4204 IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON MAGNETICS, VOL. 48, NO.

11, NOVEMBER 2012

Electromagnetic Performance Analysis of Double-Rotor Stator Permanent

Magnet Motor for Hybrid Electric Vehicle
Chen Yunyun , Quan Li , Zhu Xiaoyong , Wei Hua , and Zheng Wang
School of Electrical and Information Engineering, Jiangsu University, Zhenjiang 212013, China
School of Energy and Power Engineering, Yangzhou University, Yangzhou 225127, China

In this paper, a new double-rotor stator permanent-magnet (DR-SPM) motor is proposed for hybrid electric vehicles, which consists of
both armature windings and PMs in the stator and inner rotor while no PM in the middle rotor. This motor not only inherits the merits
of simple rotor structure, high reliability and high power density, but also can avoid the middle rotor’s cooling problem effectively. The
motor topology and operation principle are presented and by using a finite element method (FEM), the electromagnetic performance of
the DR-SPM motor is investigated. To verify the FEM results, a 2 kW prototype motor is newly designed and manufactured. Finally,
some experiments are conducted to evaluate performance of the motor.
Index Terms—Double-rotor stator permanent-magnet (DR-SPM) motor, electromagnetic performance, finite element method (FEM),
hybrid electric vehicles (HEVs).

I. INTRODUCTION

W ITH growing concerns on environment protection and

energy conservation, hybrid electric vehicles (HEVs)
have gained increasing attention [1]. Currently, the most pop-
ular hybrid system used in the HEV is generally composed of a
planetary gear, a generator and a motor. This configuration has
several advantages such as the relatively high transmission effi-
ciency and the relatively mature technology. However, the plan-
etary gear inevitably involves transmission loss, acoustic noise,
and regular lubrication.
Recently, a new electric variable transmission (EVT) has
been proposed, where different types of double-rotor motor are Fig. 1. Hybrid system using double-rotor motor.
often involved to realize the function of power split and mix
without a gear mechanism [2]. Fig. 1 shows the general EVT
system using a double-rotor motor. As a core part of the EVT
system, the double-rotor motors (DRMs) have attracted many
scholars’ attention and become one of the research highlights
in the field of HEVs [3]–[5]. Among the various DRMs, the
permanent-magnet (PM) DRM is an attractive candidate, since
it inherently offers high power density and high efficiency.
Nevertheless, there exits a technical cooling problem which is
caused by the PMs mounted on both sides of the middle rotor
[6].
In this paper, a new double-rotor stator permanent-magnet
(DR-SPM) motor is proposed, where both armature windings Fig. 2. Structure of motor.
and PMs are in the stator and inner rotor, while no PM is in the
middle rotor. This motor not only inherits the merits of simple
rotor structure, high reliability and high power density, but also and manufactured. Some experiments are conducted to evaluate
can effectively avoid the cooling problems caused by middle performance of the motor.
rotor.
II. MOTOR TOPOLOGY AND OPERATION PRINCIPLES
Firstly, the motor topology and operation principle are pre-
sented. Secondly, by using a finite element method (FEM) the Fig. 2 shows the structure of the proposed three-phase
electromagnetic performance of the DR-SPM motor is analyzed 12/8/12-pole DR-SPM motor. It has three basic parts separated
in details. Finally, a 2KW prototyped motor is newly designed by two air gaps but magnetically coupled. The middle rotor
and stator make up of the outer motor, the inner rotor and
middle rotor make up of the inner motor. These two machines
Manuscript received March 02, 2012; revised May 09, 2012 and June 12, arranged concentrically are fed by two back-to-back voltage
2012; accepted June 21, 2012. Date of current version October 19, 2012. Cor-
source inverters.
responding author: Z. Xiaoyong (e-mail: zxyff@ujs.edu.cn).
Color versions of one or more of the figures in this paper are available online Compared with the previous PM DRMs, PMs in the new
at http://ieeexplore.ieee.org. motor are mounted in the stator and inner rotor so that the heat
Digital Object Identifier 10.1109/TMAG.2012.2206374 dissipation is more effective and the temperature rise of PMs can

