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Design of IPM Synchronous Motor for Gearless Elevator Applications

Conference Paper · March 2017

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 Design of IPM Synchronous Motor for
Gearless Elevator Applications
Hicret Yetiş1, Erkan Meşe2

Abstract
Interior permanent magnet synchronous motors (IPMSM) have been commonly used to meet challenging
demands of high performance industrial applications. IPMSM have several advantages such as
elimination of rotor copper loss, high power density and efficiency, high starting torque. In this paper, the
design of IPMSM for gearless elevator has been investigated. Gearless elevator systems driven by PMSM
have many advantages compared to traditional asynchronous motor applications. Due to highly sensitive
absolute encoder coupled to motor and closed-loop driver system providing sensitive control, PMSM
based gearless elevators show high performance at lifting up, stopping and moving. However, drawbacks
of IPM machines are high torque ripple and rising cost of rare-earth permanent magnets such as NdFeB
and SmCo. The variation of magnetic reluctance between the flux barriers and teeth causes the torque
ripple. In this study, different slot/pole combinations and number of flux-barrier layer have been
investigated to reduce torque ripple. Furthermore whole design is based on ferrite magnet which is
cheaper and more common. MotorSolve BLDC Finite Element Analysis based software has been used.
Eventually attributes such as low cost, high efficiency, high torque density and lowest possible torque
ripple have been achieved for the design of IPMSM in gearless elevator applications.

Keywords: interior permanent magnet (IPM), machine design, gearless elevator application, torque
ripple, ferrite magnet.

1. INTRODUCTION
Permanent-Magnet (PM) machines are widely demanded in industrial applications owing to their high
torque density and efficiency. Both surface-mounted PM (SPM) and interior PM (IPM) rotor types are used
depending on the application [1], [2]. IPM synchronous motors (IPMSM) offer a wide constant power speed
range than SPM synchronous motors. For this reason IPSM widely preferable in traction application.
The IPMSMs may be very attractive candidate for direct driven gearless elevator systems owing to its
ability to show high performance at lifting up, stopping and moving. Beside comfort, one of the most
important features of gearless elevator systems driven by PMSM is providing energy conservation compared
to systems designed with traditional asynchronous motor and gear box [3]. Gearless elevators can be designed
with smaller electric motors for the same weight capacity and the reduction can be as high as 50 % [4].
Gradually, there was the convenience of adopting PM with high magnetic energy (i.e., rare-earth PMs,
as NdFeB magnets) so as to increase the flux density and to reduce the dimension of the machine and the
associated cost [5]. On the other hand, in the last years, the cost of rare-earth PMs such as NdFeB and SmCo
is significantly increased and the motor manufacturer reconsidered the opportunity to use cheaper PMs, such
as Ferrite PMs.
This paper presents design of ferrite based IPM motor for direct drive gearless elevator applications.
First of all, elevator system requirements (for an eight people carrying capacity) are determined. Then the
motor is designed based on these requirements. Additionally, as in the approach presented in [6] different
slot/pole combinations and number of flux-barrier layer have been investigated to achieve an optimum
IPMSM design.

2. REQUIREMENTS OF ELEVATOR SYSTEMS

The significant requirements in the motor design of gearless elevator systems are torque and speed.
These two parameters can be calculated by operating speed, cabin weight capacity, type of suspension and
pulley diameter of the designed elevator system [7].

1
Corresponding author: Yildiz Technical University, Department of Electrical Engineering, 34220, Esenler/İstanbul,
Turkey. hicretyetis@gmail.com
2
Corresponding author: Ege University, Department of Electrical and Electronics Engineering, 35100, Bornova/İzmir,
Turkey. erkan.mese@ege.edu.tr

1
 In an elevator system with 675 kg weight (for 8 people) and 1 m/s cabin speed, the system requirements
can be calculated. In the calculation, it is assumed that counterbalance weight is selected so that it is equal to
the, total of weights of entire cabin and half of the load.
𝑇𝑚𝑜𝑡𝑜𝑟 = 𝑟 𝑝𝑢𝑙𝑙𝑒𝑦 ×𝑔× 𝑚 𝑙𝑜𝑎𝑑 +𝑚 𝑐𝑎𝑏𝑖𝑛 −𝑚 𝑏 . 𝑤𝑒𝑖𝑔 ℎ 𝑡 /𝑢×𝜂 (1)

