Analysis of Airgap Field Modulation Principle of Simple Salient Poles

This paper models a huge family of electrical machines featuring simple salient poles in a unified way based on the general airgap field modulation theory. The modulation principle is analyzed by introducing the magnetomotive force (MMF) modulation operator, which characterizes the influence of a variable reluctance block on the primitive magnetizing MMF distribution established by field winding. Popular machine topologies are investigated in detail from the perspective of an airgap field modulation mechanism. The iron core magnetic potential drop due to the finite slot opening depth and the impact of iron saturation on the parameters are considered by proper theoretical indication. In addition, the modulation effect of salient poles highly depends on the slot-opening-width-to-pole-pitch ratio ε. The effect can be neglected when ε <; 0.3 and the best modulation results will be achieved when ε = 0.5. It is also found that mainly three different harmonics parts modulated by salient poles contribute to airgap flux density and torque production. Straightforward relations between the frequency-domain or amplitude information of performances indexes and topological parameters can be obtained obviously by certain analytical expressions without heavy finite-element analysis (FEA). Analytical results are verified by two-dimensional FEA and experiments measurements.