0018-9464/$31.00 © 2012 IEEE

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 YUNYUN et al.: ELECTROMAGNETIC PERFORMANCE ANALYSIS OF DR-SPM MOTOR FOR HYBRID ELECTRIC VEHICLE 4205

be easily managed. The inner rotor, which is connected directly

to the input shaft of the ICE, can benefit from the engine cooling
system. Due to the simple rotor structure, the middle rotor can
not only offer high mechanical robustness, but also avoid the
cooling problem effectively.
In the EVT system, the stator acts as a purely electrical port,
while the middle rotor is a purely mechanical port which is con-
nected to the shaft of the final driveline. The inner rotor func-
tions as both a mechanical port to accept the energy from the
engine and an electrical port to input and output electricity via
an inverter.
According to the operation principle, the model of the
DR-SPM motor’s can be described by equations from (1) to Fig. 3. Magnetic field distributions of the proposed machine for two positions.
(5). (a) PMs in the stator work alone. (b) PMs in inner rotor work alone. (c) PMs in
the stator and inner rotor work for one position.(d) PMs in the stator and inner
(1) rotor work for another position.
(2)
(3)
(4)
(5)

where and are inner and middle rotor’s rotational

speed. is the mechanical torque and is the electro-
magnetic torque, which equals . The is the secondary
shaft torque consisting of the inner air-gap torque and the
outer air-gap torque . The electric power is one part of
the power flow. It flows through the power electronic converters
with relatively high losses. The other part is directly passed
from the inner rotor to the outer rotor with relatively low losses.
Thus, a good choice of the proportion of and can result in
a relatively high efficiency for the application in traction drive
systems.
Due to the existence of two rotors, the proposed motor can
deal with many operational conditions for a HEV. When a HEV
is started, the vehicle can be driven by the outer motor alone, and
the outer motor works to bring the ICE up to the required min-
imum operating speed. When the HEV runs uphill, the DR-SPM
motor needs to operate in the mode which means that on top of
the full-throttle torque given by the ICE, the outer motor pro-
vides additional instantaneous torque to satisfy the desired com-
mand. When braking, the ICE shuts down and the kinetic energy
stored in the vehicle mass can be recycled to the battery by the
outer motor for fuel economy.

III. ANALYSIS OF PROPOSED MACHINE

The FEM is employed to analyze the system performance
[7]–[9]. Using finite element analysis (FEA), various parame-
ters of the DR-SPM motor, such as the air gap flux density, flux
linkage, back electromotive force (EMF) and output torque will
be calculated in this section.
A. Magnetic Field Distributions
Fig. 3 shows the magnetic field distributions of the proposed
machine for two different positions. It can be observed from
Fig. 3(a) that when the PMs in the stator affect alone, the most
portion of flux lines form closed magnetic circuits only through
the stator and middle rotor. Fig. 3(b) shows that when the PMs
in the inner rotor affect alone, the most portion of flux lines
form closed magnetic circuits only through the middle rotor and
the inner rotor. When all the PMs in the stator and inner rotor
work together, there are always some flux lines can pass though
Fig. 4. Flux density waveforms. (a) flux density waveform in inner air gap. (b)
flux density waveform in outer air gap. (c) flux density waveform in the inner
airgap produced by the PMs in stator alone.
two airgaps and the degree of coupling changes with rotor’s
rotating. Fig. 3(c) gives the situation for a special position where
the coupling degree is the lightest and there is little portion of
flux lines can pass through both two airgaps. Fig. 3(d) shows
the situation for another common position. It can be found that
coupling degree between the inner motor and outer motor is still
little. Thus through the rational design of the middle rotor, we
can effectively reduce the coupling.
B. Flux Density Distribution
Fig. 4(a), (b) give the radial flux density waveforms in the
inner and outer air gaps at no-load. The radial flux density wave-

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 4206 IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON MAGNETICS, VOL. 48, NO. 11, NOVEMBER 2012

Fig. 5. Flux linkages of inner and outer windings.