Where,
𝑇𝑚𝑜𝑡𝑜𝑟 : Rated Torque (𝑁𝑚)
𝑟𝑝𝑢𝑙𝑙𝑒𝑦 : The radius of drive pulley (𝑚), (0.12)
𝑔 : The force of gravity (𝑚 𝑠 2 ), (9.88)
𝑚𝑙𝑜𝑎𝑑 : Load weight (𝑘𝑔), (675)
𝑚𝑐𝑎𝑏𝑖𝑛 : Cabin weight, 𝑚𝑏.𝑤𝑒𝑖𝑔 ℎ𝑡 : Balance weight (𝑘𝑔)
𝑚 𝑙𝑜𝑎𝑑
𝑚𝑙𝑜𝑎𝑑 + 𝑚𝑐𝑎𝑏𝑖𝑛 − 𝑚𝑏. 𝑤𝑒𝑖𝑔 ℎ𝑡 = Assumed,
2

u: The coefficient for suspension type. 1 for direct suspension, 2 for 2:1 suspension. Design was
carried out for u=2.
𝜂: Well and rope system efficiency (80%)
𝑇𝑚𝑜𝑡𝑜𝑟 = 0.12 × 9,88 × 337.5/ 2 × 0.8 , 𝑇𝑚𝑜𝑡𝑜𝑟 = 250 𝑁𝑚.
Motor rated speed;
𝜔 = 𝑢 × 𝑣 × 𝑟𝑝𝑢𝑙𝑙𝑒𝑦 (𝑟𝑎𝑑 𝑠) (2)
v: cabin vertical velocity = 1 𝑚 𝑠
𝜔 = 2 × 1 × 0.12 , 𝜔 = 16.75 𝑟𝑎𝑑 𝑠
𝑛 = 𝜔 × 60/(2 × 𝜋) (𝑟𝑝𝑚) (3)
𝑛 = 16.75 × 60/(2 × 𝜋) , 𝑛 = 160 𝑟𝑝𝑚.
Rated power;
𝑃𝑚𝑜𝑡𝑜𝑟 = 𝑇 × 𝜔, (𝑊) (4)
𝑃𝑚𝑜𝑡𝑜𝑟 = 250 × 16.75, 𝑃𝑚𝑜𝑡𝑜𝑟 ≅ 4200 𝑊.
So following motor parameters are fixed before starting design procedure,
𝑷𝒎𝒐𝒕𝒐𝒓 = 𝟒. 𝟐 𝒌𝑾, 𝑻𝒎𝒐𝒕𝒐𝒓 = 𝟐𝟓𝟎 𝑵𝒎 , 𝒏 = 𝟏𝟔𝟎 𝒓𝒑𝒎.

3. THE FERRITE BASED IPM MOTOR

Interior permanent magnet synchronous motors (IPMSM) have been commonly used to meet
challenging demands of high performance industrial applications. IPMSM have several advantages such as
elimination of rotor copper loss, high power density and efficiency, high starting torque. However, drawbacks
of IPM machines are high torque ripple and rising cost of rare-earth permanent magnets such as NdFeB and
SmCo. The use of rare-earth materials, which is an important aspect of the high performance PM motor,
should be reduced because of the high cost and the unpredictability involved in procuring such materials [8].
Most of up-to-date PM synchronous machines are based on rare-earth magnetic materials, namely,
NdFeB grades, because of their large remenance and coercivity values [9]. Besides, cheaper PMs, such as
ferrite-based magnets, are still applicable even though exhibiting poor magnetic properties when compared
with other rare-earth materials. As the prices of NdFeB PMs has increased rapidly and motor manufacturers
re-evaluated the opportunity to use cheaper PMs, such as Ferrite PMs.
Because of these reasons, Ferrite magnet which is cheaper and more common has been used to reduce
cost in this study.

4. DESIGN CONSIDERATIONS
IPMSMs are vulnerable to producing significant amounts of current induced torque ripple whose
amplitude can vary significantly depending on the operating conditions [10]. Hence, the most significant
design consideration for IPMSM is the torque ripple, which is generated as a undesirable by-product of the
interaction between rotor and stator MMFwaveform. This situation is intolerable in the most of applications.

2
 Design of IPM Synchronous Motor for Gearless Elevator System, Hicret Yetiş, Erkan Meşe

The main purpose in this study is to reduce the torque ripple to at minimum level. For this purpose,
three different IPMSM have been designed to reach the optimum design with the power, speed and torque
determined in the section 2.

