Visualization and quantitative evaluation of eddy current loss in bar-wound type permanent magnet synchronous motor for mild-hybrid vehicles

This paper describes the conductor eddy current loss that occurs in a permanent magnet type synchronous motor with a distributed winding stator using a rectangular copper wire designed for mild hybrid system applications for small vehicles. Compared with the conventional round wire inserter method, the space factor can be improved and the coil-end length can be shortened by applying a so-called hairpin windings using a pre-formed into hairpin shape of bar conductor, and as a result, DC current resistance of the armature winding can be reduced. However, since the conductor cross-sectional area tends to increases, the conductor eddy current loss generated by the space harmonics linkage becomes too large to ignore. In order to study the reduction of the conductor eddy current loss, it is important to visualize the spatial leakage flux distribution which causes loss and finely analyze how the magnetic path is formed. Therefore, analysis of the conductor eddy current loss distribution generated in the bar-wound conductor is performed using the CAE model that faithfully reproduces the coil-end shape of the actual machine. Furthermore, it was qualitatively clarified what ratio of conductor eddy current loss at various driving points. Finally, the results of preliminary study on reduction of conductor eddy current loss are reported.