Novel Steel-Bar Starting Cage Line-Start Permanent Magnet Machine With Spoke-Type Insulation Layers

A line-start permanent magnet (LSPM) machine can be regarded as the integration of an induction motor and a permanent magnet synchronous motor (PMSM), so it has both self-starting capability as the induction motor and high efficiency as PMSM. As the cage winding on the rotor of LSPM only works at the starting process, it competes with permanent magnets for the space of a rotor. To solve this paradox, a steel-bar starting cage-based LSPM machine is proposed and analyzed in this article. Steel has larger resistivity than aluminum and copper, which can increase the starting torque and reduce the impact current of cage winding at the starting stage. Due to high permeability of steel, magnetic flux can also flow through steel-bar cage winding at synchronous speed. A steel-bar starting cage and a traditional aluminum starting cage winding are compared based on a four-pole LSPM machine using finite-element analysis (FEA) in this article. It is verified that although the self-starting capability of steel-bar cage winding is reduced due to the leakage flux, the performance at synchronous speed such as torque density and torque ripple is improved.