Table 1. Specifications for the IPM Machines

Item Value (Unit)

Rated power 4.2 kW
Rated speed 160 rpm
Rated torque 250 Nm
Rated current 13 A
Stator outer diameter 250 mm
Rotor outer diameter 149 mm
Stack length 200 mm
Air gap length 0.5 mm
PM material Ferrite (Y40)
Coil fill factor % 40

The specifications of three IPMSMs under investigation are shown in Table 1. The machines are
designed to investigate the effect of slot/pole combinations and numbers of flux-barrier layer on the torque
ripple are summarized in the Table 2.
Table 2. Summary of designed IPMSMs

IPM name Stator slots number Flux barrier number Rotor pole number
IPM1 33 3 8
IPM2 33 2 8
IPM3 42 3 8

( a ) IPM1 (b) IPM2 (c) IPM3

Figure 1. Stator and rotor geometries of the IPM machines.
Fig. 1 shows the stator and rotor geometries of the three machines under study. For all motors, the
rotor poles are designed ferrite PMs. The parameters of IPMSMs should be optimized to achieve the
minimum torque ripple at the same operating speed and under the same thermal and volumetric constraints.
Furthermore, three machines are also analyzed with MotorSolve BLDC Finite Element Analysis based
software.

5. ANALYSIS RESULTS

5.1. Influence of Slot/Pole Number Combinations

In this section to investigate the influence of torque ripple on the number of slot/pole combination,
IPM1 with 33-slot/8-pole and IPM3 with 42-slot/8-pole are analyzed. Two IPMSM with different stator slot
number but same pole number and rotor structure are shown in Fig.1 (a, c). Average torque and torque ripple
analysis results are shown in Fig. 2 and Fig. 3. As can be seen from the analysis results, the slot/pole
combination is considerably effective on the average torque and torque ripple.

3
 300 300

250 250

Torque (Nm)
Torque (Nm)

200 200

150 150

100 100
IPM3 (N·m)
50 50
IPM1 (N·m)
0 0
IPM3 IPM1 0 100 200 300 400
Source phase angle (°)
Figure 2. Average Torque (IPM1, IPM3) Figure 3. Torque Ripple (IPM1,IPM3)

5.2. Influence of Flux Barrier Layers

In order to investigate the effect of flux barrier number on average torque and torque ripple, two
IPMSM rotors with different flux-barrier number but the same stator structure and pole numbers are
analyzed. Analysis results of IPM1 with 33-slot/3-layer flux-barrier and IPM2 with 33-slot/2-layer flux-
barrier are shown in Fig. 4 and Fig. 5. From analysis results, it is observed that the multi-layer flux-barrier
design has significant impact on motor performance.

300
260
255 250
250
Torque (Nm)

Torque (Nm)

200
245
240 150
235
230 100
IPM2 (N·m)
225 50
220 IPM1 (N·m)
215 0
IPM2 IPM1 0 100 200 300 400
Source phase angle (°)
Figure 4. Average Torque (IPM1, IPM2) Figure 5. Torque Ripple (IPM1, IPM2)

5.3. Flux Distribution

In this section flux distribution maps for two machines are shown in Fig. 6.

( a ) IPM1 (b) IPM2 (c) IPM3

Figure 6. Flux distributions of the IPM machines

5.4. Efficiency
The efficiency levels of the three machines designed to investigate the influence of slot/pole
combinations and number of flux-barrier layer on torque ripple are shown in Fig. 7.

5.5. Material Consumption and Cost

When machines are compared in terms of their active material weight, it turns out to be steel, copper
and magnet consumptions are comparable. Material consumptions of the machines are summarized in the

4
 Design of IPM Synchronous Motor for Gearless Elevator System, Hicret Yetiş, Erkan Meşe

72
70

Efficiency (%)
68
66
64
62
60
IPM3 IPM2 IPM1

Figure 5. Efficiency
Table 3. Summary of material consumptions

Weight (kg)
Component
IPM1 IPM2 IPM3
Rotor core mass 9.88 9.04 9.88
Rotor magnet mass 3.62 4.01 3.62
Stator core mass 26.5 26.5 19.17
Stator winding mass 8.19 8.19 13.1
Total mass 48.19 47.74 46.3

Table 4. Summary of material cost

Price (USD)
Name
IPM1 IPM2 IPM3
Rotor core steel (0.8 USD/kg) 7.904 7.232 7.904
Permanent Magnet (7 USD/kg) 25.34 28.07 25.34
Stator core steel (0.8 USD/kg) 21.2 21.2 15.76
Stator winding steel (7 USD/kg) 57.33 57.33 91.7
Total cost 111.774 USD 113.832 USD 140.704 USD

Table 3. In accordance with Table 3. material cost of three machines are calculated. Calculated
values are shown Table 4.

