Magnet Shape Optimization to Reduce Pulsating Torque for a Five-Phase Permanent-Magnet Low-Speed Machine

Five-phase surface-mounted permanent-magnet machines can inherently produce a smooth electromagnetic torque which can be increased when using third harmonic current injection. To really take advantage of these characteristics, the rotor magnets can be shaped to obtain a back electromotive force with large third harmonic term. This is the scope of this paper. For the design specifications of a low-speed marine propulsion machine, the following objective must be achieved: to significantly mitigate the pulsating torque without reducing the average torque bearing in mind the solution where the rotor is made with full pole-pitch magnets. An analytical field computation, called equivalent coil method, is developed to quickly explore the magnet geometries. Thus a procedure to optimize small trapezoid notches at the surface of the pole magnets is performed. Referring to the classical fully pole-pitch magnet shape, the solution found allows a substantial reduction of the pulsating torque without reducing the torque density. Furthermore, with regard to an equivalent three-phase machine, for the same copper losses, the average torque of the optimized five-phase machine can be potentially higher if the third harmonic current injection is implemented.