Magnet Eddy-Current Loss Analysis of Interior PM Machines for Electric Vehicle Application

The magnet eddy-current losses of six interior permanent magnet (IPM) machines are investigated for electric vehicle applications in this paper. The armature field, eddy-current density of magnet, the influence of PM depth, the distance of PM layers, and the number of PM segmentation are studied by finite-element analysis. It is demonstrated that increasing the PM depth of first layer and the distance of PM layers can provide more soft iron space for the armature-reaction flux, which can reduce the magnet eddy-current loss. PM segmentation can effectively reduce the PM eddy-current loss, because the eddy-current paths are divided into smaller loops, increasing the effective resistance. An IPM machine with segmented PM is prototyped to verify the analysis.