3234 IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON INDUSTRIAL ELECTRONICS, VOL. 62, NO.

5, MAY 2015

Investigation of Permanent-Magnet Motor

Drives Incorporating Damper Bars
for Electrified Vehicles
Xiaomin Lu, Member, IEEE, K. Lakshmi Varaha Iyer, Student Member, IEEE,
Kaushik Mukherjee, Member, IEEE, Kannan Ramkumar, Member, IEEE, and
Narayan C. Kar, Senior Member, IEEE

Abstract—Understanding the need for steady-state ikd , ikq d- and q-axis damper currents the referred to the
and transient performance improvement in an interior stator side.
permanent-magnet synchronous machine (IPMSM) drive, 
rkd 
, rkq d- and q-axis damper resistance the referred to the
this paper exclusively investigates the IPMSM incorporat-
ing damper bars in the rotor of electric motor for electri- stator side.
fied vehicles (EVs). First, motivation for the employment Lkd , Lkq d- and q-axis damper inductance referred to the
of damper bars in IPMSM is provided and justified with a stator side.
case study. Thereafter, a mathematical model of an IPMSM λ Flux linkage developed by the magnets referred to
drive with damper bars in the rotor has been developed the stator side.
based on dq-axis theory and validated through experiments
performed on a laboratory IPMSM containing damper bars. p Differential operator d/dt.
The validated mathematical model has been then employed Te Electromagnetic torque.
to arrive at satisfactory rotor bar parameters for an existing P Number of poles.
IPMSM on board a commercially available EV. Moreover, a θr Electrical rotor angular position.
replica of the existing onboard EV motor with and without ωr Electrical rotor angular frequency.
incorporating dampers have been designed, and finite-
element analysis has been performed to investigate various J Moment of inertia.
performance characteristics. Comparative performance an- acτ Ampere conductors per pole.
alyzes of both the machines with and without damper bars Kw1 Winding factor.
under steady-state and transient conditions have been per- Tph Turns per phase.
formed wherever necessary, and the results elicited have Ad Total area of damper bars per pole.
been discussed.
δd Current density value.
Index Terms—Dampers, dq-axis, electrified vehicle (EV), ad Cross section of each damper bar.
finite-element analysis (FEA), interior permanent-magnet dd Diameter of the damper bar.
synchronous machine (IPMSM).
Nd Number of damper bars per pole.
N OMENCLATURE
vds , vqs d- and q-axis voltages. I. I NTRODUCTION
ids , iqs
rs
Lmd , Lmq
d- and q-axis currents.
Stator resistance.
d- and q-axis magnetizing inductances.
O VER THE last decade, substantial investment, geopolit-
ical interest, multiple motor topologies, cost reduction,
varying performance, compact packaging, and integration have
Lds , Lqs d- and q-axis synchronous inductances. been some of the factors that have led to an increased interest
in studying electric motors for electrified vehicles (EVs). By
Manuscript received June 3, 2014; revised August 30, 2014; accepted
the end of 2018, it is predicted that the global demand for
September 28, 2014. Date of publication November 4, 2014; date of electric traction motors will rise to 8 million from the current
current version April 8, 2015. This work was supported by the Natural 4.5 million. More than 61% of this volume will come from full-
Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada.
X. Lu, K. L. V. Iyer, and N. C. Kar are with the Department of
hybrid non-plug-in-vehicles, and 13% will come from battery
Electrical and Computer Engineering, University of Windsor, Windsor, electric vehicles. The EV market, including hybrids and battery
ON N9B 3P4, Canada (e-mail: lu117@uwindsor.ca; iyerl@uwindsor.ca; electrics, will be the strongest in 2016 due to the activation
nkar@uwindsor.ca).
K. Mukherjee is with the Department of Electrical Engineering, Indian of the Corporate Average Fuel Economy standards. Hybrid