6. CONCLUSIONS
In this paper, ferrite based three IPM machines are presented. Targeted application is gearless elevator
system where low torque ripple is desired. Elevator system requirements are determined and based on these
requirements motors are designed. These machines are analyzed to investigate the effect of slot/pole
combinations and number of flux-barrier layer on the torque ripple. Also, the flux distribution, efficiency and
material consumption and cost of the three machines are presented. Analysis results show that IPM1 with 33-
slot/8-pole is superior to the other IPM machines in several aspects.

REFERENCES
[1]. G. Pellegrino, A. Vagati, P. Guglielmi, and B. Boazzo, “Performance comparison between surface-mounted and
interior PM motor drives for electric vehicle application,” IEEE Trans. Ind. Electron., vol. 59, no. 2, pp. 803–
811, Feb. 2012.
[2]. M. El-Refaie and T. M. Jahns, “Comparison of synchronous PM machine types for wide constant-power speed
range operation,” in Conf. Rec. 14th IEEE IAS Annu. Meeting, vol. 2, pp. 1015–1022.
[3]. H. T. Duru, R. Demiröz, Y. Toktas, “Increasing Energy Efficiency in Elevator Systems by Direct Drive and
Permanent Magnet Synchronous Machines,” (In Turkish), 1. EVK Sempozyumu, Kocaeli 2005.
[4]. Yetis, H., Boztepeli, H., Yasa, Y., & Mese, E, “Comparative Design of Direct Drive PM Synchronous Motors in
Gearless Elevator Systems,” Electric Power and Energy Conversion Systems (EPECS) 2013.
[5]. N. Bianchi, S. Bolognani, and P. Frare, “Design criteria for high-efficiency SPM synchronous motors,” IEEE
Trans. Energy Convers., vol. 21, no. 2, pp. 396–404, Jun. 2006.
[6]. K.Wang, Z. Q. Zhu, G. Ombach, M. Koch, S. Zhang and J. Xu, “Optimal Slot/Pole and Flux-Barrier Layer
Number Combinations for Synchronous Reluctance Machines” Eighth International Conference and Exhibition
on Ecological Vehicles and Renewable Energies (EVER) 2013.
[7]. H. T. Duru, R. Demiröz, Y. Toktas, “Application of Permanent Magnet Excited Synchronous Motor and Direct
Drive in Elevator Systems,” (In Turkish), Asansör Sempozyumu, İzmir 2006.
[8]. T. Naruta, Y. Akiyama, Y. Niwa and D. Uneyama, “A Study of BLDC motor design and its cost trend for rare
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5
 [9]. A. Vagati, B. Boazzo, P. Guglielmi, and G. Pellegrino, “Design of Ferrite-Assisted Synchronous Reluctance
Machines Robust Toward Demagnetization,” IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON INDUSTRY APPLICATIONS, VOL.
50, NO. 3, MAY/JUNE 2014.
[10]. Seok-Hee Han, T.M. Jahns and W.L. Soong, “Torque Ripple Reduction in Interior Permanent Magnet
Synchronous Machines Using the Principle of Mutual Harmonics Exclusion,” in Conf. Rec. 42nd IEEE IAS
Annu. Meeting, Sept. 2007.

Hicret Yetiş received the B.S. degree in electrical engineering from Yildiz Technical University, Istanbul,
Turkey, in 2013.
Since 2014 she has been a student of master degree in Yildiz Technical University, Istanbul, in the Electrical
Engineering Department. Her research interests include design of electric machines.
Erkan Meşe received B.S. and M.S. degrees in electrical engineering from Istanbul Technical University,
Istanbul, Turkey, and the Ph.D. degree in electric power engineering from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Troy, NY,
USA, in 1990, 1993, and 1999, respectively.
Between 1997 and 2005, he was with Advanced Energy Conversion, LLC, Schenectady, NY. From 2005 to
2008, he was with General Motors, MI, USA. He was with AVL Powertrain, Gebze, Kocaeli, Turkey, as a Consultant
Engineer between 2008 and 2013. From 2009 to 2016, he was with a faculty member in Yildiz Technical University,
Istanbul, in the Electrical Engineering department. Since 2016 he has been faculty member in Ege University, Izmir, in the
Electrical and Electronics Engineering department. His research interests include electric machines, electromechanical
systems, power electronics, hybrid electric vehicles, and renewable energy systems.

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