Is saturation a blessing in disguise?

A.J.C. Bakhuizen, J.G. Niesten and M.L.G. Thoone

Indexing terms: Magnetic circuits, Reluctance motors

Abstract
The patent by J. and J. Jarret caused quite a stir among engineers owing to the somewhat surprising claim that the
performance of reluctance machines could be enhanced by the deliberate introduction of saturated zones, e.g. by
way of reduction of iron at appropriate places in the magnetic circuit. Lawrenson et al. recently reported on
experiments to examine this matter. It is, however, still not clear to what extent the Jarret claim holds, and, more
specifically, which are the boundary conditions for such feature, if any. In the paper the authors will try to answer
these questions and will introduce an approach to relevant torque calculations and its verification by experiment.
Finally, feasibility will be discussed.

List of principal symbols It appears to be relevant to distinguish between properties of the

A = area of stator pole face, m 2 machine when it is energised from a current source and from those
d — height of rotor teeth, m when it is powered by an (a.c.) voltage source. Let the former case be
treated first, particularly in order to follow the reasoning of Jarret, 3
f(6) = fraction of stator pole coverage
which can be generalised as follows.
g = width of airgap, m
/ = current, A With the coils of the vertical poles energised by a current /, devel-
/ = value of direct current, A oping an m.m.f. NI, work will be performed if the rotor moves from
L = inductance, H quadrature position 0 =—{n, index 2, to the direct position 0 = 0 ,
index 1. The amount of work can be determined in the following way.
M = magnetisation, A/m
TV = number of turns The magnetisation curves, depending on the permeances of airgaps
P = permeance, H and of the iron parts of the magnetic circuit, will be as shown in Fig. 2
R = reluctance, A/Vs for the two extreme positions. In Fig. 2, the area W enclosed by the
t = time,s curves for position 1 and 2, respectively, and the abscissa of the
relevant excitation is proportional to the work performed, and is,
Te = torque, Nm
therefore, also a measure for the average torque. The permeance for
u — voltage, V
position 2 is hardly influenced by the magnetic properties of the
W'm = m a g n e t i c c o - e n e r g y , J
shaded zones; the curve b will therefore be considered fixed; area W
0 = position of rotor, rad
appears then to be determined by position and shape of magnetisation
0O = torque (load) angle, rad
X = machine parameter
Hr = relative permeability
<j> = flux linkage, Wb
co = angular frequency, rad/s
Subscripts
a = stator phase a
b = stator phase b
s = saturation

1 Basic approach
For theory and experiment the basic reluctance machine of
Fig. 1 will be referred t o . The claim that the performance of the
machine can be enhanced by deliberate saturation of the magnetic
circuit is discussed,7 for which Jarret specifically designates, see Fig. 1, Fig. 2
the shaded part of the rotor. Magnetisation curves and work performed

(i) 'max

Fig. 1
Basic reluctance machine

Paper 8076P, first received 11th August 1977 and in revised form 6th January
1978
(iO
Fig. 3
Prof. I.G. Niesten and Dr. A.J.C. Bakhuizen are with the Department of Elec- Performance of masneticallv-linear machine
rer
Meal Engineering, Eindhoven University of Technology, PO Box 513, Jormance 0] magnetically linear machine
Eindhoven, Netherlands, and Lt. M.L.G. Thoone is with the Royal Netherlands (j) s m . t | | a j r g a p
Navy, Den Helder, Netherlands (jj) larger airgap

