Analytical Calculation and Experimental Verification of Cogging Torque and Optimal Point in Permanent Magnet Synchronous Motors

In this paper, an exact analytical solution based on Fourier analysis is proposed to compute the cogging torque in a surface-mounted permanent magnet synchronous machine. The analytical solutions are derived by solving the field-governing equations in each simple and regular subdomain, i.e., permanent magnet (PM), air, slot opening, and slot, and then by applying the boundary conditions to the interfaces between these subdomains. Based on these solutions, the cogging torque is also determined analytically. In order to verify the analytical results of the proposed method, an experimental system was implemented on a servomotor and a torque sensor. All analytical results were extensively validated using nonlinear 2-D finite-element analysis and experimental results. Using the proposed method, we investigated the influence on the cogging torque, according to the machine parameters. Therefore, the proposed method should be very useful in the initial design and cogging torque optimization of PM machines.