A New Low-Coupling Permanent Magnet Vernier Machine with High Power Factor and Wide Constant Power Operation Range

This article investigates the application of star-delta hybrid concentrated-winding (CW) in permanent magnet vernier machines (PMVMs), with main focus on power factor and field-weakening capability. The analysis results show that the hybrid CW exhibits low-coupling property, namely both the mutual inductances between the comprising coils of each single phase and that among three-phase windings are eliminated. As a result, the q-axis flux linkage and required terminal voltage are reduced substantially, which contributes to improving power factor and field-weakening property. When operating below base speed, higher voltage margins are obtained, thus the proposed PMVM exhibits a higher power factor and wider constant torque region. With speed over base speed, the field-weakening control strategy is adopted, allowing the proposed PMVM to employ a higher q-axis current to generate torque. As a consequence, the output capability and power factor under high-speed field-weakening region are improved. In particular, the maximum achievable output power is improved by 19%, and the constant power speed range (CPSR) ratio is improved from 2 to almost 10.