Comparison between Conventional and Novel Self-

excited Synchronous Motors

Jingcheng Jiang Gurakuq Dajaku Siheng Zhong
Quanzhou Institute of Equipment FEAAM GmbH Quanzhou Institute of Equipment
Manufacturing Neubiberg, Germany Manufacturing
Haixi Institutes, Chinese Academy of [email protected] Haixi Institutes, Chinese Academy of
Sciences, Sciences,
Quanzhou, China Quanzhou, China
[email protected] [email protected]
Zhenchuan Shi Wei Xie* Dieter Gerling
Quanzhou Institute of Equipment Quanzhou Institute of Equipment Universitaet der Bundeswehr
Manufacturing Manufacturing Muenchen
Haixi Institutes, Chinese Academy of Haixi Institutes, Chinese Academy of Neubiberg, Germany
Sciences, Sciences, [email protected]
Quanzhou, China Quanzhou, China
[email protected] [email protected]

Abstract—This paper investigates a novel multi-phase self- control the MMF and the harmonic waves and almost no or
excited synchronous machine, which can provide high torque low voltage amount can be induced in the excitation winding
at zero or very low speed. The introduced machine utilizes at zero and lower speed. Hence, the torque capability of
independent multi-phase stator winding generates the rotor SESMs is limited for these cases.
excitation. The rotor contains two winding sets, and a
multiphase diode rectifier connected between them. Compared To improve the torque of SESMs at zero and low speed,
with conventional solutions, higher torque capability at zero we investigates an advanced SESM based on the design idea
speed can be achieved. Furthermore, the steady-state and of SESM in [13]. It combines the advantages of IPT rotary
dynamic performance are verified via simulation results. transformer and the harmonic excitation. This paper is
organized as follows. Section II will introduce the design of
Keywords—Harmonic excitation, self-excited, synchronous the novel SESM. In Section III, the operation principle of the
machine, brushless excited, tooth concentrated winding. machine will be demonstrated. In section IV, the machine
performance will be verified by simulation. Finally, this
I. INTRODUCTION paper will be concluded in section V.
Permanent magnet synchronous machines (PMSM) have
been prevailed in various industry and automotive II. NOVEL DESIGN OF SESM
applications due to their high efficiency, compact size, high
energy density, and wide speed operation range. Recently, A. Stator
PMSMs using rare-earth materials are more popular than A new multiphase FSCW configuration proposed in [13]
other machine types in hybrid and electric vehicles [1]-[4]. is used in the stator winding. The stator of an exemplary 11-
phases machine is shown in Fig. 2 [14]. Each tooth is
However, the main defects of PMSM are the high costs
individually wound with a coil and the coils are no longer
and irreversible demagnetization, which leads to the
connected together as in common FSCWs. Moreover, all
development of alternative machine types without permanent
winding coils are wound in the same direction and connected
magnets. The induction motor (IM) and the electrically
directly to their own power modules. As a result, the number
excited synchronous motor (ESM) are two main acceptable
of phases m is equal to the number of slots QS for the dual
rare-earth free types. However, the rotor currents of IM
layer winding layout.
generate losses, which causes thermal problem and the
reduction of machine efficiency. And the slip rings of the
rotor winding of ESM reduce the reliability of the motor. B. Rotor
The rotor contains two winding sets, the excitation
To solve this problem, brushless excitation have been
winding E and the field winding F, and an additional
developing during the past few years. Two viable contactless
energy transfer methods are capacitive power transfer (CPT) multiphase diode rectifier between them. Besides that, the
and inductive power transfer (IPT) using rotary transformer, excitation and the field winding are realized using tooth
but the space they require is detrimental to power density
[5]-[8]. A better solution is the brushless excitation via
higher harmonics of the stator magneto motive force (MMF),
which has been called as “self-excited” synchronous
machine (SESM) [9]-[13]. As illustrated in Fig.1, the rotor of
a typical harmonic excitation system consists of two winding
sets and a rectifier between them. One of the winding sets is
called as excitation (harmonic) winding where the voltage
was induced by the MMF higher harmonics of the stator, and
the other is called as field winding generating a constant
magnetic field. However, it is impossible to independently Fig. 1. Basic circuit diagram of the rotor.