Institute of Engineering Science and Technology, Howrah 711103, India variants of existing vehicles will be the primary driver of higher
(e-mail: kmukherjee@ee.becs.ac.in). volumes of EVs until 2016, thereafter led by plug-in hybrid
K. Ramkumar is with the Department of Electronics and Instrumen-
tation, Shanmugha Arts, Science, Technology and Research Academy vehicles and battery electric vehicles. It has also been predicted
(SASTRA) University, Thanjavur 613401, India (e-mail: ramkumar@ that the permanent-magnet synchronous motors (PMSMs) will
eie.sastra.edu). continue to dominate the market and other motor technologies
Color versions of one or more of the figures in this paper are available
online at http://ieeexplore.ieee.org. will remain as niche technologies with less than 5% market
Digital Object Identifier 10.1109/TIE.2014.2367023 volume over the next five years [1].
0278-0046 © 2014 IEEE. Personal use is permitted, but republication/redistribution requires IEEE permission.
See http://www.ieee.org/publications_standards/publications/rights/index.html for more information.
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 LU et al.: INVESTIGATION OF PERMANENT-MAGNET MOTOR DRIVES INCORPORATING DAMPER BARS FOR EVs
On the other hand, enhanced dynamic and steady-state per-
formance of the traction motor is of paramount importance to
uplift customer experience on acceleration, speed, noise and
vibrations, extended driving range, climbing capability, and
cost of the vehicle.
Understanding the above, this paper exclusively puts an
effort to investigate the steady-state and transient performances
of a permanent-magnet traction motor drive with damper bars
in the rotor of the machine.
A. Background Literature Survey
Most of the EVs use interior PMSMs (IPMSMs) as their
traction motors due to their large power densities, higher ef-
ficiencies, and capabilities to run over a large speed ranges
with an almost constant power output with zero maintenance
[2]. These synchronous motors for such vehicle applications
invariably run under self-synchronous mode with rotor posi-
tion feedback through a pulsewidth-modulated (PWM) inverter.
Self-synchronous operation or self-control of the synchronous
motor causes the drive to be self-starting and rules out the prob-
ability of the rotor falling out of step since the rotor-position
synchronized switching of the inverter devices always keeps
the rotor speed synchronous with the exciting currents in the
armature [3]. IPMSMs are known to be generally designed with
an expectation of sinusoidal back electromotive force (EMF)
distribution [4], [5], and the inductances of the armature circuit
of the conventional IPMSMs generally provide enough filtering
to cause the armature currents to be sinusoidal in response to
the PWM voltage pulses impressed by the inverter on the arma-
ture terminals. Hence, torque ripple should be zero if purely
sinusoidal currents are injected into a PMSM with a purely
sinusoidal back-EMF distribution. Conventional wisdom, based
on above, tells us that dampers are not required in such motors
for such applications as operation will always be synchronous.
Dampers will therefore not be required—neither for starting nor
for pulling into synchronism for such synchronous motors. The
above are generally the reasons why the IPMSMs employed in
EVs never possess dampers.
A line-start PMSM (LSPMSM), on the other hand, operates
without rotor position feedback and, in order to be self-starting,
must possess dampers. The dampers for such applications
should provide enough starting torque and should help toward
the pull-in phenomenon. Additionally, for such applications,
the design of the dampers should be such that while drastic
load disturbances appear on the system and the transient op-
eration of the machine becomes asynchronous, the dampers
should help in increasing the transient stability limit of the
