Five-phase permanent-magnet motor drives

A five-phase brushless permanent-magnet (PM) motor is introduced. The proposed motor has concentrated windings such that the produced back electromotive force is almost trapezoidal. The motor is supplied with the combined sinusoidal plus third harmonic of currents. This motor, while generating the same average torque as an equivalent PM brushless dc motor (BLDC), overcomes its disadvantages. The motor equations are obtained in the d₁q₁d₃q₃0 rotating reference frame. Therefore, the so-called vector control is easily applicable to this kind of motors and the motor has the same controllability as a PM synchronous motor (PMSM). For presenting the superior performance of the proposed five-phase motor, its three and five-phase PMSM and BLDC counterparts are also analyzed. Finite element method is used for studying the flux density and calculating the developed static torque. Also, the developed torque is obtained using the mathematical model in the d-q reference frame. The average torque and the torque ripple for all cases are calculated and compared. Experimental results are in good agreement with the simulation results.