A comparison of permanent magnet machine topologies for marine propulsion applications

Four permanent magnet machine topologies - a traditional surface mounted permanent magnet machine (SMPM), a heterogeneous pole permanent magnet machine (HPM), an asymmetric salient surface mounted permanent magnet machine (APM), and an interior permanent magnet machine (IPM) - are compared for use in an electric ship propulsion application. Using a multi-objective design approach coupled with analytical and hybrid magnetic equivalent circuit (MEC) models and a highly consistent set of design constraints, Pareto fronts demonstrating the trade-off between loss and volume for each machine topology are presented and compared.