IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON MAGNETICS, VOL. 49, NO.

7, JULY 2013 3965

Development of a Novel Magnetic Circuit Model for Design of Premium

Efficiency Three-Phase Line Start Permanent Magnet Machines With
Improved Starting Performance
Xiaomin Lu, K. Lakshmi Varaha Iyer, Kaushik Mukherjee, and Narayan C. Kar
Dept. of Electrical & Computer Engineering, Centre for Hybrid Automotive Research and Green Energy, University of Windsor,
Windsor, ON N9B 3P4, Canada

This paper presents challenges in an ongoing project related to the design of a premium efficiency three-phase line start permanent
magnet synchronous motor (LSPMSM) and proposes an exclusive solution through development of a novel magnetic circuit model.
Since the LSPMSM is rapidly replacing the conventional induction motors in industrial applications such as pumps, fans and conveyors
which require the machine to operate under both frequent start-stop and steady-state conditions for a wide range of time, a trade-off
has to be reached between their starting performance and efficiency post-synchronization. Until now this has only been possible with
time consuming FEA based design methodology. Hence, understanding the need and scanty availability of literature on simplistic and
yet precise magnetic circuit based design of three-phase LSPMSM, this manuscript proposes exclusively a novel magnetic circuit model
to design LSPMSM with improved starting performance. Firstly, the aforementioned design issues have been illustrated using different
machine configurations developed. Further, a detailed procedure to deal with the design issues with the help of the developed magnetic
circuit model is discussed and validated by developing a machine where the trade-off has been reached.
Index TermsFinite element analysis, line-start permanent magnet motor, magnetic equivalent circuit model, premium efficiency,
starting performance.

I. INTRODUCTION

T HREE-PHASE line start permanent magnet synchronous

machines (LSPMSM) are rapidly replacing the conven-
tional induction machines in industrial applications such as
fans, pumps and conveyor belts [1]. Hence, this calls for ad-
vanced research on modeling and design of these relatively
complex machines to make them suitable for such applica-
tions requiring different kinds of operations. In the literature,
Fig. 1. Rotor cross-sections of the developed machines showing different
simplistic models of LSPMSM which provide satisfactory per- magnet configurations. (a) Machine A. (b) Machine B. (c) Machine C. (d)
formance have been developed, but in order to design for max- Machine D.
imum efficiency or better starting performance, leakage flux TABLE I
and saturation effects must also be considered [2]. The mag- EFFICIENCY AND STARTING TORQUE OF THE DESIGNED MACHINES
netic equivalent circuit (MEC) model is a conventional tech-
nique that has been applied to all other machines by linking
the material characteristics to the machine behavior [3], [4].
However, MEC has not been used for accurate design of a
three-phase LSPMSM. Finite-element analysis (FEA) can di-
rectly determine the flux patterns, but the entire process is
computation-intensive. Changing the design parameters (di-
mensions, slot number, and winding arrangement) in FEA Fig. 2. Cross-sections of the developed 0.55 kW machines showing two
often requires the model to be reconstructed. Taking the un- different rotor bar designs with the same magnet configuration as shown in
suitability of FEA for a preliminary design of LSPMSM as it Fig. 1(a). (a) Machine 1. (b) Machine 2.
involves complex hybrid architecture of both induction and per-
manent magnet synchronous machines, a universal MEC for
three-phase LSPMSM is of paramount importance for faster
and accurate machine design. An improved magnetic circuit
model including the leakage flux and saturation effects will
allow for rapid design optimization and provide a better starting
Fig. 3. Average electromagnetic torque profile from start to synchronization of
point for FEA refinement. Hence, this paper proposes a novel the developed LSPMSMs as shown in Fig. 2.
magnetic circuit model to design premium efficiency LSPMSM
with improved starting performance. II. CASE STUDY OF DESIGN AND ANALYSIS OF DIFFERENT
LSPMSMS EMPLOYING FEA
Manuscript received November 05, 2012; revised December 26, 2012, Jan-
uary 22, 2013; accepted January 22, 2013. Date of current version July 15, 2013.
In order to just elicit the issues in designing a LSPMSM, four
Corresponding author: X. Lu (e-mail: lu117@uwindsor.ca). machines rated at 0.55 kW having the same stator, different
Digital Object Identifier 10.1109/TMAG.2013.2242869 bar shape and different magnet configurations were designed

