1780 IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON MAGNETICS, VOL. MAG-20, NO.

5 , SEPTEMBER 1984
APPLICATION OF MAGNETIC WEDGES TO LARGE MOTORS
Y . Takeda, T. Yagisawa, A. Suyama and M. Yamamoto
Abstract - Although high output power densi ty can be
achi eved i n el ectri cal machi nes by i ncreasi ng ai r-gap
f l ux densi ty, thi s al so i ncreases tooth ri ppl e f l ax
densi ty wi th a subsequent i ncrease i n pol e surface
loss. Thi s l oss, however, can be reduced with magnet-
i c wedges. Thi s paper descri bes the cal cul ati on of
pol e surface losses and ri ppl e f l ux densi ty, and the
ef f ect of magnetic wedges on the characteri sti cs of
practi cal motors i s shown experi mental l y.
I NTRODUCTI ON
A conti nui ng probl em for el ectri cal engi neers i s
that of i ncreasi ng the machi ne output coeffi ci ent (opc)
by i ncreasi ng capaci ty whi l e reduci ng the si ze of
el ectri cal machi nes. The opc, showi ng torque peruni t
volume, is given by
opc = (1)
Di2 R i 'N
where P i s output (kW), D i and R i are the i nner diame-
ter and the core l ength (m) of the stator, and N i s
speed (rpm). Since P is proporti onal to the total
f l ux CJ (wb) and to the total ampere conductor Ac,
Equation (1) becomes
P = k*Q*Ac-f (2)
opc = k'*Bg*ac
where f i s frequency (Hz), Bg is gap magneti c fl ux
densi ty (T), ac is the ampere conductor of the i nner
surface area of the stator (A/m) and k and k' are con-
stants. The opc can be i ncreased by i ncreasi ng ei ther
or both Bg and ac.
I n desi gni ng performance to meet speci f i cati ons,
the baci s factors i n performance are consi dered to be
operati onal characteri sti cs and runni ng cost. The
former i s represented by torque characteri sti cs and
the l atter by motor effi ci ency. Torque characteri s-
ti cs, such as starti ng torque, maximum torque and
starti ng current, wi l l vary depending on motor react-
ance. Leakage reactance (Xi ), a typi cal reactance,
can be cal cul ated wi th the permeance f or every stator
coi l porti on. A rough esti mate of the val ue of XR can
be determi ned wi th the fol l owi ng rel ati on;
where ns i s seri es turn number per phase coi l and Ri i s
core l ength. On the other hand, Bgal /ns'Ri andacan,.
Therefore, Equeati on (3) becomes
X$ a ac/Bg ( 4 1
From thi s rel ati onshi p, it is evi dent taht Xk remains
constant when Bg and ac i ncrease by the same rati o;
consequentl y, the opc can be increased without causing
a marked change i n operati onal characteri sti cs.
the exci ti ng current by shorteni ng the ai r-gap l ength
6. The ac can al so be i ncreased wi thout a temperature
ri se i n the coi l s by i mprovi ng i nsul ati on strength
Bg can be i ncreased wi thout extreme i ncrease of
Manuscript received March 2, 1984.
Prof. Yamamoto is wi th Sai tama Uni versi ty,
Urawa, J apan, and the other authors are wi th
Toshiba Corporation, Yokohama, J apan.
which real i zes a hi gher space factor of the copper i n
the sl ots, and by cooling technology which i s now
avai abl e for hi gh current densi ty.
When the ai r gap l ength 8 i s shortened, the pol e
surf ace l oss i ncreases, but i t has been proposed that
thi s l oss can be reduced by magnetic wedges on the
sl ots of the stator core [l ] - [ 4 ] . Thi s paper de-
scri bes, from the vi ewpoi nt of i ncreasi ng Bg, the cal -
cul ati on of pol e surface l osses and the effect of
magnetic wedges on motor characteri sti cs when the ai r-
gap i s narrow.
CALCULATING POLE SURFACE LOSSES
The magneti c fl ux i n the ai r-gap of rotati ng
machi nes pul sates wi th a wave l ength equal to the sl ot
pi tch, on account of coi l sl ots on the core. Thi s
pul sati on is known as tooth ri ppl e. Pol e surface
losses under no-load conditions, a consequence of
tooth ri ppl e f l ux, are l arge i n machi nes wi th l arge
sl ot openi ngl ai r-gap rati os. We wi l l now consi der the
rel ati onshi p between pol e surface losses and the ri p-
pl e f l ux densi ty.
