Proceedings of 2010 IEEE Student Conference on Research and Development (SCOReD 2010),

13 - 14 Dec 2010, Putrajaya, Malaysia

Effect of Magnet Size on Torque Characteristic of

Three Phase Permanent Magnet Brushless DC Motor
M. Norhisam1, A. Nazifah1, I. Aris1 H. Wakiwaka2 M. Nirei3
1 2 3
Faculty of Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, Nagano National College of
University Putra Malaysia, Shinshu University, 4-17-1 Wakasato, Technology, 716 Tokuma,
43400 Serdang, Nagano, 380-8553, Japan Nagano 381-8550, Japan
Selangor, Malaysia

Abstract—This paper deals with a design of high torque brushless
DC motor (BLDC). This motor is designed in new arrangement of the
stator teeth and operated as three phase motor. This motor is
developed to produce high torque performance motor that could be
used as in-wheel motor for agriculture applications such as tractors.
The basic structure and principle of the motor is described briefly.
The simulation Finite Element Method (FEM) technique is used in
order to analyze the performance of the motor including flux flow
path and flux distribution. Various sizes of magnet had been varied
for torque and motor efficiency analysis by using simulation and
analytical method, respectively. This found that the maximum output
torque is achieved when both length and width of magnet is at largest
size. The result also signifies that the increment of torque will not
determine the increases in the motor efficiency as well. In the end,
this paper could be used as a further research for the future.
Keywords-high torque; brushless DC motor
torque produce by the motor. Finite Element Method (FEM) is
used to examine the flux density, the flux path, the flux
distribution and the mesh in the BLDC. In order to determine
the motor efficiency, the mathematical analysis is presented.
II. BASIC STRUCTURE AND PRINCIPLE
A. Basic Structure
The constructional structure of BLDC is shown in Figure 1.
The stator comprises eighteen coils and the rotor consists of
eighteen permanent magnet poles. The permanent magnets
embedded in the rotor are arranged back to back so that the
flux flows toward the coil slot in the stator [4]. The coils were
winding in each slot of stator in series connection. These coils
are grouped according to its phase. Each phase is displaced by
120° electrical degrees to each other.

I. INTRODUCTION
In recent years, permanent magnet (PM) becoming
increasingly competitive in many applications in electrical
machines. With advantages such as high efficiency and
compact size, PM is used to create the fundamental acting field
by replaced the field winding in machines. In permanent
magnet brushless DC (BLDC) motor, a strong electromagnetic
force exists between the rotor permanent magnets and the
stator coils. BLDC has the feature of high-power density, high
overload and wide range of weak magnetic, which is much
suitable for operation of the vehicle. With such advantages,
BLDC has been widely used in electric vehicles. [1].
BLDC operates in bidirectional variable speed operation
under full torque mode. Mostly, the existing BLDC available at
the market are having coils that are arranged individually over
the phases synchronously. Unlike this proposed BLDC, the
coils are grouped according to its phase. The performance of
high torque BLDC is depending on the permanent magnet
properties, and size structure [2]. Thus, to gain the desired
torque performance, certain size of magnet, cogging Figure 1. Basic structure of BLDC
characteristic and other parameters were investigated in this
paper. Besides that, the information on the rotor position, pitch In order to arrange the stator teeth for three phase BLDC,
arrangement and design on the motor electric magnetic field the teeth of Phase A is positioned at 0º, the Phase B and Phase
are essential [3]. C at (1/3)rd and (2/3)rd of the rotor half pitch, σ (20º)
respectively. Therefore, the coils are arranged mechanically
This paper studies on the basic constructional features and according to the motor half pitch, σ which are 20° as shown in
operating principles of the BLDC. The performance of BLDC Figure 1. Each coil phase has to be arranged by (1/3)rd or 6.67°
including its motor efficiency and cogging characteristic on of the motor half pitch. This means that the slot for Phase A
various sizes of magnet is considered to analyze the maximum coil is situated at the zero half pitch, the coil Phase B is situated