machine. Hence, substantial amounts of research papers to
investigate the role of dampers for LSPMSMs have been written
[6]–[10].
Similarly, for any permanent-magnet synchronous gener-
ator that does not operate under rotor position feedback,
dampers come into play during the transient asynchronous
durations and help in restoring stability. The damper design for
such applications should solely concentrate toward restoring
transient stability, and researchers have worked on this also
[11], [12].
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3235
However, papers published until date, to the best of au-
thors’ knowledge, have not yet investigated the performance of
IPMSM incorporating dampers bars for an EV application.
B. Motivation for the Proposed Investigation
Most of the PMSMs on board commercially available EVs
have either a distributed or a concentric winding arrangement
in their stators and permanent magnets in their rotor. They are
mostly three-phase IPMSMs driven with the maximum torque
per ampere (MTPA) control strategy [13], [14]. The dc-link
voltage of the three-phase voltage-source converter (VSC) driv-
ing the traction motor for such a vehicle remains constant, and
the inverter runs with undermodulation in the low-speed region
and with overmodulation in the high-speed region of operation
of the motor drive [14]. As the speed becomes progressively
higher, the back EMF of the motor keeps increasing, and over
a certain speed, the inverter starts operating as a pure square-
wave inverter, impressing a six-stepped phase voltage at the
motor terminals. For EVs, this mode of operation sometimes
continues for a long time. As this mode of operation also calls
for speed control, it is performed by the speed controller of
the drive by controlling the phase angle of the six-stepped
phase voltage waveform with respect to the back EMF of the
corresponding armature phase, as dictated by the MTPA control
strategy.
It is imperative that when the VSC operates in the under-
modulation zone of the PWM strategy, the switching of the
inverter devices of the same leg are more frequent than a square-
wave operation. Hence, the value of the equivalent inductance
of the d−q equivalent circuits of the conventional IPMSM
seems sufficient to make the armature current almost sinusoidal
to cause negligible torque ripple, assuming the back EMF of
the machine to be sinusoidally distributed. However, when the
square-wave 180◦ conduction mode of operation of the inverter
prevails, the inverter devices switch at much slower rates.
Consequently, lower order sideband harmonics start appearing
along with the fundamental, and the authors felt that in this
operating mode, exploring the need of additional dampers in
the conventional IPMSMs to improve the transient response
of the motor and the converter by improving the wave shape
of the armature current and air-gap voltage is justified. The idea
to investigate such a case struck the minds of the authors when
they thought of an analogous case, where a three-phase current-
source inverter, operating under 120◦ conduction, feeding a
wound-field three-phase synchronous motor with dampers, has
already been reported to yield improved transient performance
of the comprehensive drive [4].
The authors also intuitively believe that incorporation of
dampers can control the spatial distribution of the back-EMF
waveform of a conventional PMSM to provide transient and
steady-state improvement in performance and can reduce the
effect of permanent-magnet demagnetization under MTPA
regime of control of the PMSM drive of the vehicle.
This paper therefore takes a combined approach to predict
improved damper parameters for improved performances and
also investigate the effects of incorporating dampers in IPMSM,
viewing the research problem from a dq-axis model-based
 3236 IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON INDUSTRIAL ELECTRONICS, VOL. 62, NO. 5, MAY 2015

