Design of 6-slot 2-pole High-Speed
Permanent Magnet Synchronous Machines
with Tooth-Coil Windings
Nikita Uzhegov, Janne Nerg and Juha Pyrh¨ onen
Abstract—This paper investigates the advantages and draw-
backs of High-Speed Permanent Magnet Synchronous Machines
(HSPMSM) having a special topology. The analysis is made by
using 3.5 kW and 11 kW machines prototypes. The machines
under consideration have 6 slots and 2 poles. The rotor is man-
ufactured as a full cylindrical magnet inside a retaining sleeve.
Non-overlapping Tooth-Coil (TC) windings were implemented to
improve the manufacturing process. The similarities and differ-
ences of the prototypes are discussed. Machines’ performances
are verified by test measurements.
I. I NTRODUCTION
High-speed electrical machines are used in many industrial
applications where high power density, small physical size as
well as high efficiency are required. Such applications include,
for example, gas compression applications, air blowers, and
high-speed energy conversion units where high-speed machine
is placed on the same shaft with turbine and compressor units
[1]–[4]. In all the aforementioned applications one of the main
benefits of using high-speed electrical machine technology is
the high level of integration which, in turn, gives advantages
in terms of total space saving.
In high-speed machinery the number of pole pairs is usually
minimized in order to avoid the costs due to the increase of the
inverter switching frequency. If we consider a machine with
the number of pole pairs p = 1, the axial length required normal
integral-slot winding end-windings could easily be more than
the axial length of the active stator stack. This problem is
quite evident in low power machines having traditional integral
slot wound stator. To minimize the space needed by the end-
windings, tooth-coils can be utilized in the stator instead of
traditional windings.
In this paper a three-phase, high-speed permanent magnet
synchronous machine topology having six stator slots and two
poles is presented. The rotor structure consists of diametrically
magnetized permanent magnet and metallic retaining sleeve.
The stator winding consists of six tooth coils, and the winding
scheme is equivalent of a traditional slot winding having a
short pitching of 1/3. Two high-speed machines were designed
and manufactured. The first machine was designed for a gas
blower application. The power of the first machine is 3.5 kW
and its nominal speed is 45 000 rpm. The machine utilizes
active magnetic bearings (AMBs) [5], [6]. The second machine
was designed as a generator in a micro Organic Rankine
Cycle (ORC) power plant. Its nominal power and speed are
11 kW and 32 000 rpm, respectively. The second machine
Nikita Uzhegov, Janne Nerg and Juha Pyrh¨ onen are with LUT-
Energy, Lappeenranta University of Technology, P.O. Box 20, 53851
Lappeenranta, Finland (e-mail: nikita.uzhegov@lut.fi, janne.nerg@lut.fi,
juha.pyrhonen@lut.fi).
has a segmented stator structure to facilitate easy winding
manufacturing.
The paper is organized as follows. First the design and
the main parameters of both the machines are presented. The
calculation results obtained by Finite element analysis (FEA)
are presented. The measurement results of the 11 kW machine
are given and the calculation results obtained from FEA are
compared with the measurements.
II. DESIGN AND LOSS DISTRIBUTION
The topologies of both 3.5 kW and 11 kW high-speed
machines are similar. Each machine has 6 slots and 2 poles.
The rotor consist of the diametrically magnetized full cylindri-
cal magnets inside the retaining sleeves. The retaining sleeves
transfer the torque to the shaft. Both machines have tooth-
coil windings. Semi-magnetic wedges are installed between the
tooth tips. However, 3.5 kW machine topology utilizes open
stator slots because the coils are wound separately in a jig and
then plugged into the stator. This reduces winding work costs.
11 kW machine topology uses semi-closed slots to decrease
iron losses and reduce harmonic content.
High-speed machine design raise the materials require-
ments. The stator iron losses are highly frequency dependent.
Thereby, to minimize the stator iron losses SURA NO10 steel
with 0.1 mm thickness was selected as a stator lamination
material for the 3.5 kW machine. This material has low per unit
losses even at high frequencies. For the 11 kW machine the
M-270-35A stator lamination material with 0.35 mm thickness
was selected. This material has a higher value of specific
losses, however the geometry optimization was performed to
obtain minimum possible stator iron losses. In both cases the
lamination sheets were laser cut.
Table I compares the main parameters of the machines
under consideration. The rated speed of the 3.5 kW machine is
45 krpm, which is 45 % more than the rated speed of the 11 kW
TABLE I. DESIGNED MOTORS MAIN PARAMETERS
Machine parameter 3.5 kW PMSM 11 kW PMSM
Rated speed nn, min
-1
45000 31200
Number of stator slots Qs 6 6
Number of poles p 2 2
Rated torque Tn, Nm 0.74 3.36
Rated phase back-EMF EPM, pu 0.91 0.87
Rotor outer diameter Do,m 0.039 0.046
Air-gap diameter Di ,m 0.043 0.052
External diameter De,m 0.140 0.242
Active length l,m 0.022 0.060
Permanent magnet length lPM,m 0.032 0.070
Permanent magnet remanence Br,T 1.10 1.12
978-1-4799-4775-1/14/$31.00 ©2014 IEEE 2525