A Permanent Magnet Assembling Approach to Mitigate the Cogging Torque for Permanent Magnet Machines Considering Manufacturing Uncertainties

Conventionally, the small mean and variance of peak-to-peak cogging torque of permanent magnet (PM) machines considering manufacturing uncertainties can be achieved by a robust design or by reducing the uncertainties range. However, the consequent compromise of other design objectives or the increase in the manufacturing costs are frequently inevitable. In this paper, the combination sequence of the uncertainties is highlighted and implemented to achieve a stable performance even for a non-robust design without increasing the cost too much. A PM assembling approach is proposed to mitigate the influences of PM uncertainties on cogging torque by means of combining the uncertainties in a particular sequence, where the effects of uncertainties would counteract each other. Both the singular type of PM uncertainties and the combined ones are considered in the assembling approach. Furthermore, the proposed approach is verified by comparing the cogging torque performance with PM randomly assembled models, where several hundreds of models featuring different uncertainties are calculated through the finite element method. The proposed approach is discussed, particularly for the application of mass production and a small amount of prototypes. Two prototypes with different PM assembling sequences are fabricated and further verify the effectiveness of the proposed PM assembling approach.