Pole Surface Losses on Sol i d Pol es - While two f l uxes,
the dc main f l ux and the tooth ri ppl e f l ux,arepresent
on the pol e surface, it i s the l atter that causes the
surf ace losses. When magneti c fl ux @I al ternates on
a sol i d core, the magneti c loss P i i s gi ven as fol l ows
[51;
where A i s surface area of the pol e core, f i s f re-
quency, R i is the core l ength, and km is the materi al
constant which can be obtained from a ring-shaped test
sample. Fig. 1 shows the measured l oss data f or mi l d
steel . From thi s curve, km i s gi ven as
k, , , = 4.2 X 105 (~.~~- 3/*.wb- 2)
The magneti c l fux @Q on sol i d pol e surf aces i s
given by
@pR = B R ~L . ! ? , ~ ( 6 )
IT
where BR is the ri ppl e f l ux densi ty and T i s the pi tch
l ength of the ri ppl e fl ux. From Equations (5) and ( 6 ) , ,
the surf ace l osses on sol i d pol es can be cal cul ated by
Equation (7). Si nce the materi al constant can be ob-
tai ned by measuring only a simple test pi ece, i t would
be unnecessary to construct a machine for thi s purpose.
Pol e surface l osses have been cal cul ated for
synchronous motors i n servi ce wi th a rati ng of 4P - 501
60 Hz - 6000 Q, 18200 kVA. Total core losses, the sum
of pol e surface losses and stator core l osses, are
compared with measured values as shown in Table-1.
Cal cul ated l osses agree cl osel y wi th measured losses.
Pol e Surface L osses on Laminated Poles - Ri ppl e fre-
quency ski n depth i s general l y l ess than the thi ckness
of the steel sheets which consti tute the pol es; con-
sequentl y, the magneti c fl ux passes on the surf ace of
every steel sheet. Fi g. 2 shows the path of the ri p-
pl e f l uxes.
0018-9464/84/0900-1780$01.00@1984 IEEE
1781
l 2
0.1' I I I 1 l '
I 1 I 3 I t l o
J
10-3 10-2
@G/L (Wb,Hz"2.rn-1)
Fig. 1 Measured l oss curve of sol i d i ron
Table-1 Comparison of cal cul ated and measured
l osses of the motors wi th sol i d pol es
Machine
No.
Cal cul ated l oss (I
Pol e I Stator
surface
8.8
F
___
Poke
5.0
5.4
6.1
5.7
6.6
9.4
6.4
-
- L
)
rota1
meas/ Measured
cal c. loss(kW)
18.5
0.83 15.4 18.5
1.02 25.6 25.2
0.95 19.0 19.9
0.88 16.8 19.0
0.98 23.0 23.4
0.73 12. 1 16.6
0.99 18.3
For a l ami nated structure the f l ux penetrati on i s
a functi on of the tooth-ri ppl e wavel ength. From a
si mpl e anal ysi s it can be shown that the loss per uni t
area can be wri tten as
where d is the thi ckness of the steel sheet, and Q i s
2.2 X l o5 (W*Hz-3/2.WbL2) f or mi l d steel [6][7]. The
the material constant whi ch i s gi ven experi mental l y as
loss is proporti onal to T i n thi s case, compared wi th
f or a sol i d pol e.
Pol e surf ace l osses were cal cul ated f or 24 % 28P,
1500 % 2600 kVA synchronous motors, and total l osses
were compared wi th measure val ues as shown i n Table-2.
