Comparative Study of Winding Configurations of a Five-Phase Flux-Switching PM Machine

This paper introduces a general method for determination of the most suitable winding configurations for five-phase flux-switching permanent magnet (FSPM) machines, associated with feasible stator/rotor-pole combinations. Consequently, the effect of winding configurations on the performance of a five-phase outer-rotor FSPM machine is thoroughly investigated, including non-overlapping concentrated windings (single-layer, double-layer, and multi-layer) as well as distributed winding. The electromagnetic characteristics in the low-speed region, the flux-weakening capability in the high-speed region, and the fault-Tolerant capability under faulty situations are evaluated and compared in detail. This work shows that compared with the conventional single-layer or double-layer concentrated windings, the FSPM machine with multi-layer type winding exhibits lower torque ripple and losses. Meanwhile, the motor with distributed windings possesses higher torque density and larger inductance. Finally, a prototype is manufactured, and the analysis results are validated by experiments.