0018-9464/$31.00 2013 IEEE

3966
Fig. 4. A portion of the magnetic equivalent circuit including all major components of the machine structure.
based on literature study and experimental investigations per-
formed on a laboratory LSPMSM [1]. Stator of these machines
was designed by replicating the stator of a conventional induc-
tion machine and a 2D time stepping FEA was performed on
all the machines to analyze their starting performance and effi-
ciency post-synchronization. The rotor cross-sections of these
machines and results from the investigations are as presented in
Fig. 1 and Table I, respectively. It was found that the magnet
configuration shown in Fig. 1(a) leads to a better efficiency of
the machine when compared with that of the other machines
which had different magnet configurations. This superior per-
formance is because the fluxes from both sides of the magnet
are concentrated effectively in the middle of the magnetic poles
of the rotor and the reluctance of the direct axis larger than that
of the quadrature axis, because the d-axis flux passes across
the magnet with high reluctance. Hence, large reluctance torque
could be obtained [1], [5]. Furthermore, effort was now put to
improve the starting performance of the motor as required for
frequent start-stop duty by designing two different rotor bars
keeping the magnet configuration as in Fig. 1(a). Different rotor
bar designs lead to either very high starting torques or lower ef-
ficiencies or vice versa. This variation can be attributed to the re-
sistance and flux blocking capability of each of the rotor bar de-
signs. The rotor cross-sections and the average electromagnetic
torque profiles from start to synchronization of these LSPMSMs
is shown in Figs. 2 and 3 respectively. Their starting torques and
steady-state efficiencies are presented in Table I.
Hence, the designer is lost in making conclusions as changing
the dimensions and geometries of magnets and rotor bars lead
to different performances of the machine which are interrelated.
IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON MAGNETICS, VOL. 49, NO. 7, JULY 2013
Such an issue of choosing an initial design of the entire machine
can only be performed with the proposed MEC followed by an
optimization procedure. Once an initial design of the LSPMSM
using the MEC is obtained, further tuning of the design can be
performed using FEA.
III. DEVELOPED MEC MODEL OF THREE PHASE LSPMSMS
A. Construction of MEC Model for LSPMSM
MEC is a technique for modeling electromagnetic machines
that can estimate torque, flux, MMF and currents in all parts
of the motor for both steady-state and dynamic simulations. In
order to reduce the number of elements without a loss in accu-
racy, only conditions in a part of the circuit need to be calculated
instead of the entire machine circuit [3].
If , and denote the number of stator teeth, rotor teeth,
and poles pairs, only number of stator teeth and
number of rotor teeth are calculated. Accordingly, a portion
of the magnetic equivalent circuit including all major components
corresponding to the -th stator tooth, -th
rotor tooth and -th rotor pole of the machine
structure is shown in Fig. 4. Radially, are
used to represent the node potential at the joint between stator
iron, air gap, rotor iron and permanent magnet.
Element represents the reluctance of the -th stator yoke
segment in the direction of flux . Element denotes the
reluctance of the stator slot. The source is the resulting
mmf in the -th stator tooth due to currents in the coil. The air
gap accounts for the permeance between the rotor and stator.
is the permeance which connects the -th stator and -th
LU et al.: DEVELOPMENT OF A NOVEL MAGNETIC CIRCUIT MODEL FOR DESIGN OF PREMIUM EFFICIENCY THREE-PHASE LSPMSM 3967

rotor teeth. As a function of varying rotor position and current,

the rotor iron between outer magnet layer and air gap will gen-
erally have a varying flux direction. Similar to stator teeth, each
rotor tooth is also represented by a reluctance and mmf
. As to permanent magnets, one rotor pole of the machine
is separated into segments, where denotes the
number of bars per pole. The elements corresponding to -th
rotor pole are shown. Permanent magnets and air pockets be-
tween the magnets can be represented by a linear permeance in
parallel with a flux source. and
denote the constant flux source and the internal magnet leakage
permeance of each segment created by the permanent magnet.

