 However, for motor application, (BH)max alone is not sufficient to assess the PM.
Recently, the influences of 3 to 4 different rare-earth PMs on motor performance of 1-layer
V-shaped IPMSM were examined.5,6 However, not only do the magnetic properties of PMs have
different (BH)max , but also only one rotor topology was used to evaluate the effect of PMs on IPMSM
performance. This leads to inaccurate comparison and conclusion in motor performance. Accordingly,
there is no report on evaluation of motor performance of various rotor topologies with the magnets
that have the same (BH)max , but different H c and Br .
Thus, this paper has studied the influence of Br and H c on motor performances of four widely
used rotor topologies in EV using two commercially available Nd-Fe-B and SrM magnets that have
different H c and Br , but same (BH)max .

II. SPECIFICATIONS OF IPMSMs AND PMs

Four rotor structures, which are flat-type, 1-layer and 2-layer V-shaped, and spoke-type, and
their specifications are shown and summarized in Fig. 1 and Table I, respectively. Design conditions

a
Author to whom correspondence should be addressed. Electronic mail: ykhong@eng.ua.edu.

2158-3226/2018/8(5)/056811/5 8, 056811-1 © Author(s) 2017

056811-2 Won et al. AIP Advances 8, 056811 (2018)

FIG. 1. Four rotor topologies of IPMSM: (a) flat-type, (b) 1-layer V-shaped, (c) 2-layer V-shaped, and (d) spoke-type.

such as stator geometry, dimension, and winding and total volume of PMs are identical for four rotor
topologies. Strontium hexaferrite (SrM: SrFe12 O19 ) and Nd-Fe-B permanent magnets are used in
motor design. In SrM PMs with (BH)max of 4.62MGOe, NMF-12E (Br : 4.8kG and H c : 3.85kOe)
has higher Br but lower H c than those of NMF-12K (Br : 4.2kG and H c : 4.4kOe). In Nd-Fe-B PMs
with (BH)max of 38.2MGOe, NMF-S52 (Br : 14.55kG and H c : 10.5kOe) has higher Br , but lower H c
than those of NMX-37F (Br : 12.1kG and H c : 12.6kOe).7 3D-finite element analysis (FEA) based
ANSYS Maxwell v. 18.1 was used to evaluate motor performance at 3000 revolutions per minute,
except efficiency map (2D-FEA).

III. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

A. Torque
Figure 2 illustrates the total torque output (Ttot ), PM (TPM ), and reluctance torque (Trel ) of the
four rotor topologies for both SrM and Nd-Fe-B magnets. The Ttot is calculated by
   
Ttot = TPM + Trel = (P/2) · λ PM Iq + Ld − Lq Id Iq , (1)

where P is the number of poles, λ PM is the magnetic flux linkage, L d and L q are d- and q-axis
inductance, respectively, and I d and I q are d- and q-axis current, respectively. Fig. 2(a) through (d)
show a clear cross-over in T tot at 125A for SrM PMs in all rotor topologies. At 50A, the T tot of
NMF-12E-based motors is 0.6-0.8Nm higher than that of NMF-12K-based motors, but at 200A,
NMF-12K-based motors show 2.4-3.8Nm higher T tot than NMF 12E-based motors. With regard to
Nd-Fe-B based motors, Fig. 2(e) through (h) show a cross-over in T tot between current ranges from
300A to 350A. At 50A, NMX-S52-based motors exhibit 3.2-3.7Nm higher T tot than NMX 37F-based
motors, but at 350A, NMX-37F-based motors perform 0.3-2Nm higher T tot than NMX-S52-based
motors. This implies that the motors that employ the PM with high H c (M-PMHc ) exhibits higher
T tot than the motors that utilize the PM with high Br (M-PMBr ) for both SrM and Nd-Fe-B-based
motors.
Moreover, for both SrM and Nd-Fe-B-based motors, the M-PMHc exhibit higher T rel than the
M-PMBr , while the M-PMBr produced higher T PM than the M-PMHc as Fig. 2 illustrates.

TABLE I. Specification of four interior-mounted permanent magnet synchronous motor.

Parameter Value

Stator outer/inner diameter [mm] 264/161.9

Stack length [mm] 50.8
Rotor outer/inner diameter [mm] 160.4/100
Cross-sectional area of magnet per pole [mm2 ] 245
# of poles/slots/turns 8/48/9
Core material M19-29
Winding configuration Distributed
056811-3 Won et al. AIP Advances 8, 056811 (2018)

FIG. 2. Total, pm, and reluctance torque of ferrite-based a) flat-type, b) 1-layer V-shaped, c) 2-layer V-shaped, and d) spoke-
type and Nd-Fe-B-based e) flat-type, f) 1-layer V-shaped, g) 2-layer V-shaped, and h) spoke-type rotor topologies.