978-1-5386-7348-5/18/$31.00 ©2018 IEEE

concentrated coils wounded around the same teeth as
illustrated in Fig. 3 [13].
C. Rotor circuit
Each coil of the excitation winding is connected to its
own rectifier module. In addition, all the field winding coils
are connected in series.
To decrease the ripples of the rectification voltage, a
fourth-order Butterworth low-pass filter is disposed between
the end terminals of the field winding and the DC terminals Fig. 4. Butterworth low-pass filter in the rotor.
of the multiphase diode rectifier. The circuit diagram of the
filter is shown in Fig. 4. VR represents the rectification where, k is the phase number, ω is the current frequency,
voltage obtained, while VF represents the series voltage of and p is a variable parameter that defines the number of
the field winding coils. RS and RL denote the input pole-pairs in the MMF distribution,
impedance and the output impedance of the circuit,
respectively.  QS + 1
1, 2,..., 2 − 1, QS is odd
III. OPERATION PRINCIPLE p= (2)
A special coil configuration with different turns per coil 1, 2,..., QS − 1, QS is even
side has been used for both the stator and the rotor  2
excitation windings. The new multiphase FSCW can
provide a variable MMF distribution when supplied with a where, QS is the number of stator teeth (or slots) [13].
variable phase current, As illustrated in Figs. 5 and 6, the MMF function for the
new FSCW is approximately equal to the sum of that
 2π  generated by two winding systems. Further, the synthetic
iS ,k = Iˆ ⋅ cos  ωt − p ⋅ (k − 1)  (1) MMF function is given in (3), while the respective MMF
 m  components in (4) and (5) [13].

F ( x, t ) = Fconv ( x, t ) + Fgo-in ( x, t ) (3)

m 2 N W Iˆ 1 v  2π 
Fconv ( x, t ) =
2 π

v v
ξ w ⋅ cos  ωt − vx − ( p − v) 
 m 
(4)

m ΔnW Iˆ 1   α  2π 
Fgo-in ( x, t ) =
2 π
v v ⋅ sin  ωt − v  x + 2τ  − ( p − v)
 m 


(5)
In (4) and (5), vξw denotes the coil winding factor
determined in (6), and Δnw=Nw11-Nw12=1. Nw11 denotes the
number of turns on the first coil side, while Nw12 for the
Fig. 2. Stator 11-phase for SESM with FSCW [13].
second side. In case of the “go-in” winding system the wire
(one conductor) winding factor is always one [13].
 ατ   π
v
ξ w = sin  v  = sin  v  (6)
 2   m
A. Operation modes
1. Variable pole-pairs mode; A new operation mode with
variable pole-pairs is realized using the new winding
configuration. As shown in Fig. 9, different MMF
waveforms are obtained for different p values in the MMF
function, e.g., p=1, and 2. We investigated the 11-phases
FSCW illustrated in Fig. 2 in two different coil
configuration cases. In addition, “new coils” denotes the
new winding configuration with different turns per-coil-
side,
Fig. 3. Rotor for SESM with two winding sets and diode rictifier units[13].
 B ( x, t ) = B1 ( x, t ) + B2 ( x, t ) (7)

2mN W Iˆ1 ξw
v1
 2π 
B1 ( x, t ) = Λ0  cos  ω1t − v1 x − ( p1 − v1 ) 
a) π v v1  m
(8)

2mN W Iˆ2 v2
ξw  2π 
B2 ( x, t ) = Λ0  cos  ω2t − v2 x − ( p2 − v2 ) 
π v v2  m 

(9)
τc
+
b) 2
ψexc ( t ) = N We  ( B ( x, t ) + B ( x, t ) ) ⋅ r ⋅ l ⋅ dx
1 2
(10)
τ
- c
2

According to the Faraday law of electromagnetic induction,

Fig. 5. a). Multiphase concentrated winding, b). Turn functions of phase-k. in the excitation winding, the voltage induced by the air-gap
flux linkage is

dψ exc ,v ( t )
uexc ,v ( t ) = = uexc ,v1 ( t ) uexc ,v 2 ( t ) (11)
a) dt
Under multi-pole operation mode, the induced voltage
components are
 2π 
uexc ,v1 ( t ) = sv1ω1ψ̂v1 ⋅ sin  sv1ω1t − v1 x − ( p1 − v1 )  (12)
 m

