The IEEE 5th International Conference on Engineering & Emerging Technologies (ICEET) 21-21 February 2019 SU Lahore, Pakistan

Design and Analysis of Outer Segmental Rotor

Synchronous Reluctance Machine for Future Electric
Bike
M. A. Khan, F. Khan, U. Jamshed, S. Ali, Z.Ajmal, A. Zahid, N. Ahmad
COMSATS University Islamabad, Abbottabad Campus, Pakistan

afzalk0370@gmail.com, faisalkhan@cuiatd.edu.pk

Abstract—This paper presents the design and analysis
of Outer Segmental Rotor Synchronous Reluctance motor,
used for the propulsion of electrical bike. In conventional
base design the flux leakage and iron losses were high. To
reduce flux leakage and iron losses the rotor of conventional
design is change with segmental rotor. The iron losses is
further decrease by designing the flux barrier on the core of
rotor due which the weight, cost and iron losses is decreased
significantly. All proposed design have better performance
in term of average torque, efficiency and losses.
Keywords— Synchronous Reluctance Machine, Finite Element
Analysis, Electric Bike, Average Torque, Iron Losses, Segmental
Rotor
I. INTRODUCTION
In the beginning of 20th century first attempt were made to
electric bike (E-bike) but due to lack of efficient electric motor
and battery technology has degrade their quality [1]. As a
healthy, cost-effective, and environmental friendly personal
mode of transportation, E-bike is attending more market share
and attention from conventional bike and automobile [2]. In
last decade there has been an increasing in market of E-bike,
especially in Europe, china and North America. It has been
reported in 2012 that rate of population using E-bike has
exceeded to 140 million in China [3]. In the same era, Western
Europe sold 700,000 E-bike, and nearly half of Western Europe
sold in Germany. E-bike has several advantages considering
the cost, saving 3$ with one entire charge a commercial E-bike
can cover a distance of 20-30km as compare to bike using
gasoline [2]. In recent era worldwide great variety of E-bike is
available having small motor to assist the pedal power. E-bike
use the lighter varieties of materials and rechargeable batteries
can speed up to 25 to 32 km/h depending on the rule and law of
country. There is restriction for speed up to 25 km/h and for
the power of the motor up to 250 W [1]. There are three
methods for mounting a motor on the E-bike, back wheel hub
motor, front wheel hub motor, and mid-drive motor. Bosch [3]
and Yamaha [4] using the complicated system of mid-drive
makes it more expensive compared with hub motor solution [1].
To eliminate these issues related with E-bike, electrical
machine with high torque and high power density are required
[11].There are still many challenges for the development of E-
bike with regard to tradeoff between the performance and price.
Designing of low cost high performance E-bike is the key
objective of manufacturers company, thus electric motors are
important component of E-bike which effect the overall cost
and performance of E-bike transportation system [2].
A review of E-bike market indicate that the brushless dc and
brushed dc machines are used but the limitation in brushed dc
machine is lower efficiency and high maintenance cost [4]. The
recent research switch from brushed dc machine Switch
Reluctance Machine (SRM) to overcome mentioned problem
[5-9]. Moreover BLDC utilized rare earth permanent magnets,
increases the cost of machine for E-bike in worldwide market
[10]. At the same time, high power density, high torque and
simple structure as well as low cost of SRM is proposed for E-
bike application. In published papers [2] Toyota Prius
employed SRM by replacing the Interior permanent magnet
synchronous machines (IPMSynM), experimental result show
that SynRM has high torque, efficiency and power speed range
than the Interior Permanent Magnet Switch Reluctance
Machines (IPMSRM). External rotor SRM design as in-wheel
construction is considered which can be easily manufacture,
easily install and reduce the weight of machine [2]. Inner
Segmented Rotor Switch Reluctance Machine (ISRSRM)
topology is proposed developed high torque and efficiency
[11].
In this paper Outer Segmental Rotor Synchronous Reluctance
(OSRSynRM) Motor is proposed in which the average torque
is improved by reducing the flux path and leakage as compared
to conventional design. In conventional design [1] rotor has
high flux leakage due to the long path of flux, and high iron
losses which reduced the average torque and efficiency of
machine. The rotor of conventional design is substituted by
segmental rotor [11] having low iron losses and high average
torque. The rotor is design in segments having short flux path
and strong flux linkage. Different number of rotor segmented is
analyzed and investigated but six segments of rotor has better
electromagnetic performance therefore proposed designed have
six segments of rotor. The active iron core is further decreased
by introducing flux barrier due to which iron losses is decreased
significantly in proposed design. The design parameter of
proposed design is kept same as a conventional design for fair
comparison of electromagnetic performance and E-bike
application [1].