PROC. IEE, Vol'125, No. 5, MAY 1978 407

0020-3270/78/8076-0407 $1-50/0
 For proper comparison it seems reasonable to keep to the following
limitations:
(a) the flux lunkage 0 has to be limited to a value (t>max
(b) the excitation may reach the value Imax.
To satisfy these conditions with nonsaturable material there are two line current and torque of electromagnetic origin. A simplification of
options:
(i) the magnetisation curve, due to a very small airgap, is so elevated
that the flux limit <f>max is reached for an excitation / < Imax (see competing machines can be compared. To avoid nonrelevant com-
Fig. 3a)
(ii) the airgap g is made deliberately so large that Qmax is reached at
an excitation i = Imax (see Fig. 3b).
It follows from inspection that a combination of a very small airgap
and saturating rotor material, for which Fig. 2 applies, leads to a
performance superior to that of either of the linear options. The
somewhat astonishing observation that performance improves by
using inferior magnetic material is actually a misleading statement.*
One should compare two machines of perfectly equal configurations
that include equal (very small) airgaps. In the first, the linear behav-
iour of Fig. 36 is obtained by using, in the particular rotor area,
material of constant, but necessarily low, permeability; the other
machine is made to show the nonlinear performance of Fig. 2 by using supply, phase voltages being
saturable material in said zone. In this light it appears that the satu-
rable material is superior to the linear material because it yields the
larger W, owing to its better permeability for all values of 0 (up to
0 = <Pmax)-
Apparently the Jarret claim holds for current-source excitation if
one compares their proposal to a reluctance machine that is obstinately
kept magnetically linear. One should also observe that in this case
the location of the saturable zone is not bound to the rotor-teeth area.
In the other case, when the machine is powered from an alternating
voltage source, the performance of the machines is governed by the
fact that the magnetic flux at any instant is determined by the instan-
taneous value of the supply voltage, provided the coils have con-
veniently low resistances.
It is interesting to evaluate the influence of saturation in the
shaded zones of the rotor iron. It should now be pointed out that
saturation in other places in the magnetic circuit is always detrimental
to machine performance; it requires only additional magnetising
current.
With steady synchronous operation the rotor follows the flux wave
with the torque angle 0O. The analysis in Section 2 will provide ways
to find 0 = 0(/) curves for a halfcycle of the flux wave which is
associated with the supply voltage; the shape of such curves also
depends on the rotor position at any instant. In Fig. 4, two such
curves are shown applying to similar machines, one of which is
magnetically linear and the other following the Jarret concept.
The drawn curve applies to the nonsaturable machine with an
optimal.airgap, i.e. the gap that yields.vthe.-maximum average torque.
The other curve applies to the Jarret machine with a very small airgap
and saturable rotor material.
It will appear that the amount of converted energy in the Jarret
machine exceeds that of the magnetically-linear machine. This will be
discussed in more detail after the analysis has been developed.
u/co
Fig. 4
Flux linkage and current through half period
linear machine
Jarret machine
* The observation originates from J.A. Schot, Reader of Electrical Engineering
at the Eindhoven University
408
2 Analysis
The reluctance machine, if connected to a source of alternat-
ing voltages and provided the coil resistances are sufficiently low,
behaves as if sinusoidal flux waves are impressed on the stator coils. In
this condition a simple procedure is developed for the calculation of
the procedure leads to appropriate expressions that apply to the
magnetically-linear machine. With these procedures one may find
optimal machine parameters, with which the performances of the
plications the following assumptions are made:
(a) the reluctances of the magnetic circuit of the stator and in the
rotor core are negligible if compared with those of the airgap and
the rotor-tooth area
(b) the magnetic field lines in the airgaps and in the rotor-teeth area
are directed radially;! field fringing is not considered, but can be
accounted for by Carter's airgap factor
(c) leakage fluxes are not considered
(d) coil resistance is zero, a common assumption except for very small
machinery.
The machine may be connected to a semi-4-phase alternating voltage
ua = u cos cot
ub = u sin cot 0)
As there is no linkage between a- and 6-phases, it suffices if only the
a-phase is the subject of analysis. Assuming quasistatic synchronous
operation, the rotor angle 0 is
0 = cot + do (2)
It appears to be useful to introduce a function f = f(0), which gives
the fraction of the stator-pole surface which is covered by a rotor
tooth in relation to rotor position. The function is periodic with
period n and its shape is shown in Fig. 5.
To account for the reluctance of the rotor teeth, a (variable)
relative permeability nr *s assumed to apply for the field carrying part
of the rotor teeth. To obtain expressions for the stator-rotor
permeance the following local reluctances are introduced:
Reluctance Rj in the field carrying part of the rotor tooth
(3)
where A is the area of stator-pole face and d is the height of the rotor
tooth. To avoid the wrong conclusion that d is an independent design
parameter, one should observe that w in Fig. 1 must be sufficiently
large to avoid saturation in the rotor core. Hence, w, and therefore the
maximum value of d, are strongly related to stator-pole face A.
Reluctance R2 of the corresponding airgap space
R7 = (4)
where g is the airgap width, and reluctance R3 of the remaining space
of noncovered stator face to rotor core
d+g
(5)
Mo-4{1 ~
Fig. 5
Stator pole coverage against rotor position
1 This assumption seems somewhat improbable, although it is not contested by
experiments; it can further be supported by making some narrow slots in the
radial direction
PROC. IEE, Vol. 125, No. 5, MAY 1978
One finds for the stator-rotor permeance, considering that/? i and/? 2 To obtain corresponding expressions for the magnetically linear
in series are shunted by Rj machine, one simply has to substitute a value nr = °° in eqn. 8, so that
eqn. 10 applies throughout. To find optimal parameters, calculations
are made to obtain maximum torques for similar machines when
(6) airgap g is given a series of values, g + d being held at a fixed value.
1 + Ur
From the results shown in Fig. 6, it follows that:
The flux linkage <j>a of the a-phase becomes, with vV/2 windings per (a) for the magnetically linear machine, an optimal torque is obtained
coil, two coils in series for a moderate airgap
(b) for the Jarret machine, best performance is obtained at very small
/- (7) airgaps, provided that X takes a value near unity; this implies that,
apparently, the maximum flux value should be approximately
Introducing I as an inductance when the rotor is in quadrature equal to the saturation flux when the rotor is in the direct position.
position {/(0)=O}:

1
' d+g
from eqns. 6 and 7 one obtains

<t>a = Lia + LiJ{6) (8) Jarret machine

1+

Here nr depends on magnetic properties of the iron and also on the

excitation. It is required to find an analytical expression for </>a that magnetically-linear machine
gives an adequate correspondence to the magnetisation curve. Fisher
and Moser4 reported on such functions, and for our purpose 0-1 02 0-3 g/d
1
<pa = Lia + af(6) tan' (bia) (9) Fig. 6
is most suitable, where a and b are constants to adapt the expression A verage torque against airgap
to the properties of the material, a and b can be determined as
follows: The nature of this differing tendency for optimal airgaps may be
(a) for low currents apply nr > 1000 with the customary dynamo understood from Fig. 4. It shows the <j> — i curves, applying to a
sheet, so that eqn. 8 can be approximated by torque angle 0O typical for a motor under load, for a halfwave of the
alternating voltage, which corresponds to a closed cycle in the dia-
<(>a = Lia+Liaf(6)- (10) gram. This cycle may be split into four typical parts, indicated by
a, b, c and d, pertaining to consecutive time intervals. In stretch b, the
rotor teeth nowhere face those of the stator; in stretch d they are
(b) for extremely high excitation, the second term in eqn. 8 tends to a covered everywhere; in a and c there is a decreasing and increasing
saturation value off(O)<t>8 and one can show that overlap, respectively. The slope of part b is rather independent of the
gap width, but that of part d is approximately inversely proportional
to width g.
Since the mean torque of the machine is proportional to the
where Ms is the magnetisation at extreme saturation. enclosed area, it will be clear that at first a reduction of g must be
favourable for torque production. For the magnetically linear machine
These conditions lead to values for a and b, yielding for eqn. 9 this applies only up to a certain optimal value of^; a further reduction,
however, has the effect that the curves a and c tend to a strong
01) reduction of the current owing to the increase of permeance, with the
g <t>s net result of an overall diminishing area.
For the Jarret machine, a further reduction of the airgap does not
With this relation, all necessary electromechanical quantities can be entail a similar effect with the curves a and c, because the saturable
obtained. iron prevents the detrimental reduction of the current, the reason why
From eqn. 1 it follows that the net area now further increases. The Jarret machine can therefore
be designed with the smallest airgap that is technically feasible. Fig. 4
d(t>a (12)
— = u cos is a comparison between a Jarret machine with g/d = 001 and a
dt magnetically linear machine with g/d — 0-1 (being optimal).
Integration of eqn. 12 and application of eqn. 2 gives From calculation, it follows that with an alternating voltage supply
a machine may achieve an 30% increase in torque if Jarret's principle
is applied, compared with a similar but magnetically-linear machine
- sin otf = Lia + - 0 S /M + 0O) tan"1 ( J - ~ | (13) with optimal airgap.
CO 7T \2 £

Normalisation by / = ia/(u/u>L) and introduction of X = (CJ/«)0, 3 Verification

yields In order to verify the reliability of the theoretical approach a
* 2 , IT d i machine was designed and built for measuring purposes; the required
sin ojt = i + -Xf(u)t + 0O) tan"1 — - (14) deliberate saturation could be brought about in the rotor by replace-
n \2 g X ment of a number of magnetic laminations by nonmagnetic substi-
tutes. Various airgap sizes were obtained by grinding the rotor to the
The parameter X will appear to be an important design figure. The appropriate diameter. In this way the important parameters could be
normalised current / can be obtained from eqn. 14 by way of machine obtained for the comparison of the performances of the machine in
computation. The torque can be derived from the Jarret mode and in the magnetically-linear mode, respectively. The
test machine had an axial length of rotor of 100 mm; rotor diameter
= — w'm(ia,ib,e) (15) 88-80 mm to 88-00mm for airgaps of 0-1 mm to 0-5 mm; g + d was
oU approximately 10-5mm; w was approximately 16mm and the four
for which purpose co-energy W^ follows from coils had 150 turns each of copper 7-6 mm 2 .
To avoid undesirable effects from eddy currents or from ohmic
(16) losses, the measurements were made stationary, which was effected in
<t>b{ib,S)dib
the following way. The torque was measured when the rotor was held
in a number of consecutive positions 0 < 6 < IT, the coils being
The 0 b and ib follow from the corresponding quantities of the a-phase energised by direct currents equal to the instantaneous values that
after application of the appropriate phase shift. would have appeared with the machine running in synchronism to a