TABLE I to exclusively investigate steady-state and transient perfor-

S AMPLE T EST DATA F ROM P ERFORMANCE -M APPING T EST [11]
mance characteristics of the IPMSM with the employment of
damper bars in the rotor for EV application.
Section III of this paper presents a mathematical model of
an IPMSM drive with damper bars in the rotor, which has
been developed based on dq-axis theory and validated through
experiments performed on a laboratory IPMSM containing
damper bars. The validated mathematical model has been then
employed to arrive at satisfactory rotor bar parameters for an
existing IPMSM drive on board a commercially available EV.
Comparative performance analysis between the onboard EV
motor drive with and without dampers has been performed
through dq-axis models developed, and results elicited have
been discussed. Section III also presents the aforementioned
dq-axis-based modeling and transient-state analysis activities
approach and a finite-element model-based approach, thereby
conducted in this paper. Section IV presents finite-element
capitalizing on the mutual advantages of each. This will be
analysis (FEA)-based results from investigations performed on
subsequently presented in the following sections.
three machines designed, replicating the existing onboard EV
C. Case Study for Illustrating Repeated Overmodulation motor with and without incorporating dampers. It also provides
Operation Periods in the IPMSM Drive the machine design details and damper design approach em-
ployed to develop the machines.
Samples of experimental data collected from performance-
mapping test performed on a traction motor on board a com-
II. M ODELING AND A NALYSIS OF THE IPMSM D RIVE
mercially available EV by Oak Ridge National Laboratories
W ITH DAMPER B ARS IN THE R OTOR
is presented in Table I [14]. The vehicle has an IPMSM with
a maximum output power of 50 kW and a peak torque of In order to arrive at the rotor bar parameters that yield
400 N · m. A dc–dc converter is connected between the battery satisfactory machine performance, incorporate them into the
pack and the inverter to maintain the input voltage to the IPMSM drive on board an EV, and analyze the behavior of the
inverter at a level of 500 VDC, as shown in the measurement machine under steady-state and transient conditions, a model
data in Table I. The three-phase VSC is switched based on the of the IPMSM with damper bars along with its drive has to be
space vector PWM technique. developed based on the dq-axis theory.
The magnitude and frequency of the ac output depend on the The volt-ampere equations of the LSPMSM can be written
reference voltage space vector and the PWM. The fundamental- as in (1), and the mechanical equations of the motor may be
frequency voltage magnitude increases proportionally with the written as in (2)–(4), i.e.,
reference voltage space vector magnitude in the undermodula- ⎡ ⎤ ⎡ ⎤
vds rs +Lds p −ωr Lqs Lmd p −ωr Lmq
tion (linear) region. However, on further increase in the required ⎢ vqs ⎥ ⎢ ωr Lds rs + Lqs p ωr Lmd Lmq p ⎥
⎣ ⎦ =⎣  ⎦
voltage level, the overmodulation mode is encountered. In this 0 Lmd p 0 rkd +Lkd p 0
mode, the voltage magnitude no longer varies in proportion  
0 0 Lmq p 0 rkq +Lkq p
with the reference voltage, and saturation starts creeping in. ⎡ ⎤ ⎡ ⎤
ids 0
Finally, beyond this region, the controller loses its control ⎢ iqs ⎥  ⎢1⎥
over the voltage amplitude, and PWM degenerates into a × ⎣  ⎦ + ωr λ0 ⎣ ⎦ (1)
ikd 0
square-wave inverter waveform. With a given dc-link voltage ikq 0
Vdc , the output line-to-line voltage fundamental RMS value 
P
gets fixed at 0.78 times Vdc . As seen from Table I, when the pωr = (Te − TL ) (2)
2J
speed and torque of the motor are low such as data sets 1-1, 2-1,
3P
 
etc., the output voltage level depends on the reference voltages. Te = λiqs + ids iqs (Lds − Lqs )
As the speed increases, in sets 5-1, 6-1, etc., the output voltage 4
3P

exceeds the linear region, and the inverter operates in 180◦ + Lmd ikd iqs − Lmq ikq ids (3)
conduction mode. As indicated from the table in [14], for a large 4
pθr =ωr (4)
number of operating conditions, the motor is controlled by a
square-wave inverter, during which the harmonic components where symbols have their usual meanings [15]. A parameter
of the voltage signal are significantly high and the torque determination method to determine the electrical circuit param-
response mainly depends on the load angle command sent to eters of such a machine was proposed by the authors, and the
the inverter. parameters were incorporated into the above machine model
and validated using experiments performed on a laboratory
D. Paper Objectives LSPMSM containing rotor bars under steady-state and transient
Based on the practical performance characteristics, issues, conditions [16]. However, the machine model and the parame-
and hypotheses discussed above, the authors derive motivation ters determined were validated only under direct online starting.

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 LU et al.: INVESTIGATION OF PERMANENT-MAGNET MOTOR DRIVES INCORPORATING DAMPER BARS FOR EVs 3237