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at (1/3)rd of the motor half pitch and coil phase C is situated at In order to calculate the motor efficiency of BLDC based
(2/3)rd of the motor half pitch. The angle difference between on the FEM simulation result, its produced torque is calculated
first stator teeth Phase A and last stator teeth Phase C is 2σ/3 separately by using
which is same as to the first stator teeth Phase C and last stator
teeth Phase B. The motor of this type of configuration is ௄ഓ (௏೅ ି௄ಶ .ఠ)
displaced by 120° mechanical degrees for each energized phase ߬= (2)
ଶ.ோ೎
similar to that of the electrical degree.
The rotor and stator are made from magnetic material such where τ is the produced torque in [Nm], Kτ is torque constant
as laminated iron. However the shaft is made from non in [Nm/A], KE is the back emf constant in [V/rads-1], and ω is
ferromagnetic material. The Neodymium-iron-boron (NdFeB) the rotational speed in [rads-1].
permanent magnets are magnetized in width direction as shown
in Figure 2. The magnets are placed between wedges of The input power, Pin which as known as electrical power of
magnetic material of the pole pieces in the rotor. The basic flux the motor in [W] is determined using
path of the BLDC is also shown in Figure 2. As can be seen,
the N pole PM flux flows through the small air gap into the ܲ௜௡ = ‫ܧ‬௔ . ‫ ܫ‬+ ‫ ܫ‬ଶ . ܴ௖ (3)
stator yoke teeth. The flux then travels along the stator yoke
and also along the stator core. Subsequently, the flux will While the mechanical power of the motor as output power,
return across the air gap and then enter the rotor core through Pout in [W] is calculated as
the S pole PM.
ܲ௢௨௧ = ߬. ߱ (4)

Finally, the resultant efficiency of BLDC is calculated

using

௉೚ೠ೟
ߟ= (5)
௉೔೙

III. SIMULATION ANALYSIS

Table I shows the fixed dimension and parameter of BLDC.
For clearer view, the dimension is illustrated in Figure 4. Then,
Figure 2. Basic flux path of BLDC
the models are imported to the FEM software and the material
B. Principle of Calculation properties are assigned.
Figure 3 shows the basic per phase electrical equivalent TABLE I. DIMENSION AND PARAMETER OF BLDC
circuit of the brushless motor. This circuit is used as a
reference in order to determine the performance of the BLDC. Part Element Value Unit

Stator Outer radius, Ros 100 mm

Inner radius, Ris 40.5 mm
Inner of outer radius, Rios 90 mm
Teeth radius, Rt 42.5 mm
Slot inner opening, Sio 10/16 deg
Slot outer opening, Soo 6 deg

Rotor Outer radius, Ror 40 mm

Figure 3. Basic electrical equivalent circuit
Inner radius, Rir 16 mm
Here, VT is the DC voltage supply in [V], I is the current Air Gap Mechanical Air Gap, g 0.5 mm
flow through the circuit in [A], RC is the internal resistance of
the coil winding in [Ω], LC is the self inductance of the motor Mesh Air Gap Sizing 0.0008 mm
both in [H] and Ea is the Back Electromotive Force (back emf) Coil Winding 120/170/220 turns
in [V]. The basic equivalent circuit equation can be written as
Wire Diameter 0.8 mm2
்ܸ = ‫ܧ‬௔ + ‫ܫ‬. ܴ௖ (1)
Current 3.9 A

Where LC is neglected as only will be considered if in steady- Phase Resistance 4.7 Ω

state condition. Power 225 W

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Figure 4. Basic dimension of BLDC
The analysis of BLDC starts by simulating the best value of
design parameter. At the early analysis, the calculation of
output torque based on simulation that carried out is done when
the BLDC is rotates for 40º as one pitch to generate a complete
sinusoidal waveform. From the simulation results, the creation
of mesh for the BLDC model as shown in Figure 5(a) is done
since the FEM is just a static simulation data only. The
magnetic analysis is flux flow path as in Figure 5(b), and flux
distribution as shown in Figure 5(c). To find the average value
of the flux per pole in the air gap between stator and the rotor, a
probe method need to be performed so that the location of the
desired air gap flux density can be pointed easily. The flux per
pole is calculated by multiply the value of flux density with the
cross section area of the stator teeth
Figure 5(c) shows the flux distribution in BLDC is high at
the body of rotor because the flux is concentrated at the restrict
area between the two PM and then deflect to the others part.
From the overall simulation result in Figure 5, it can be
observed that the flux leakage between PM and stator teeth is
reduced. This means that all the generated flux is not wasted
1.8 T
1.6 T
1.1 T
0.8 T
0.0 T