b)  2π  (13)
uexc ,v 2 ( t ) = sv 2ω2 ψ̂v2 ⋅ sin  sv 2ω2t − v2 x − ( p2 − v2 ) 
 m
where, v-harmonic parameters of flux-linkage, flux-density,
rotor coupling factor, and the slip-frequency are as follows
Fig. 6. a). Multiphase “go-in” winding, b). Turn functions of phase-k.
1 2mN W N We Iˆ v
ξ
while “conventional coils” represents the common or ψ̂ v = 2rlBˆ v vξ ψ,exc , Bˆ v = Λ0 w
symmetrical coils usually used in electric machines. The v π v (14)
graphical results show that, using new coils, different  τ 
v
ω −ω
harmonic contents or MMF waveforms can be generated
v
ξ ψ,exc = sin  v c  , v
s = v S = 1 − v(1 − s )
 2 ω
depending on the p value. Further, the new coil
configuration improves the resulting winding factors and It can be concluded from (12) to (14), the voltage
with this the amplitude of fundamental waves [13]. induced by MMF harmonics of fundamental current I1 will
2. Multi pole-pairs mode; The new winding makes it be zero when the rotor speed is zero (n=0rpm, ω1=0rad).
possible to generate and control several pole pairs However, as shown in (13), if the machine is simultaneously
simultaneously, which is called as “multi-pole” operation supplied with a second harmonic current, then any desired
mode. As illustrated in Fig. 9c), two different pole-pairs are voltage can be induced in the excitation winding regardless
generated at the same time, with p1=1, p2=2, and Ieff2 = Ieff1/2. of the rotor speed. In addition, I2, ω2, and p2 are variable
The amplitude, frequency and the rotation direction of parameters which can be varied separately from the main
induced MMF waves can be adjusted separately, which can current. The conventional rotor excitation is performed only
improve the torque capability at lower rotor speeds [13]. by the MMF harmonics in common SESMs, but different
ways can be used in the novel SESM, e.g.
B. Rotor excitation at zero speed
In multi-pole mode, two different air-gap flux density 1. The harmonic current excitation is performed at zero
components can be generated and controlled independently rotor speed.
when the new multiphase FSCW is supplied with the 2.At lower speeds, both the harmonic current excitation
fundamental current as well as a higher harmonic excitation and the MMF higher harmonic excitation are utilized.
current. The air-gap flux density components obtained are 3.Only the MMF higher harmonic excitation is used
given in (7) to (9) [9]-[13]. Index 1 notes parameters for the when the rotor speed achieves a specific speed.
fundamental current, and index 2 for the excitation current. In summary, the rotor excitation can be performed at any
In (10), the flux-linkage in the rotor excitation winding can operation point independent from the rotor speed. Therefore,
be obtained by performing a surface integral of the air-gap the novel SESM can generate any desired torque over the
flux-density over the coils surface. (l means the active complete torque speed area [13].
length of the machine, and r is the air-gap radius).
 where, ωC=2πfC, and fC denotes the cut-off frequency of
the filter. The parameters with an apostrophe are
normalization values which can be determined in the
normalization value table of the Butterworth low-pass filter
(L1´=0.7654H, L3´=1.8478H, C2´=1.8478F, C4´=0.7654F).

a) Fig. 9 presents the result of filtered voltage obtained with

fC=700Hz and 100Hz. The ripples of the voltage have
decreased to 4.5% when fC was set to 700Hz. Further, the
voltage is almost constant with fC=300Hz.

IV. EXEMPLARY SESM AS TRACTION MOTOR

To test the performance of the novel SESM, we used
ANSYS-Maxewell to establish a machine calculation model
based on the stator illustrated in Fig. 2 and rotor in Fig. 3.
The machine model and the flux density of the machine at
the nominal operation point is shown in Fig. 10 and Fig. 11.

b)

Fig. 8. Rectification voltage at the operation point with nominal speed.

c)

a)

Fig. 7. MMF characteristics for, a). p=1, b). p=2, c). Multi pole-pairs
operation mode (p1=1&p2=2).