A. Experimental Validation of the Developed Machine

Model Driven by a Square-Wave Inverter Under
Self-Control
The machine model developed in [16] along with the drive
has been exclusively validated in this section with a laboratory
LSPMSM. The LSPMSM has been operated in the self-
controlled mode (with rotor position feedback) through a three-
phase square-wave inverter, as illustrated in the schematic
shown in Fig. 1(a). As shown in the experimental setup in
Fig. 1(b), the test machine is equipped with a low-cost position
sensor indicating the position at every 60◦ and coupled with a
dc machine (operating in the generator mode) as load. A three-
phase insulated-gate bipolar transistor inverter stack is used as
the VSC, and a TMS320 series digital signal controller is used
to provide rotor position synchronized gate signals based on the
180◦ conduction scheme to actuate the inverter.
The dc-link voltage is set as 132 V, and the load angle
δ is controlled to be 60◦ . The machine settles at a speed of
1125 r/min at a load torque of 7.8 N · m. The calculated current
waveform, as shown in Fig. 1(c), is in close agreement with
the measured waveform, as shown in Fig. 1(d). The amplitude
of calculated current has been found a little higher than the
experimental one for all cases of loads and load angles for
which the drive is operated, because the mechanical and core
losses are neglected in the calculations, as is generally done
in typical dq-axis-based models. Instantaneous current flowing
into the machine armature is considered positive in the pre-
sented waveforms. The fact that the actual operating load angle
is equal to the one given in the simulation and the experiment
is verified by comparing the phase of the terminal line-to-line
voltage with the phase of the corresponding back EMF, by ap-
propriately calibrating the rotor position sensor. The proximity
of the calculated and experimental results thus establishes that
the developed model of the rotor-position-synchronized square-
wave inverter-driven LSPMSM, characterized by its dq equiva-
lent circuit resistance and inductance parameters, satisfactorily
describes an interior PMSM with dampers under steady-state
and dynamic conditions. Thus, this model, once validated, is
henceforth employed to study the effect of dampers in the
performance of the drive, by changing its damper parameters
in an iterative way, as it is imperative that any LSPMSM,
controlled under self-synchronous mode, might not be a good
candidate as a traction motor for an EV.

B. Investigation of the Effects of Damper Parameters in

Dynamic and Steady-State Performance
When a sudden change in the applied voltage at the stator
terminals occurs, in the dq equivalent circuits of a PMSM with
dampers [16], the branches containing the damper parameters
become operative. It remains operational in the circuit until
a steady-state condition is reached. During this dynamic con-
dition, the damper R−L branch comes in parallel with the
branch containing the magnetizing reactance. The equivalent
impedance of the two parallel branches is lower than the mag- Fig. 1. Calculated and measured voltage and current waveforms of
the IPMSM with damper bars driven by a square-wave inverter un-
netizing reactance, resulting in a low value of net impedance der self-control. (a) Overall block diagram of the motor drive system.
viewed from the d- or q-axis stator terminals. This low (b) Experimental setup. (c) Calculated results. (d) Measured results.

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 3238 IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON INDUSTRIAL ELECTRONICS, VOL. 62, NO. 5, MAY 2015

TABLE II
S AMPLE S TEADY-S TATE AND DYNAMIC P ERFORMANCE DATA OF THE E XISTING AND P ROPOSED M ACHINES (S TATOR R ESISTANCE
TO DAMPER R ESISTANCE R ATIO —3 : 2, S TATOR L EAKAGE I NDUCTANCE TO DAMPER L EAKAGE I NDUCTANCE R ATIO —1 : 1)