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 The IEEE 5th International Conference on Engineering & Emerging Technologies (ICEET) 21-21 February 2019 SU Lahore, Pakistan

II. DESIGN METHODOLOGY
This paper presents three-phase OSRSynRM design for the
application of E-bike. JMAG designer ver. 14 is used to design
three-phase OSRSynRM and results is analyzed by 2D Finite
Element Analysis (2D-FEA). The Geometry Editor is used for
designing of various parts of motor, the initial design of
machine includes of stator, outer rotor, AC coil having double
layer winding 27-stator slots and 6-poles. JMAG designer is
intended to add circuit, mesh properties and size, allocated
materials, various properties and conditions are set and
simulated. Copper is used for coil and soft magnetic material
steel sheet 35H210 is used for the core of stator and rotor. Table
1 depict design specification, parameters and machine
configuration.
barrier, the electromagnetic performance is analyzed with two
and four flux barrier design. All three designs with segmental
rotor have better performance than conventional design due to
better flux linkage between the stator and rotor. The
electromagnetic performance of conventional and proposed
designs are compare in result section of paper.
IV. RESULT AND PERFORMANCE BASED ON 2D-FEA FINITE
ELEMENT ANALYSIS
A. Flux Strengthening and Distribution
The flux strength is analyzed by varying the armature
current density; Ja from 5 A/mm2 to 30 A/mm2. The armature
input current is calculated from Eq.1.

TABLE I. DESIGN PARAMETERS ‫ܬ‬௔ ߙܵ௔

‫ܫ‬௔ = (1)
ܰ
Conventional Proposed
Design Parameters
Design Design Where, Ia, N, Ja,, ߙ , Sa and are the input current , number of
Number of phase 3 3 turns, field current density, filling factor, and slot area of
Stator outer diameter 178mm 178mm armature, respectively. Fig. 3. illustrates the comparison of flux
Air-gap 1mm 1mm strength vs different current density for conventional model and
27 double all proposed designs. Fig.3 shows linear relation for all designs
No. of slots 27 double layer
layer with increasing Ja , flux strength of conventional design is weak
Rotor inner diameter 180mm 180mm than the all proposed designs even two proposed designs have
Rotor outer diameter 230mm 230mm flux barrier. The effect of flux barrier in proposed design is
Stack length 50mm 50mm analyzed as shown in Fig. 3 that flux strength become weak by
increasing the number of flux barrier.
Number of Rotor segment 6
No. of pole 6 6
No of turn 66 66
Motor length 50mm 50mm

III. PROPOSED DESIGN

In this paper OSRSynRM with a new topology is investigated
and electromagnetic performance of machine is analyze, which
is used in E-bike. This motor is fixed in back wheel hub or front
wheel hub of E-bike. In order to design the OSRSynRM for an
electric bike, different number of rotor segment and several
windings topologies are analyzed. The best electromagnetic
performance were analyzed by using six segments of rotor with
(a) (b)
double layer winding configuration.
Fig.1 shows the conventional/base and proposed designs used
in E-bike with design parameters given in Tab.1. The outer
rotor of conventional model is design with six segment of rotor
keeping the same stator and AC winding. Fig. 1 (a) shows the
conventional design, Fig. 1 (b) shows the proposed design
having segmental outer rotor, Fig.1 (c) and (d) shows the
proposed design with 2 and 4 flux barrier. The conventional
design has poor electromagnetic performance due to long flux
path and high leakage of flux as compared to proposed design.
The design parameters of proposed designs are kept same as of
conventional design for fair comparison of electromagnetic
performance. The segmental rotor has low iron core as compare
to conventional design which decreased the iron losses of (c) (d)
proposed designs. To further reduce the iron losses and improve
the ventilation flux barrier is design in each segment of rotor. Fig. 1. (a) Conventional design (b) Proposed design (c) Proposed design with 2 Flux
Fig.1 (c) and (d) shows OSRSynRM with different number flux Barrier (d) Proposed design with 4 Flux Barrier

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 The IEEE 5th International Conference on Engineering & Emerging Technologies (ICEET) 21-21 February 2019 SU Lahore, Pakistan

Fig. 2 (a) show the flux line distribution of conventional

design, Fig. 2 (b) show the flux line distribution of proposed
design OSRSynRM, Fig. 2 (c) and (d) show the flux line
distribution of proposed with 2 and 4 flux barrier respectively.
The Fig.2 show that all proposed designs have short flux path
as compare to conventional design. Short flux path has low
reluctance as compare to long flux path, machine having shorter
flux path has better electromagnetic performance.

