Comparative Study Between a Novel Multi-Tooth and a V-Shaped Flux-Switching Permanent Magnet Machines

In this paper, on the basis of a conventional 12-stator-coils/17-rotor-teeth (12/17) flux-switching permanent magnet (PM) (FSPM) machine and a 6/17 V-shaped FSPM machine, a novel 6/17 multi-tooth FSPM machine with a pair of magnets located in the upper apex of stator tooth is proposed. Then, four multi-tooth topologies sharing the same 6-stator-coils but with different rotor teeth combinations, namely, 6/17, 6/10, 6/11, and 6/13, are compared by the 2-D finite element analysis (2-D-FEA). The FEA-predicted results reveal the optimal combinations of stator coils and rotor teeth should be 6/17 for high-performance multi-tooth machines. Thereafter, an optimal design criterion of multi-tooth FSPM machines for the combinations of stator coils and rotor teeth is proposed. Afterward, electromagnetic performance evaluation between the 6/17 V-shaped and 6/17 multi-tooth machines is conducted, in terms of back electromotive force (back EMF), electromagnetic torque, cogging torque, phase inductance, unbalanced magnetic force (UMF), torque/magnet ratio, and efficiency. The comparative results indicate that the proposed 6/17 multi-tooth machine is superior to the V-shaped one, since it exhibits much higher torque/magnet ratio, larger torque, lower inductance, and much lower UMF, though the cogging torque and total harmonic distribution of phase back EMF are unfavorably larger.