C. Butterworth low-pass filter

As shown in Fig. 8, the rectification voltage obtained at
the operation point with nominal speed (f1=350Hz, f2=0Hz,
I1=100A, I2=0A, n=5200rpm) fluctuated greatly. The
considerable ripples resulted in the impossibility of a
constant magnetic field. Thus, a fourth-order Butterworth
low-pass filter was used to filter the rectification voltage,
which is shown in Fig. 4. The values of inductances and b)
capacitances in the circuit are determined in (15).
RS RS
L1 = L1′, C2 = C2′
ωC ωC
(15)
RS RS
L3 = L3′ , C4 = C4′
ωC ωC Fig. 9. Filtered voltage with, a). fC=700Hz, b). fC=300Hz.
The number of pole-pair of the fundamental wave was set to from it. While the excitation current I2 will be used to
four (p=4), and the number of rotor poles was defined to be induce voltage and current on the rotor winding, and the
8. In addition, the main parameters about the machine are induced amount depends from the amplitude and frequency
given in Table-I. of I2. Fig. 10 shows the induced voltage in rotor at rectifier

The SESM will be excited with the multi pole-pair

current function at zero and lower speed. Index 1 in (15)
denotes the current parameters responsible for the
fundamental MMF wave, while index 2 for the rotor
harmonic excitation [13].
 2π  ˆ  2π  (15)
iS , k = Iˆ1 cos  ω1t − p1 ( k − 1)  + I 2 cos  ω2t − p2 (k − 1) 
 m   m
At zero speed, the frequency of the first current
component is zero (f1=0Hz), so no voltage will be induced

Fig. 12. Induced rotor DC voltage at rectifier terminals at 0rpm for p2 =2.

a)

Fig. 10. Multiphase self-excited traction motor.

b)

Fig. 11. Flux density of the machine at the nominal operation point.

TABLE I. MAIN MACHINE DATA

Active length 165mm

Outer stator diameter 220mm

Outer rotor diameter 140mm c)

Gap length 1mm

Turns per phase - Stator Nw11=13, Nw12=14

Turns per phase – Rotor field winding Nf=240

Turns per phase – Rotor excitation winding New11=4, New12=5

Iron Core material B35AV1900 Fig. 13. Electromagnetic torque, torque ripples, and rotor field currents at
Number of rotor poles 8 zero speed, and as function of load and excitation currents.
terminals as function of I2 and f2 when I1=0A. Therefore, [7] C. Stancu, T. Ward, et al., “Separately excited synchronous motor
sufficient voltage can be induced at zero speed with with rotary transformer for hybrid vehicle application,” In Energy
Conversion Congress and Exposition (ECCE), 2014 IEEE, pages
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is supplied with both the fundamental and the excitation International Conference on Electrical Machines (ICEM-2016),
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that any desired torque value can be generated depending Excited Synchronous Machines with Fractional Slots,” 10th
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[11] M. Aoyama and T. Noguchi, “Mathematical model of novel wound
V. CONCLUSIONS field synchronous motor self-excited by space harmonics,”
To improve the torque capability of SESMs at zero and International Power Electronics Conference (IPEC-Hiroshima 2014
- ECCE-ASIA), 2014, May 2014, pp. 1405–1.
lower speeds, this paper investigates an advanced self-
excited SM design combining the merits of the IPT rotary [12] L. Zhang, R. D. Lorenz, “Design and Analysis of a New Five-
Phase Brushless Hybrid-Excitation Fault-Tolerant Motor for
transformer and the harmonic excitation concepts. The Electric Vehicles,” IEEE Transactions on Industry Applications,
stator winding is composed of a novel multiphase FSCW Vol. 53, No. 4, pp. 3428–3437, July/August 2017.
which has the ability to generate various MMF waves, and [13] G. Dajaku and D. Gerling, "Self-excited Synchronous Machine
to control their amplitudes and frequencies separately. In with High Torque Capability at Zero Speed," 2018 International
addition, the rotor excitation winding is realized also as a Symposium on Power Electronics, Electrical Drives, Automation
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stator and rotor coils have used a special coli configuration [14] G. Dajaku, “Elektrische Maschine, Ansteuerungseinheit und
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power density and efficiency have been improved. due to Magnets using the New Analytical Model”, 19th
International Conference on Electrical Machines (ICEM2010),
To test the performance of the proposed machine, a September 2010, Rom, Italy.
machine calculation model was established with finite
elements for different load conditions. At zero and lower
operation speeds, the fundamental and the excitation
current components work together. The former causes
torque production and the latter leds to the rotor excitation.
The simulation results show that enough voltage can be
induced by this way at zero speed. When the speed
exceeds a specific value, the rotor excitation will be
performed using only the MMF higher harmonics from the
fundamental current. Therefore, any desired torque can be
realized by using different control strategies and selecting
proper current parameters. In conclusion, the torque
capability of the novel SESM isn’t limited at any speed or
load condition.

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