Rheometer-Based Cogging and Hysteresis Torque and Iron Loss Determination of Sub-Fractional Horsepower Motors

Accurately measuring the cogging torque, hysteresis torque, and iron losses of permanent magnet (PM) motors is a challenging task. This is especially true for sub-fractional horsepower (SFHP) variants used, e.g., in auxiliary drives for automotive fan and pump applications. Their cogging torque and hysteresis torque peak values are often in the sub-milli-Newton meter range, causing conventional measuring methods and devices to fail as especially friction impedes the measurement significantly. Moreover, their iron losses are hard to determine and usually merely estimated in the literature. This article presents an unconventional rheometer-based method to determine both 1) the cogging torque and hysteresis torque of SFHP PM motors and 2) their iron losses by evaluating the observed offset torque. Two SFHP outer-rotor PM motor topologies for fan applications are analyzed, i.e., a claw-pole motor and a salient-pole motor. The results show that, with the proposed setup, settings, and evaluation, a rheometer can successfully be used to determine the cogging torque and hysteresis torque waveforms in the sub-milli-Newton meter range and the iron losses of SFHP motors, both with excellent accuracy.