B. Radial Flux density

When AC power is applied to electric machine it produce radial (c) (d)
flux as well as the tangential flux. The radial flux density of
conventional and proposed designs is shown in Fig. 4. The Fig. 2. Flux line distribution of a) Conventional design (b) Proposed design (c)
radial flux density of proposed design verified that each pole Proposed design with 2 Flux Barrier (d) Proposed design with 4 Flux Barrier
produces proper flux in radial direction. Electrical machine
with high the radial flux density has capability of higher
average torque which in turn increase the output power of 1
machine.
C. Average Torque Versus Current density 0.8

The average torque vs different current density of conventional

and all proposed designs are compared as shown in Fig 5. Fig. Flux Strength (Wb)
0.6
5 shows that all three proposed designs have higher average
torque than conventional design. Fig.5 show that the average
torque of OSRSynRM is 34%, 2 flux barrier OSRSynRM is
0.4
28.1%, 4 flux barrier OSRSynRM is 22% higher than the
conventional design at 30 A/mm2 current density. Higher the
average torque higher will be the output power and efficiency.
0.2
D. Iron losses Versus Current density
The iron losses vs different current density of conventional and Current Density (A/mm2)
0
proposed designs are compared as shown in Fig 6. Fig. 6 that 5 10 15 20 25 30
the iron losses of conventional design is higher than all Fig. 3. Flux strength. versus Current density
proposed designs. The flux barrier decrease the iron losses, 4
barrier ORSynRM has lowest iron losses because the active part Conventional design
of segmental rotor iron core is decreased. The OSRSynRM has 1 Segmental
28%, 2 flux barrier segmental ORSynRM has 33.5% and 4 flux
2 Barrier
barrier segmental ORSynRM has 40 % lower iron losses than
the conventional at 30 A/mm2 as shown in Fig.6. The iron losses 0.7 4 Barrier
all proposed design low due less iron core of rotor, the iron core
of proposed is 55% of conventional design. 0.4
Radial Flux density

0.1

0 60 120 180 240 300 360

-0.2

-0.5

-0.8

Rotor Position
-1.1
Fig. 4. Radial flux density.
(a) (b)

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 The IEEE 5th International Conference on Engineering & Emerging Technologies (ICEET) 21-21 February 2019 SU Lahore, Pakistan
40 power of OSRSynRM is higher due higher average torque low
iron losses. Fig. 8 show that output power of Segmental
ORSynRM with 2 barrier and 4 barrier is also higher than the
Average Torque (Nm)

30
base model. By comparing the output power versus speed graph
as shown in Fig. 8 shows that all three proposed design has
higher output power than base model. The Fig. 8 show that the
20
output power decrease with increasing the speed due to
increasing in iron losses. At higher speed the iron losses is
10 higher due which the output power decrease.

Current Density (A/mm2) 40

0 Conventional
5 10 15 20 25 30 35 design
Segmental
Fig. 5. Average torque versus current density. 30
25 2 Barrier
16

Torque (Nm)
Conventional Model 20 4 Barrier
Segmental 15
12 2 Barrier
Iron losses (W)

4 Barrier 10
5
8
0 Speed (rpm)
0 300 600 900 1200 1500
4
Fig.7 Torque Speed Characteristics
Current Density (A/mm2)
0
5 10 15 20 25 30 25 Conventional
Fig.6 Iron losses Versus Current density design
Segmental
20
E. Torque Speed Characteristics 2 Barrier
The torque speed characteristics is one the important parameter
15 4 Barrier
which determine the electromagnetic performance of electrical
Power (Kw)

machine. The torque speed characteristics of conventional

design and all three proposed designs are compared as shown
in Fig. 7. The Fig. 7 show that OSRSynRM has higher torque
than conventional and other two designs. The ORSynRM has
strong flux strength and flux linkage due which the torque speed
characteristics has better profile than other designs. Fig. 7
shows that torque speed characteristics of OSRSynRM with 2
barrier flux and 4 barrier flux is higher than the base model. By
comparing the torque speed characteristics it is shown that all
three proposed design is better performance than conventional
design.
F. Output Power versus Speed
The output power of motor depend upon the average torque and
speed, higher the average higher will be the output power and
vice versa.
ܲ = ߬߱ (2)
Where ܲ, ߬, and ߱ are output power, torque, and speed
respectively of machine. The output power of base model and
all three proposed designs are compared as shown in Fig. 8.
Fig.8 show that OSRSynRM has higher output power than
conventional design and two proposed design. The output
10
5
0 Speed (rpm)
0 300 600 900 1200 1500
Fig.8 Output power versus Speed
V. CONCLUSION
This paper present OSRSynRM used in electric bike, in which
the rotor is designed in segments of rotor. Different number of
rotor segments is studied, six segments of rotor have better
electromagnetic performance instead of four or eight segment.
The segmental rotor have 45% less iron core than the
conventional design and short flux path. The conventional
design have long flux path and high flux leakage there the
electromagnetic performance is poor. Due the short flux path in
Segmental rotor the flux leakage is minimum and have strong
flux linkage therefore electromagnetic performance of
proposed design is better than the conventional design. The iron
losses is decreased in proposed designs.

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