Chapter 2

Design Fundamentals of Electrical

Machines and Drive Systems

Abstract This chapter presents a brief summary of the design fundamentals

including the analysis models and methods for electrical machines and drive systems, based on our design experiences, particularly for permanent magnet electrical
machine with soft magnetic composite cores. Because of the multi-disciplinary
nature, these design models and methods will be investigated at the disciplinary
level, including electromagnetic, thermal, mechanical, power electronics, and
control algorithm designs. Several design examples will be presented to illustrate
the corresponding design models and methods based on our research ndings, such
as the nite element model for design analysis of motors, and the model predictive
control algorithm and its improvement form for the drive systems. These models
and algorithms will be employed in the design optimization of electrical machines
and drive systems in the following chapters.

Keywords Electrical drive systems Electromagnetic design Thermal design

Mechanical design Power electronics design Control algorithms Finite element
model Model predictive control

2.1
2.1.1

Introduction
Framework of Multi-disciplinary Design

Figure 2.1 illustrates a general framework of multi-disciplinary design for electrical

machines and drive systems. As shown, three main components, i.e., motor, power
electronics and controller, have to be investigated when designing such electrical
drive systems [1, 2]. The main design procedure includes the following steps.
Firstly, dene the specications of the electrical machine and drive system
required by a given application, which include the steady state specications, such
as the rated power, speed range, voltage, current, efciency, power factor (in case of
AC machines), volume and cost, and dynamic performances, such as the maximum
overshoot, settling time, and stability.
Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2016
G. Lei et al., Multidisciplinary Design Optimization Methods
for Electrical Machines and Drive Systems, Power Systems,
DOI 10.1007/978-3-662-49271-0_2

25

26

Design Fundamentals of Electrical Machines and Drive Systems

Fig. 2.1 Multi-disciplinary design framework of electrical machines and drive systems

Secondly, select a type of the motor, power electronic converter, and control
algorithm from possible options. The motor options include permanent magnet
(PM) motors, induction machines, synchronous machines, DC machines, and switched reluctance machines. For servo drives, stepping motors and other types of servo
motors can be considered. In this step, different motor topologies have to be investigated as well. The power electronic converter options mainly include the different
topologies of AC/DC, DC/DC, and DC/AC converters. The controller design mainly
investigates the control strategies and algorithms, such as eld oriented control
(FOC), direct torque control (DTC), and model predictive control (MPC).
Thirdly, based on the selected motor type, converter circuit, and control scheme,
various disciplinary-level analyses should be conducted to evaluate the performance
of the drive system. For example, the motor design analysis consists of mainly the
electromagnetic, thermal and mechanical analyses (the shaded boxes in the gure).
Coupled-eld analyses may be required in the design process, such as
electromagnetic-thermal and electromagnetic-mechanical stress analyses.
In summary, the design of electrical machines and drive systems mainly consists
of the analyses of ve coupled disciplines or domains: electromagnetic, thermal,
mechanical, power electronics, and controller designs. The following sections will
present the popular design analysis models and methods for each discipline.

2.1.2

Power Losses and Efciency

Power losses and efciency are two main issues in the design analysis of electrical
machines and drive systems. The power losses are mainly composed of the copper
loss, core loss, mechanical loss, and stray loss.

2.1 Introduction

27

(1) The copper loss or Ohmic loss: PCu I 2 R is the power dissipated in stator and
rotor windings due to the resistance of copper wire, where I is the winding
current and R the winding resistance. Normally the DC resistance is used in
the calculation. However, it should be noted that the winding resistance
depends on the operating conditions, i.e., temperature and frequency (due to
the skin effects). In case of the brushes and slip rings/commutator, the effect of
contact resistance is often accounted for by assuming a voltage drop of 2 V.
(2) The core loss is the power dissipated in a magnetic core due to the variation of
magnetic eld. This occurs in the stator and/or rotor iron core of an electrical
machine subject to AC excitations. Practically, it can be measured by
open-circuit or no-load tests. When the magnetic material is under an alternating sinusoidal ux excitation, the alternating core loss can be calculated by
Pa Cha fBh Cea fB2 Caa fB1:5

2:1

where f is the excitation frequency, B the magnitude of sinusoidal magnetic

ux density, and Cha, Cea, Caa, and h are the alternating core loss coefcients.
In case of rotating electrical machines, the rotational core losses have to be
considered. Figure 2.2 plots the average core losses with alternating ux
density from 2 to 2,000 Hz and circular rotating ux density vectors from 5 to
1,000 Hz of a cubic soft magnetic composite (SMC) SOMALYTM 500 sample
[3]. These are the standard core loss data used to identify the core loss model
parameters. The circularly rotational core loss can be calculated by
Pr Phr Cer fB2 Car fB1:5

