Rotating analysis of 18-slot/16-pole Permanent Magnet Synchronous Motor for Light Electric Vehicle using FEM

This paper discusses the rotating analysis for 18-slot/16-pole Permanent Magnet Synchronous Motor (PMSM) using Finite Element Method. The PMSM is applied for Light Electric Vehicle (LEV) which has about 200 kg net mass and maximum velocity of 30 km/h. The motor is located in the wheels of the LEV. The motor is built using three main components i.e. laminated steel iron, coils, and Neodymium-Iron-Boron permanent magnet. The permanent magnet is attached to the surface of the rotor. The motor have 360 winding turns per phase and 10 A maximum current is flowing into the coils. The induced back-emf, cogging torque, and magnetic flux of the motor are analyzed. The results show that the motor is capable to generate an approximately 550 V back-emf, low cogging torque less than 0.5 Nm, maximum power of 5.5 kW and average torque of 81 Nm. The value of back-emf can be adjusted by changing the motor parameters such as coil turns per phase, rotor radius, axial length or magnet thickness. These values will determine the motor parameters required to design the power electronics converter for LEV.