PROC. IEE, Vol. 125, No. 5, MAY 1978 409

source of alternating voltage. The values of these current were line currents and their distortion rate. One may conclude that the
obtained from experimental magnetisation curves for the relevant theoretical approach is sufficiently accurate on which to base further
rotor positions. observations.
The measured values appeared to be in fair agreement with com-
puter calculated values, as demonstrated in Fig. 7 for one set of 4 Discussion
parameters. Deviations were mainly due to field fringing effects
manifesting themselves in the smoother shape of the experimental To be discussed separately are the Jarret concept when
curves. The predicted average torques, however, are in good accord- supplied from a source of constant current and the case when the
ance with those from measurements and the same can be said of machine is connected to a source of alternating voltage.
The first case refers to the well known fact that torque production
is enhanced by exploiting saturation anywhere in the magnetic circuit,
provided the required current value is acceptable. This feature has
been discussed by Harris et al.s and by Bakhuizen,6 where its import-
ance for stepmotor calculations was emphasised.
For the second case, the performance of the Jarret machine is to be
compared with that of the optimal reluctance machine with identical
frame and rotor size. An honest comparison does require that the two
types are entitled to one maximum value of the magnetic flux and to
equal coil losses, because then iron and copper are exploited to an
equal degree. The stated limitations, also considering that available
coil space is identical, require that both machines have identical stator
coils, which in turn implies that the machines are entitled to equal
-5 r.m.s. currents. To be compared are the load/r.m.s.-current curves;
these are obtained from the calculations already discussed and are
shown in Fig. 8.
Fig. 7 Apparently the lightly loaded Jarret machine has a disadvantage as
Current and torque through half period compared with the optimal linear machine; above a certain load con-
dition, however, it shows superior performance. Other curves in Fig. 8
experiment show that, for the magnetically-linear machine, other than optimal
calculation
airgap sizes are detrimental to macliine power and that with the Jarret
concept a certain A-value, which means a certain degree of iron
reduction in the rotor teeth, must be observed at pains of rapid
deterioration of the torque.
A=10 It will be superfluous to remark that the improved performance is
0 25 entirely due to the better power factor of the (loaded) Jarret machine,
voltage and current values being identical. This may also lead to the
prediction of a slightly better efficiency because of the superior out-
put with equal dissipation.
0 20 One may therefore conclude that the Jarret concept, to deliberately
reduce the iron filling of the rotor teeth, is justified, but that the
original claim of a sensational improvement of specific machine power
should be moderated to a 10—30% possible increase, which is still
015 worth considering.

5 References

010 1 JARRET, J., and JARRET, J.: Deutsches Patentamt, Patentschrift

1 240 979,1967
2 LAWRENSON, P.J., HODSON, D.P., and HARRIS, M.R.: 'Electromagnetic
forces in saturated machine circuits' in 'Small electric machines'. lEEConf.
Publ. 136, 1976, pp. 8 9 - 9 2
005 3 JARRET, J.: 'Machines electriques a reluctance variable ct a dents saturces',
Tech. Mod., 1967, 2, pp. 7 8 - 8 0
4 FISCHER, J., and MOSER, H.: 'Die Nachbildung von Magnetisierungskurven
durch einfache algebraische oder transzendente Funktionen', Arch. Elektro-
tech., 1956,42, pp. 286-299
02 03 0-4 0-5x1. 5 HARRIS, M.R., ANDJARGHOLI, V., LAWRENSON, P.J., HUGHES, A.,
and ERTAN, B.: 'Limitations on reluctance torque in doubly-salient struc-
tures'. Proceedings of the International conference on stepping motors and
Fig. 8 systems, University of Leeds, 1974, pp. 158-168
A verage torque against calculation stator current 6 BAKHUIZEN, A.J.C.: 'On the slotting of reluctance stepping motors', J.
Appl. Sci. & Eng., 1975, 1, pp. 19-28
magnetically-linear machine 7 THOONE, M.L.G.: Engineers' thesis EM77-06, Eindhoven University of
Jarret machine Technology, 1977

410 PROC. IEE, Vol. 125, No. 5, MAY 1978