(a) Mesh (b) Flux flow path (c) Flux distribution

Figure 5. Mesh, flux flow, and flux distribution in BLDC

TABLE II. DIMENSION FOR VARIOUS SIZES OF PM

IV. ANALYSIS ON VARIOUS SIZES OF MAGNET
The performance of high torque BLDC is depending on the Dimension
Model
Height, Hm Width, Wm Length, Lm
permanent magnet properties, and its size. Therefore, to
Model 1 8 1 30
achieve the desired torque performance, analysis on various Model 2 8 3 30
sizes of magnet needs to be done. The design of BLDC is fixed Model 3 8 5 30
with diameter and thickness of 200 mm and 30 mm Model 4 8 7 30
respectively. Since the torque characteristic of the 40 mm rotor Model 5 10 1 30
radius BLDC is investigated with the fixed 30 mm length of Model 6 10 3 30
the magnet, Lm, the height and width of magnet was varied Model 7 10 5 30
from 8 mm to 14 mm and 1 mm to 7 mm respectively due to Model 8 10 7 30
Model 9 12 1 30
their limited space available in the rotor slot. For more clear
Model 10 12 3 30
view, the dimension of the magnet structure and its position in Model 11 12 5 30
the rotor is shown in Figure 6. Table II shows the overall Model 12 12 7 30
dimension for the various sizes of the magnet which used in the Model 13 14 1 30
investigation of the torque behavior according to the Model 14 14 3 30
modification of the magnet structure. Model 15 14 5 30
Model 16 14 7 30
a. All unit in mm
Rotor
Lm A. Cogging Torque Characteristic
PM
Figure 7 shows the cogging torque of BLDC for difference
Hm sizes of magnet. The minimum and maximum cogging torque
is 0.00496 Nm and 0.79353 Nm. For instances, the output
Wm cogging torque of BLDC is increases due to expansion on both
parameter for height of the magnet, Hm and width of the
Figure 6. Dimension of permanent magnet magnet, Wm.

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 Cogging Torque TC [Nm]
70
60
50
40
30
20
10
M 14 0
Ma
gn
7
] ag 7 m]
5 ne 2 [m
et h 3 [mm th1 5
m
e ig 1 m eig 10 3 W
ht
Hm id th W ht 1 dt h
tw Hm 8 i
[m
m] gne tw
M a [m
gne
m a
] M
Figure 7. Maximum cogging torque for various sizes of magnet
Figure 9. Motor efficiency for various sizes of magnet
B. Torque Characteristic
Figure 8 shows the peak torque that achieved on same
injected current, 3.9 A The minimum and maximum values of
peak torque are 0.60232 Nm and 6.4887 Nm. It can be seen
that, the value of output torque is raise gradually as the both
Hm and Wm are increased. The average incremental ratio of
the torque to Wm is 17.86 % greater than Hm.

Figure 10. Ratio of maximum cogging over maximum torque on various sizes
of magnet

V. CONCLUSION
In this paper, the development of a three phase brushless
DC motor (BLDC) was discussed. The performance of the
motor as well as the effect of magnet sizing has been studied
by using FEM. Based on the result, it shows that the
modification of the magnet influences the output torque of the
motor. It is observed from the result that the maximum output
torque is achieved when both length and width of magnet is
largest. The result also signifies that the increment of torque
will not determine the increases in the motor efficiency as well.
Figure 8. Maximum torque for various sizes of magnet REFERENCES

C. Efficiency Analysis
Figure 9 shows that the motor efficiency is slightly
increases when the sizes of magnet are decreased. The
maximum efficiency is about 60% at smallest size of magnet.
This indicates that when the torque is high, it will not define
that the efficiency is also high.
D. Ratio of Cogging and Torque Analysis
Figure 10 shows the percentage of maximum cogging over
torque, Tc/T on various sizes of magnet with fixed length of
magnet, Lm. At the first glance, the ratio is increase due to both
expansion However, percentage of Wm(1 mm) is higher than
Wm(3 mm) when Hm is 12 mm and 14 mm. In theoretically, the
produced torque is better when the percentage is higher.
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