A Study on a Slotless Brushless DC Motor with Toroidal Winding

In this study we developed a brushless DC (BLDC) slotless motor with toroidal winding. The proposed toroidal winding is a method of winding a coil around a ring-type stator yoke in the circumferential direction. As there is no need for a slot or tooth structure, it can be designed with a slotless motor structure that is advantageous for vibration and noise. The basic principle of operation and motor characteristics of a slotless motor with toroidal winding were explained using an analytical method and finite element analysis (FEA). Further, the air gap flux density, winding factor, and back electromotive force (EMF) for changes in the winding angle and number of coil turns were calculated using the analytical method and compared with the FEA results. Finally, the resistance, back EMF, cogging torque, and performance of the prototype were measured and compared with the FEA results. The results show that the air gap flux density and winding factor were approximately the same with an error of <2%, while the back EMF had an error of ~10% from the analysis result. Thus, the proposed slotless motor provides a basic design for conveniently manufacturing brushless DC (BLDC) slotless motors with toroidal windings.

Multi-Phase Fractional-Slot PM Synchronous Machines with Enhanced Open-Circuit Fault-Tolerance: Viable Candidates for Automotive Applications

This paper deals with the winding arrangement of multi-phase fractional-slot permanent magnet (PM) synchronous machines (FSPMSMs), with emphasis on the enhancement of their open-circuit fault-tolerance capability. FSPMSMs are reputed by their attractive intrinsic fault-tolerance capability, which increases with the number of phases. Of particular interest is the open-circuit fault-tolerance capability, which could be significantly enhanced through the parallel connection of the coils or suitable combinations of the coils of each phase. Nevertheless, such an arrangement of the armature winding is applicable to a limited set of slot-pole combinations. The present work proposes a design approach that extends the slot-pole combinations to candidates that are characterized by a star of slots including three phasors per phase and per winding period. It has the merit of improving the tolerance against open-circuit faults along with an increase in the winding factor of multi-phase machines. Special attention is paid to characterization of the coil asymmetry required for the phase parallel arrangement. A case study, aimed at a finite element analysis (FEA)-based investigation of the open-circuit fault-tolerance of a five-phase FSPMSM, is treated in order to validate the analytical prediction.

The Use of Concentrated Windings for High-Power Synchronous Wind Generators

Low-power machines were commonly considered as the main application field of concentrated windings. However, a lot of paper have recently been published, which address both the theory of these windings and specific cases of their application for large synchronous machines. The article presents an analysis of the parameters of concentrated windings having various configurations intended for use in high-power gear and gearless wind generators. In assessing the winding, not only the high winding factor value was taken into account, but also the star of slot EMFs, harmonic spectra of the MMFs and EMFs, the cogging torque component and torque pulsation under load, as well as emerging losses. It is shown that the well-known advantages of concentrated windings over distributed windings can be fully realized by choosing the appropriated numbers of slots and poles.

Application of Concentrated Windings for High-Power Synchronous Wind Generators

The article analyzes the parameters of various configurations concentrated windings for application in high-power geared and direct drive wind generators. It is specified that the concentrated windings advantages over distributed ones can be fully realized by choosing the right values of pole pairs and the slots number. It is shown that the choice of the winding should take into account not only the highest winding factor, but also to the star of slots for the analysis of the harmonic contents of the magnetomotive force (MMF) and electromotive force (EMF), cogging torque and load torque pulsation. Windings with performance conditions Z=12+6k, 2p=Z ±2, k=0,1,2,3,…having an odd number of pole pairs are recommended for high-power wind generators.

GENERAL CALCULATION OF WINDING FACTOR FOR MULTI-PHASE/-LAYER ELECTRICAL MACHINES IRRESPECTIVE OF POLES NUMBER

In this paper, a method to calculate the winding factor by only considering stator parameters without the rotor ones is developed. This is interesting because it allows the separation of the stator and rotor design, unlike the existing methods in the literature. A general method based on the matrix representation of a winding is presented. This approach requires the knowledge of four parameters : i) slots number, ii) phases number, iii) layers number, and iv) single-phase spatial distribution. A new feature of the multi-layer windings is introduced, it is called false-zero windings, which is divided into two categories: i) α-windings (i.e., odd false-zero windings), and ii) β-windings (i.e., even false-zero windings). The windings having no false-zero are categorized as γ-windings. The calculations are applied for single and multi-phase/-layer windings. The results of the comparison are satisfactory. The code used for the calculation is given in Appendix.