Loss Breakdown of a Dual Conical Rotor Permanent Magnet Motor Using Grain Oriented Electrical Steel and Soft Magnetic Composites

This paper provides a loss breakdown of the NovaMAX® 215 frame, 1800 rpm motor at 5 kW. Mechanical losses, copper loss, and various types of electromagnetic losses are identified through experiment and simulation. The motor is able to achieve a very high efficiency, up to 96% at some operating points. A comparison with another highly efficient permanent magnet motor illustrates the benefits of the dual rotor axial flux topology, the use of grain oriented electrical steel, and the conical air gap and rotor flux focusing topology together with ferrite magnets. Additionally, a motor with a variable air gap was tested at different air gaps, and its losses are shown. At low speed and high torque, the losses are minimized with relatively small air gaps. However, at higher speeds and lower torques, the optimal air gaps are larger.