Power Factor Improvement of a Permanent-Magnet Vernier Machine With Harmonic Injected Excitation Currents

Permanent-magnet vernier machines (PMVM) are recognized for their high torque density but low power factor (PF) due to high inductive reactance. This paper presents a method for improving the PF of a PMVM by injecting additional harmonics into the excitation currents. This injection is done through the motor drive, unlike many proposed methods for enhancing PF, thus eliminating any modifications needed on the machine’s geometric design. In this paper, different sets of harmonic injected currents are fed to a 14-rotor pole 12-slot PMVM with short-pitched coils on Finite Element Analysis (FEA) to demonstrate the effects of individual and combined harmonic currents. Corresponding performance characteristics of each simulation case, such as PF and torque density, are investigated. Simulation results indicate that PF can be improved by the proposed method of harmonic current injection. A comparison with a similarly sized permanent-magnet synchronous machine (PMSM) is made to demonstrate that the proposed method can be an alternative to widely used PMSMs.