Design Optimizations of Advanced Interior Permanent-magnet Motors for Small-horsepower Refrigerant Compressor Applications

With their advantages of effective flux weakening control implementations and structural robustness, the interior permanent-magnet motors (IPMs) have been extensively adopted in refrigerant compressors. To meet the ever stringent energy efficiency ratio (EER) regulations whereas the overall material costs can be even reduced, a theoretical scheme that can systematically evaluate the torque contributions from various IPM structures will be provided to assist the desired IPM designs. Supported by results obtained from thorough finite element analyses (FEA), three advanced IPMs were designed for the specific application requirements within the allowable manufacturing overheads. Based on experimental hardware measurements, validity of adopting the proposed analytical scheme for these high energy density IPM designs can thus be confirmed.