Design of Five-Phase Modular Flux-Switching Permanent-Magnet Machines for High Reliability Applications

This paper proposes and designs a new five-phase modular flux-switching permanent-magnet (M-FSPM) machine for high reliability applications. The key is the new machine topology which incorporates the concept of fault-tolerant teeth (FTT) to provide the desired decoupling among phases. The electromagnetic performances of the newly designed M-FSPM machines having 18 and 19 rotor poles are quantitatively analyzed including the flux, back-EMF, cogging torque as well as unbalanced magnetic force (UMF). The results show that the proposed M-FSPM machine not only retains the merits of stator-PM machines and multiphase machines, but also offers lower cost and higher fault-tolerant capability. Especially, the 10/19-pole one incorporates the merits of symmetric back-EMF and reduced cogging torque, while suffers from UMF. Two experimental M-FSPM machines are designed and built for exemplification. Experimental results of the prototypes are given to confirm the validity of the proposed machines.