B. Derivation of the Developed Magnetic Equivalent Circuit

Model for Three-Phase LSPMSMs
The permeance of a uniform material is given by (1)

(1)

where, and are area and length of the elements. and are
the permeability of free space and relative permeability, respec-
tively [4]. In order to account for saturation, permeability for
calculating the saturated element, permeance of which is depen-
dent on fluxes through it, is updated at each iteration of every
time step by means of the nonlinear least-squares method. Also,
the geometry of air gap elements and their interface with stator
and rotor elements is updated at each time step due to machine
rotation [3].
In the MEC method, the node potential procedure is chosen
because of its convenience for solving networks with current
sources, which are analogous to the flux sources [4]. The mag-
netic scalar potential equation as in (2) is used to calculate the
flux through each element of Fig. 4, is introduced because
the magnetic scalar potential of node is equal to zero. Using
(1) and (2), the fluxes developed in each stator and rotor slot are
calculated at each time step

(2)

where

The complete system algebraic equations should also include

the relation between current and flux in the phases and slots.
Therefore using stator winding matrices in [3]:

(3)

The currents in the machines, therefore, can be obtained by

solving differential equations in (4) and conventional mechan-
ical domain equations can be represented as in [1]

(4)
3968 IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON MAGNETICS, VOL. 49, NO. 7, JULY 2013

TABLE II
EFFICIENCY AND STARTING TORQUE OF THE MACHINE IN FIG. 6 WITH VARIATION IN DESIGN PARAMETERS

TABLE III
MACHINE DATA OF THE 0.55 KW MACHINE (35) DESIGNED THROUGH THE MEC MODEL

IV. DESIGN OF THE 0.55 KW LSPMSM THROUGH THE

Fig. 5. Flowchart illustrating the proposed MEC based design method.
DEVELOPED MAGNETIC EQUIVALENT CIRCUIT MODEL
Keeping the stator same as in Section II, rotor as in Fig. 6 was
chosen for further improvement due to its simplicity in shape of
the magnets and bar, manufacturing costs and the reasons men-
tioned in Section II. Using the MEC model, different starting
torques and efficiencies that could be obtained in this machine
through the variation of dimensions of different rotor compo-
nents such as magnet, bars and number of rotor slots were com-
puted and a few samples have been presented in Table II. Cor-
responding values of have also been given in Table II.
The maximum starting torque and maximum efficiency (min-
imum losses) that could be obtained in this machine was found
to be 41.8 Nm and 89.9%. These values were used as the base
values for computing .
As stated in Section III , it can be seen from Table II that
the design with lowest value of (machine 35) was found to
yield a trade-off between the starting torque and efficiency of the
machine post-synchronization as desired. Thus the developed
MEC model has been validated and the design parameters of
the machine 35 have been presented in Table III.

Fig. 6. Cross-sections of the developed machines under investigation through
MEC model in Section IV. (a) Stator. (b) Rotor.
The developed electromagnetic torque
by employing (5)
V. CONCLUSION
Firstly, a case study was presented on the issues faced during the
design of three LSPMSMs through FEA to elicit the importance
and need for the developed MEC. Later, the mathematical model
oftheMECwasderived and explained in detailsothatthemachine
designer can follow the proposed methodology to design a part
of the machine or the entire machine from scratch. The proposed
method was validated and found to yield satisfactory performance
can be calculated to obtain a trade-off between the starting performance and the
steady-state efficiency of the 0.55 kW machine.

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