form in inner air gap is almost similar to that in outer air gap. The
peak air gap flux density of the outer motor and inner motor are
1.1 T and 0.9 T respectively. Since the flux density amplitude
in the air gap directly reflects the magnetic field intensity of the
motor, it can be found that the magnetic field intensity of these
two motors is both strong enough to provide the desired power.
In other words, the inner motor can have proper power density
and torque transmitting level and the outer motor can meet the
power requirements in the operational condition of start or in-
dividual driving for a HEV [10], [11].
Moreover, Fig. 4(c) shows the radial flux density waveform
in the inner air gap produced by the PMs in the stator alone. It
can be seen that the peak value of flux density is 0.008 T, equal
to approximately 1% of normal value. It means that magnetic
coupling exists between the inner motor and the outer motor is
light.
Fig. 6. Back EMF waveforms. (a) Back EMF waveforms of the inner motor. (b)
C. Flux Linkage and Back EMF Back EMF waveforms of the outer motor. (c) Back EMF in the outer windings
when PMs in the inner rotor work alone.
Fig. 5 gives the magnetic flux linkages of the inner and outer
windings with no load. As is shown, the flux linkage waveforms
are ideal symmetrical and piecewise-linear which are similar to
the PM double-salient motor’s ideal flux waveforms.
According to the characteristics of the flux linkage, the
no-load back EMF can be deduced as

(6)

where is the flux linkage, and are the angle and rotor’s
rotational speed.
In the simulation, the outer rotor speed is set 750 rpm and the
inner rotor speed is 1500 rpm. Fig. 6 (a), (b) presents no-load
back EMF waveforms of the inner and outer motors. As is
shown, back EMF waveforms in the three-phase windings are
symmetrical and nearly remain the shape of square wave which
is similar to that of the stator-PM motor.
And therefore, the control method of the traditional stator-PM
motor can also be applied in controlling both the inner and outer
motors. Fig. 6(c) shows the back EMF in the outer windings
when only PMs in the inner rotor work. The peak value is nearly
0.7 V, only 1.1% of the normal value which further illustrates
that magnetic coupling exists between the inner motor and the
outer motor is light. So the inner motor and the outer motor can
be controlled independently, which is a very good feature for
HEV applications.
D. Output Torque
In this paper, the method of field-circuit coupled transient
co-simulation is adopted to investigate torque characteristics.
Fig. 7 shows the total output torque of the DR-SPM motor. It
is noticed that the total output torque approximately equals to
Fig. 7. Output torque of the inner motor and outer motor when they work sep-
arately and total output torque when the inner and outer motor work together.
the sum of the output torques of inner and outer motors. The
average torques meets the designed requirements (8 Nm for the
inner motor and 13 Nm for the outer motor). However, torque
ripples are still serious which mainly due to the cogging effect
caused by the double salient structure of the motor.
IV. EXPERIMENTAL RESULTS
To verify the FEM results, a 2 kW DR-SPM prototype is
newly designed and manufactured. The key design data are
listed in Table I. Fig. 8 shows the picture of the prototype motor.
Fig. 9 shows the measured no-load back EMF waveforms at
rated speed of 750 rpm. It is obviously that both the back EMF
waveforms of the inner motor and the outer motor agree with the
results of simulation, which verifies the validation of the design
method. All the tested data compared with simulated results are
shown in Table II. It can be seen that the measured back EMF is

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 YUNYUN et al.: ELECTROMAGNETIC PERFORMANCE ANALYSIS OF DR-SPM MOTOR FOR HYBRID ELECTRIC VEHICLE 4207

TABLE I TABLE II
KEY DESIGN DATE MEASURED AND SIMULATED BACK EMF

V. CONCLUSION
In this paper, the newly designed DR-SPM motor is inves-
tigated in details. The motor topology, operation principles and
finite element results are also analyzed. Experiments on the pro-
totype motor have been carried out to verify the FEM results.
Both theoretical analysis and experimental results show that the
proposed motor not only inherits the merits of stator perma-
nent-magnet motors but also can be operated in different modes
flexibly, which makes the proposed motor an interesting candi-
date for HEVs.

ACKNOWLEDGMENT
This work was funded by the National Natural Science
Foundation of China under Grants 51077067 and 51177065
and supported in part by the Natural Science Foundation of the
Jiangsu under Grant BK2011475, and in part by the Priority
Academic Program Development of Jiangsu Higher Education
Institutions.

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