Figure 3 shows the torque ripple (∆T ) of the four rotor topologies for both SrM and Nd-Fe-B
magnets. The ∆T is calculated by

∆T = Ttot,max − Ttot,min /Ttot ,

(2)

where T tot,max and T tot,min are the maximum and minimum of the total output torque. Except for the
1-layer V-shaped topology, the M-PMHc exhibit slightly higher ∆T, about 2-3% for spoke-type and
0.3-0.6% for other topologies, than the M-PMBr for both SrM and Nd-Fe-B-based motors. This may
be attributed to higher T rel and average total harmonic distortion of maximum torque as shown in
Fig. 2 and Table II, respectively.8,9 However, due to significantly lower cogging torque (T cog ) of the
M-PMHc than that of the M-PMBr , larger ∆T may not be observed.8 As summarized in Table II,
the M-PMHc exhibit 10-50% and 167-300% lower T cog for SrM-based and Nd-Fe-B-based motors,
respectively, compared to the M-PMBr .

B. Irreversible demagnetization
Due to low H c of SrM magnet, the irreversible demagnetization of PMs was evaluated by observ-
ing the direction of magnet flux density. The rate of irreversible demagnetization, α, is calculated
by
α = Airrev demag /Atot mag , (3)

FIG. 3. Torque ripple performance of four rotor topologies when a) ferrite magnets and b) Nd-Fe-B magnets are employed.
056811-4 Won et al. AIP Advances 8, 056811 (2018)

TABLE II. Average total harmonic distortion of maximum torque and cogging torque.

Rotor Types NMF-12E NMF-12K NMX-S52 NMX-37F

Flat 10.24/76.17a 10.74/52.5 5.85/959.9 6.11/296.75

1-Layer V 9.76/79.69 9.99/49.27 6.46/2045.00 6.62/1251.00
2-Layer V 10.27/28.26 10.35/23.77 7.20/1721.40 7.41/687.53
Spoke 11.38/60.50 11.95/41.49 6.92/1098.90 7.27/555.27

a Average torque total harmonic distortion (%)/Cogging torque (mNm).

where Airrev demag and Atot mag denote the area of irreversible demagnetization and whole magnet. The
α as a function of phase current is summarized in Fig. 4. The α of the NMF-12E-based motors, except
for spoke-type, exceed 0% at 150A for flat-type and 175A for 1-layer and 2-layer V-shaped-type,
while the α of the NMF-12K-based motors exceed 0% at 175A for flat-type and 200A for 1-layer
and 2-layer V-shaped-type. As a result, the NMF-12K-based motors exhibit 13-15% higher T tot than
the NMF-12E-based motors. For the spoke-type, both NMF-12E- and NMF-12K-based motors show
the increased α at 75A. As for Nd-Fe-B-based motors, the α did not exceed 0% in testing current
ranges, except for spoke-type, which showed α of 2% at 350A.

C. Efficiency
Figure 5 shows the efficiency map of flat, 1-layer V-shaped, and 2-layer V-shaped rotor topologies
for both SrM and Nd-Fe-B-based motors. The motor efficiency (η) at a torque and speed (ωm ) is
calculated by

η = Pout /Pin = Ttot ωm / (Ttot ωm + Losses) , (4)

where Pout and Pin are the output and input power and Losses include core, winding, and solid loss.
The spoke-type was excluded in this evaluation, because the irreversible demagnetization occurred
at a low current. To obtain the efficiency map, a general maximum torque per ampere control is
applied until the motor speed reaches the base speed. Above the base speed, flux weakening control
is utilized. The maximum utilizable voltage is set to 389 V, while the current limit is set to 150A for
flat-type and 175A for 1-layer and 2-layer V-shaped, as suggested from irreversible demagnetization
analysis, and 250A for Nd-Fe-B magnet.
As for SrM magnet-based motor, the M-PMBr show 1-2% higher η in 1) low torque and low to
medium speed region and 2) low torque and high-speed region. On the other hands, as for Nd-Fe-B
magnet-based motor, the M-PMHc show 1) 1-2% higher η in low torque and low to medium speed
region and 2) 3-5% higher η in low torque and high-speed region.

FIG. 4. Irreversible demagnetization rate of four rotor topologies for SrM ferrite PMs.
056811-5 Won et al. AIP Advances 8, 056811 (2018)

FIG. 5. Efficiency map of ferrite-based (a) flat-type, (b) 1-layer V-shaped, and (c) 2-layer V-shaped IPMSMs and Nd-Fe-B-
based (d) flat-type, (e) 1-layer V-shaped, and (f) 2-layer V-shaped IPMSMs.

IV. CONCLUSIONS
Four widely used rotor topologies with hexaferrite SrM (SrFe12 O19 ) and Nd-Fe-B PMs that have
the same (BH)max , but different Br and H c , were evaluated for their torque and efficiency. For both the
magnets, the results suggested that utilizing the PM that employs high H c is preferable over the PM
that utilizes high Br . For SrM magnet-based motor, the M-PMHc (NMF-12K) could withstand a much
higher current than the M-PMBr (NMF-12E), resulting in 13-15% higher maximum torque, without
significant degradation in other performances. For Nd-Fe-B magnet-based motors, the results of
3-5% higher efficiency in high speed and negligible maximum torque difference at maximum current
suggest to utilize the M-PMHc (NMX-37F) over the M-PMBr (NMX-S52).

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
This work was supported in part by Creative Materials Discovery Program through National
Research Foundation of Korea (NRF) funded by the Ministry of Science, ICT and Future Plan-
ning under Award Number 2016M3D1A1027835 and by the NSF-CMMI under award numbers
1463301.
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