A study on eddy-current losses in rotors of surface permanent-magnet synchronous machines

In this paper, we investigate the Eddy current (EC) losses in the rotors of surface permanent-magnet (PM) synchronous machines, which have concentrated armature windings. By the finite-element method (FEM) analysis, it is clear that the EC losses in rotors are apparently different at rated currents if the pole and slot combinations are different. The distribution of the EC density in the rotor is closely related with the asynchronous components of the armature magnetomotive force (MMF). If the armature MMF has a low order of spatial harmonic components, which is not synchronous with the rotor, the EC losses are of large amounts.