Calculation of No-Load Rotor Eddy-Current Power Loss in PM Synchronous Machines

Rotor power losses in magnetic bearings cannot be accurately calculated at this time because of the complexity of the magnetic field distribution and several other effects. The losses are due to eddy currents, hysteresis, and windage. This paper presents measured results in radial magnetic bearing configurations with 8 pole and 16 pole stators and two laminated rotors. Two different air gaps were tested. The rotor power losses were determined by measuring the rundown speed of the rotor after the rotor was spun up to speeds of approximately 30,000 rpm, DN = 2,670,000 mm-rpm, in atmospheric air. The kinetic energy of the rotor is converted to heat by magnetic and air drag power loss mechanisms during the run down. Given past publications and the opinions of researchers in the field, the results were quite unexpected. The measured power losses were found to be nearly independent of the number of poles in the bearing. Also, the overall measured rotor power loss increased significantly as the magnetic flux density increased and also increased significantly as the air gap thickness decreased. A method of separating the hysteresis, eddy current and windage losses is presented. Eddy current effects were found to be the most important loss mechanism in the data analysis, for large clearance bearings. Hysteresis and windage effects did not change much from one configuration to the other.

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A Novel Rotor Eddy Current Loss Estimation Method for Permanent Magnet Synchronous Machines with Small Inductance and a Conductive Rotor Sleeve

Energies ◽

10.3390/en12193760 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 12 (19) ◽

pp. 3760 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Pei ◽

Li ◽

Guo ◽

Yang ◽

Keyword(s):

Fourier Analysis ◽

Permanent Magnet ◽

Eddy Current ◽

Estimation Method ◽

Synchronous Machines ◽

Design Stage ◽

Permanent Magnet Synchronous Machines ◽

Current Harmonics ◽

Higher Power ◽

Small Inductance

Typically, permanent magnet synchronous machines (PMSMs) with small inductance can achieve a higher power density and higher power factor. Thus, in many industrial applications, more and more PMSMs are being designed with small inductance. Compared with traditional PMSMs, current harmonics in small inductance PMSMs are much more abundant, and the amplitudes are usually high. These current harmonics will cause large eddy current losses (ECLs) on the rotor, making the estimation of ECLs necessary in the design stage. Currently, ECL estimation methods are usually based on frequency order information, which cannot tell the travelling direction of the harmonic magneto-wave, resulting in the inaccuracy of the estimation. This article proposes a novel estimation method based on the mechanism of the formation of space-vector pulse width modulation (PWM), which considers both the frequency order and travelling direction of the harmonic wave, resulting in the improvement of the accuracy. Besides this, by using double Fourier analysis (DFA) instead of traditional fast Fourier analysis (FFA), the predicted frequencies of the current harmonics are more accurate and free of the troubles caused by traditional FFA-based methods. Simulation study and experiments are conducted to show the effectiveness of the proposed method.

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