Design and Optimization of a Fault Tolerant Modular Permanent Magnet Assisted Synchronous Reluctance Motor With Torque Ripple Minimization

This article proposes a new asymmetric modular permanent magnet assisted synchronous reluctance motor (PMaSynRM) to offer low torque ripple and high reliability. First, the stator is segmented into three modules without magnetic coupling. The influence of flux gaps between modules is investigated on torque performance. For the torque improvements, the multilevel optimization strategy is conducted, which simultaneously enhances the fault-tolerant capability. Besides, the torque ripple reduction methods are proposed with the asymmetric rotor and shifted end-slots. The analytical formulae of asymmetric flux barrier angle are derived. Then, the asymmetric flux barrier is designed to reduce the 12th harmonic, and the end-slots are shifted to minimize the additional 2nd harmonic component caused by flux gaps. Finally, the enhanced fault-tolerant capability of the proposed modular PMaSynRM is also evaluated. The effectiveness of the proposed approach is verified by both simulation and experiment.