2:2

where
"
#
Phr
1=s
1=2  s
a1

f
a2 1=s2 a23 a2 1=2  s2 a23
and
s1

B
Bs

q
1  1=a22 a23 

Bs is the saturation ux density, and Cer, Car, a1, a2 and a3 are the rotational
core loss coefcients.
When the material is under a two dimensional elliptically rotating B excitation,
the core loss can be computed by
Per RB Pr 1  RB 2 Pa

2:3

28

Design Fundamentals of Electrical Machines and Drive Systems

Fig. 2.2 Average core losses

under a alternating and
b circular rotating magnetic
uxes [3]

where RB Bmin =Bmaj is the axis ratio, Bmin and Bmaj are the magnitudes of
the minor and major axes of the ellipse, respectively, and Pr and Pa the
corresponding rotational and alternating core losses when B = Bmaj. More
details about the rotational core losses can be found in [39].
(3) The mechanical losses are the power losses caused by the friction (brushes,
slip rings/commutator, shaft and bearing), damping, windage, and cooling fan.
It can be approximately determined by no-load test. In design, empirical data
are used.
(4) The stray loss is the power loss caused by stray factors that are hard to
determine separately, such as the non-uniform current distribution in conductors and additional core loss due to distorted magnetic ux distribution for
various reasons. Because it is usually difcult to determine accurately the stray
loss, estimations based on experimental tests and empirical judgment are

2.1 Introduction

29

acceptable. For most types of machines, this can be assumed to be 1 % of the

output power.
In most electrical machines, the stator and/or rotor cores subject to varying
magnetic uxes are made of laminated silicon steels, which have low core loss, and
hence the major power loss is the copper loss. Depending on the type of machine,
the copper loss normally accounts for 8090 % of the total loss.
Based on the above analysis, the efciency of a machine can be calculated by
g

Pout Pin  PCu PCore PMec PStray

Pin
Pin

2:4

Typical values of full load efciency for rotating machines are:

50 % or less for fractional horse power motors (a few W to a few hundreds of
W),
7585 % for electrical machines of 1 kW to a few tens of kW,
8595 % for electrical machines of 100 kW to 1 MW, and
9598 % or above for electrical machines of 1 MW to a few hundreds of MW
(e.g. 98 % for 100 MVA turbo generator).

2.2

Electromagnetic Design

Since electrical machines are electromagnetic devices for transforming electrical

power at one voltage to another (transformers) or converting electric power into
mechanical power or vice versa (motors or generators) by the principle of electromagnetic induction, electromagnetic design is a fundamental design stage of
electrical machines and drive systems, and is usually based on the following three
kinds of analysis models: the analytical model, magnetic circuit model, and nite
element model (FEM) [1020].

2.2.1

Analytical Model

Analytical model is generally used to calculate the performance indicators of

electrical machines, such as the output power, torque, and cogging torque. For
example, the power and sizing equations are the powerful ways to guide the design
of PM motors [10, 11]. By utilizing the current density in the sizing equation, some
basic internal relationships can be found among the main dimensions to maximize
the torque density.
Assuming the ux linkage of stator winding in a PM motor is sinusoidal, and
ignoring the winding resistance, the input power Pin can be expressed by

30

m
Pin
T

ZT
0

Design Fundamentals of Electrical Machines and Drive Systems

m
etitdt
T

ZT
Em sin





2p
2p
m
t Im sin
t dt Em Im
T
T
2

2:5

where m is the number of phases, Em the peak value of back electromotive force
(EMF), Im the peak value of phase current, and T the electrical time period. The
output torque can be calculated by
Tout

Pout
m
g pkp Ksf As Jm
2
xr

2:6

where is the efciency, p the number of pole pairs, p the peak value of PM ux
linkage, r the mechanical rotary speed, Ksf the slot ll factor, As the slot area, and
Jm the peak of current density. For different kinds of PM motors, p and As are
related differently to their dimensions [2123].