Fi g. 2 Flux path i n l ami nated pol e surface
Table-2 Comparison of calculated and measured
l osses of the motors wi th l ami nated pol es
Machine
Cal cul ated loss (kW)
No. Stator Pol e
Measured
cal c. loss(kW) Total
meas/
wrface
Yoke Teeth
1
1.10 61.5 55.8 36.6 14.3 4.9 5
0.95 -58.7 61.5 34.4 20.3 6.8 4
0.99 47.7 48.3 25.9 9.8 12.6 3
1.23 36.0 29.2 16.4 7.3 5.5 2
1.01 35.6 35.1 13.5 7.2 9.4
REDUCING RIPPLE FLUX WITH MAGNETIC WEDGES
As we have stated, surf ace l oss i ndi cates BR2
dependence i n both sol i d and l ami nated pol es; there-
f ore, to reduce thi s l oss by one order of magnitude,
BR must be decreased to 30%. It is expected that thi s
can be accomplished with magnetic wedges.
a ) u = 1 b) u = 10
Fig. 3 Magnetic flux di stri buti on
1782
Table-4 Characteri sti cs of 10 pol es - 2000 HP
synchronous motor
- Calculated
--e-- Measured
- - -
20 40 60 80 100
Specific permeability p
Fi g. 4 Effect of speci fi c permeabi l i ty v of wedges
on tooth-ri ppl e fl ux densi ty BR
Numeri cal anal yses for each machi ne were carri ed
out to determi ne preci sel y the effect of magneti c
wedges on the val ue of BR. Fig. 3 shows an example of
the cal cul ati on, and Fi g. 4 shows one of the rel ati on-
shi ps between the speci f i c permeabi l i ty of the wedge 1-1
and the ri ppl e f l ux densi ty BR. Cal cul ati ons wi th
many motors showed that BR can be decreased to 30% or
less with magnetic wedges.
MOTOR PERFORMANCE
I nduction Motors - Tests for i nducti on motors were car-
ri ed out wi th wedges havi ng speci fi c permeabi l i ty, u,
of 1, 10, 20 and 100. The machine was rated at 4P -
50 Hz - 500 kW. Test resul ts are shown i n Tabl e 3.
Magnetic wedges improved loss characteri sti cs, but
when the permeabi l i ty became hi gh,thecore l oss tended
to i ncrease. Taki ng i nto account torque characteri s-
ti cs and mechanical properties of wedges, a speci f i c
permeabi l i ty of i~ = 10 i s sel ectedas the most sui tabl e.
Tabl e 3 Effect of magnetic wedge on the characteri s-
ti cs of i nducti on motor
1-1 of wedge
1 I 10 1 20 1 30
core l oss I 1.00 1 0.76 1 0.63 I 0.73
-~
copper l oss 1.02 1 0.97 1.00
stray loss
0.80 3 starti ng current 1.00 1 0.90
0.70 0.78 1.00 ~ 0.84 no-l oad current
0.90 0.81 0.92
'
______ -
-~
starti ng torque 1 1.00 1 0.82 I 0.70 1 0.62
max. torque 0.83 0.92 0.93 1.00
Wedge
us = 10
us = 1
cal cul ated measured cal cul ated
kc 1.15 1.14 1.30
X 0.167
0.47 0.49 0.37 Xd
1.39 1.44 1.34 Xd
0.181 0.196
- ______- I ___
- __
Xd" 0.36 0.38 0.26
core l oss (kW) 21.7 11.3 11.6
.. -__
CONCLUSION
Pol e surface l osses i ncrease as opc i ncreases,
but thi s l oss can be reduced by magnetic wedges. The
method descri bed here f or cal cul ati ng l osses was veri -
fi ed agai nst measured core l osses on machines i n ser-
vi ce, and the resul ts i ndi cated the ef f ecti veness of
magnetic wedges.
REFERENCES
[2] H. Rei che; El ektri e, (l o), 412-413, (1968)
[3] H. Keuth; Siemens Zei tschri f t, 44 (21, 736-740,
(1970)
[4] J . Kubrycht; Acta Technica Csav, (6), 693-703,
(1971)
[5] T. Yagisawa, Y. Takekoshi; J apan I EE paper, MAG-
71-2, (1971)
[6] S. Wada et al .; European Phys. SOC. Conf. SMM-3,
2-4, (1977)
Synchronous Moters - A 1OP - 60 Hz - 1000 E' synchro-
nous motor with magnetic wedges was constructed. Tabl e
-4 shows the characteri sti cs of the motor wi th and
without magnetic wedges. Calculated and measured
val ues agree suffi ci entl y for practi cal purposes, i ndi -
cati ng that magneti c wedges are ef f ecti ve here.