2.2.2

Magnetic Circuit Model

The magnetic circuit model acts as a uniform principle in descriptive magnetostatics, and as an approximate computational aid in electrical machine design. The
model uses the conception of magnetic reluctance to establish an equivalent circuit
for approximate analysis of static magnetic eld in electrical machines [24]. To
illustrate this model, a PM transverse ux machine (TFM) designed by SMC
material is investigated.
The SMC material is a relatively new soft magnetic material that has many
advantages over the conventional silicon steel sheets. The main advantages of SMC
material are the magnetic and mechanical isotropy and low cost, high productivity,
and high quality manufacturing capability of complex electromagnetic components
by the matured powder metallurgical molding technology, which will enable low
cost high productivity commercial manufacturing of SMC motors for a great variety
of electrical appliances [2432].
In our previous work, a 3D ux PM TFM with SMC stator core was developed.
Figure 2.3 shows a photo of the PM-SMC TFM prototype. This machine was
initially designed to deliver an output power of 640 W at 1800 rev/min. It has 20
poles in the external PM rotor, i.e., 120 PMs in the rotor and 60 SMC teeth in the
stator. The stator core is made of SMC SOMALOYTM 500. The operating frequency of this motor is 300 Hz at 1800 rev/min. Table 2.1 tabulates the main design
dimensions for this TFM [24, 25].
In order to briey predict the performance of this TFM, a sketchy magnetic circuit
model as shown in Fig. 2.4 can be used. Figure 2.4 illustrates the main ux circuit
model and ux path of this TFM, where the resistances represent the magnetic
reluctances and the current source (PhiPM) stands for the magneto-motive forces
(mmfs) of PMs, and thus Rry represents the magnetic reluctance of rotor, Rm the

2.2 Electromagnetic Design

31

(a)
(b)

Fig. 2.3 Photo of the PM-SMC TFM prototype, a PM rotor, and b 3 stack SMC stator
Table 2.1 Main design
dimensions of PM-SMC TFM

Par.

x1
x2
x3
x4
x5
x6
x7
x8

Description
Number of phases
Number of poles
Number of stator teeth
Number of magnets
Stator outer radius
Effective stator axial length
PM circumferential angle
PM width
SMC tooth circumferential width
SMC tooth axial width
SMC tooth radial height
Number of turns
Diameter of copper wire
Air gap length

Unit

mm
mm
degree
mm
mm
mm
mm

mm
mm

Value
3
20
60
120
40
93
12
9
9
8
10.5
125
1.25
1.0

magnetic reluctance of PM, Rg the magnetic reluctance of the air gap, Rst1 the
magnetic reluctance of the stator teeth, Rst2 and Rsy stand for the magnetic reluctance
of the stator yoke. By analyzing this model, the main magnetic ux can be calculated.
Meanwhile, the magnetic ux leakage is a serious problem in this TFM, thus it
should be considered in the magnetic circuit model. Several ux leakage models
can be constructed for this TFM. Figure 2.5 illustrates the main ux leakage model.
In this model, the adjacent PM in the one side of the machine is modeled, where
Rry1 represents the magnetic reluctance of rotor, Rg1 and Rg2 represent the magnetic
reluctance of the air gap, Rs1 stands for the magnetic reluctance of the stator.
With the computed ux linkage, the resultant magnetic ux density in the air gap
and the ux per turn of coil can be estimated. After calculation, the obtained ux
per turn of this PM-SMC TFM is 0.32 mWb, which is higher than the calculated
result (0.28 mWb) by using the FEM [24].
This model can be also used to evaluate the performance of the motor. Based on
the calculated magnetic ux of the motor, the ux linkage per phase equals the

32

Design Fundamentals of Electrical Machines and Drive Systems

(a)

(b)

Fig. 2.4 Main ux circuit and ux path of the PM-SMC TFM, a magnetic circuit model, b ux
path in 2D plane

(a)
(b)

Fig. 2.5 Flux leakage circuit and path of the PM-SMC TFM, a magnetic circuit model, b leakage
path in 2D plane

number of coil turns multiplied by the magnetic ux of each coil turn, and it can be
computed as
kPM kl Ncoil pUgap

2:7

where PM is the PM ux linkage per phase, kl the leakage coefcient, Ncoil the
number of turns of the phase winding, p the number of pole pairs, and gap is ux
per coil turn. The back EMF can be expressed as

2.2 Electromagnetic Design

33

Em xe kPM pxm kPM

2:8

where e = pm is the electrical angular frequency, and m the mechanical angular

speed. The electromagnetic torque Tem can be expressed as
Tem

p
2
Pem
mpkPM Im

2
xm

2:9

After the calculation, the no-load back EMF is 53.26 V at the rated speed of
1800 rev/min. According to (2.9), the electromagnetic torque is 4.66 Nm at the
rated current of 5.5 A (RMS value). Compared to the electromagnetic torque
obtained from FEM, i.e., 4.08 Nm, the relative error is about 0.58/4.08 = 14.21 %.

2.2.3

Finite Element Model

FEM is a widely used analysis model for eld analysis in electrical machines as
well as other electromagnetic devices. The theory of FEM can be found in many
books and research papers. The PM-SMC TFM investigated above will be
employed as an example to show the application of FEM for designing electrical
machines.
When analyzing the magnetic eld distribution, we used eld analysis software
package ANSYS, and taking advantage of the periodical symmetry, we only need
to analyze one pole-pair region of the machine, as shown in Fig. 2.6a. At the two
radial boundary planes, the magnetic scalar potential obeys the periodical boundary
conditions:
um r; Dh; z um r; Dh; z

2:10

Fig. 2.6 a One pole pitch of FEM solution region for one phase (stack), and b magnetic eld
distribution under no-load

34
Table 2.2 Key PM-SMC
TFM parameters

Design Fundamentals of Electrical Machines and Drive Systems

Parameter

Unit

Calculated

Measured

Motor back EMF

constant
Phase resistance
Phase inductance
Maximal cogging torque

Vs

0.247

0.244

mH
Nm

0.310
6.68
0.339

0.305
6.53
0.320

where Dh 18 mechanical is the angle of one pole pitch. The origin of the
cylindrical coordinate is located at the center of the stack.
Figure 2.6b illustrates the magnetic eld distribution under no-load. Based on
the FEM analysis, the calculated key motor parameters for this machine are listed in
Table 2.2. The measured parameters are also listed in the table to show the effectiveness of the FEM method. As shown, the measured motor back EMF constant is
0.244 Vs, 1 % lower than the calculated value of 0.247 Vs. The calculated phase
resistance and inductance, and maximal cogging torque are 0.310 , 6.68 mH and
0.339 Nm, respectively, which are very close to the measured values (0.305 ,
6.53 mH and 0.320 Nm). In summary, the estimated parameters calculated by the
FEM-based method are well aligned with the experimental results. Therefore, FEM
is better than magnetic circuit model, and it is reliable to be used for optimization of
the electromagnetic design of electrical machines.
Moreover, the output performance parameters, such as output power, torque and
efciency, can be estimated with the calculated electromagnetic parameters mentioned above. In the estimation, the control method is assumed to maintain that the
d-axis component of current equals zero. Figure 2.7 shows the per phase equivalent
electric circuit of this motor under the assumed control method.
Based on this per phase equivalent electrical circuit, the main relationships of the
motor can be predicted by
Vin

q
Ea Ia Ra 2 xe La Ia 2

2:11

Pin 3Vin Ia cos u

2:12

Pout Pin  Pcore  Pcopper  Pmech

2:13

Tout

Pout
xr

2:14

where Vin is the input voltage, Ea the back EMF, Ia the armature current, e the
electric angular frequency, La the inductance, Ra the resistance, the angle between
Vin and Ea, Pin the input power, Pout the output power, Pcore the core loss, Pcopper
the copper loss, Pmech the mechanical loss, Tout the output torque, and r the
mechanical angular speed.
In motor with SMC cores, unlike the conventional motors made of silicon sheet
steels, the core loss can be a major part among all power losses, and the mechanical

2.2 Electromagnetic Design

35

Fig. 2.7 Per phase equivalent

electric circuit and phasor
diagrams of the motor

loss is generally considered as 11.5 % of the output power. In general, the core
loss prediction in the TFM should be calculated by using the FEM based on the
multi-frequency core loss characteristic of the material. More comparison results
can be seen in [24, 25].

2.3
2.3.1

Thermal Design
Thermal Limits in Electrical Machines

The rating of an electrical machine gives its working capability under the specied
electrical and environmental conditions. Major factors that determine the ratings are
thermal and mechanical considerations. To obtain an economic utilization of the
materials and safe operation of the motor, it is necessary to predict with reasonable
accuracy the temperature rise of the internal parts, especially in the coils and
magnets.
The temperature rise resulted from the power losses in an electrical machine
plays a key role in rating the power capacity of the machine, i.e., the amount of
power it can convert without being burnt for a specied length of life time. The life
expectancy of a large industrial electrical machine ranges from 10 to 50 years or
more. In an aircraft or electronic equipment, it can be of the order of a few thousand
hours, whereas in a military application, e.g. missile, it can be only a few minutes.