impedance across the stator terminal causes larger overshoots

in the current when compared to a machine without the damper.
When a damper branch is paralleled across the magnetizing
inductances Lmd or Lmq , an additional resistance is present
in the parallel branch, which causes the equivalent resistance
of the circuit to also reduce. However, the practical values of
damper parameters employed are such that the net decrease in
L is much more than the net decrease in R. Hence, the net time
constant reduces, resulting in a faster dynamic response.
In order to further study the effect of damper on IPMSM
to consider it for EV application, the developed and validated
model is used to simulate a 50-kW onboard EV motor with
emulated dampers, the equivalent circuit parameters of which
are given in the Appendix. The measured parameters of the
LSPMSM are utilized for the starting of this investigation.
The LSPMSM has a symmetrical squirrel cage, and therefore,
the equivalent circuit parameters in the d-axis equal to that
in the q-axis. The ratio between the stator resistance and the
damper resistance is 3 : 2, and the ratio between the stator leak-
age inductance and the rotor leakage inductance is 1 : 1 [16].
The steady-state and dynamic performance of the onboard
EV motor and the proposed onboard EV motor with emulated
damper parameters of the same stator-to-damper ratio as that
in the LSPMSM is first investigated to understand the role of
dampers in the high-speed region of the EV motor. Both ma-
chines are driven by a square-wave inverter with rotor feedback,
which initially controlled the machine with a load angle of 30◦
and later changes to a load angle of 40◦ after the speed reaches
steady state. Load torque is a constant of 50 N · m. The dc
link of the inverter is also kept constant at a level of 500 V.
The values of the major electrical and mechanical variables are
presented in Table II.
As seen from Table II, for both machines, the final speeds
of the machines are determined by the load angle. The speed
increases when the load angle increases. Because of the dis- Fig. 2. Current waveforms of the machines investigated driven by a
tortion in the terminal voltage, now containing lower sideband square-wave inverter with rotor position feedback at a load angle of
40◦ . (a) Original onboard EV motor. (b) Onboard EV motor with damper
harmonics, the phase current has high distortion and causes parameters corresponding to Table II.
higher torque ripple in the machine. The distortion is greater at
lower speed than that at higher speed. The current waveforms value) that, by adding a damper, the machine responds faster
of both machines at a load angle of 40◦ are shown in Fig. 2. The to changes and restores to a new steady state faster. This fast
maximum current and torque of the machines during transition dynamic response is desired in an EV application. The final
from one steady-state speed to another are greatly influenced speed of the machine does not change much with the added
by the damper. It can be seen from the transition time (defined damper. The fundamental current amplitude is not affected by
as the time for the speed to reach 90% of the steady-state the damper either. However, the damper increases the distortion

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 LU et al.: INVESTIGATION OF PERMANENT-MAGNET MOTOR DRIVES INCORPORATING DAMPER BARS FOR EVs 3239

TABLE III
S AMPLE S TEADY-S TATE AND DYNAMIC P ERFORMANCE DATA OF THE P ROPOSED M ACHINE W ITH DAMPER K EEPING THE
S TATOR - TO -DAMPER R ESISTANCE R ATIO OF 1 : 1 AND VARYING THE S TATOR - TO -DAMPER L EAKAGE I NDUCTANCE R ATIO

TABLE IV
S AMPLE S TEADY-S TATE AND DYNAMIC P ERFORMANCE DATA OF THE P ROPOSED M ACHINE W ITH DAMPER K EEPING THE
S TATOR - TO -DAMPER L EAKAGE I NDUCTANCE R ATIO OF 1 : 5 AND VARYING THE S TATOR - TO -DAMPER R ESISTANCE R ATIO

in current and consequently increases the torque ripple signif-

icantly. As a result, it is necessary to design a damper for the
traction motor in order to improve dynamic performance as well
as keep satisfactory steady-state performance.
Further studies to investigate the effect of damper on machine
performance are conducted to understand the role of damper in
IPMSM for EV application. The operation conditions are kept
the same as aforementioned.
First, the ratio between the stator resistance and the damper
resistance is kept constant as 1 : 1, and the ratio between the
stator leakage inductance and the damper leakage inductance
is varied, as shown in the cases presented in Table III. The
steady-state evaluations are only shown at a load angle of 40◦
as the trend at lower speed can be inferred from Table II. It can
be elicited from Table III that, given a resistance, the current
distortion reduces as the damper leakage inductance increases.
The current overshoot of the motor is more significant with
Fig. 3. Current waveform of the finalized EV motor with damper hav-
smaller rotor leakage inductances. However, the response time ing a stator-to-damper resistance ratio of 1 : 1 and a stator-to-damper
remains almost the same. leakage inductance ratio of 1 : 5.
Based on the performance analysis in Table IV, the stator-
to-damper leakage inductance ratio of 1 : 5 is selected for the overshoot during transient conditions are influenced largely by
analysis of the effect of damper resistance as it yields satis- the damper leakage inductance. Fig. 3 illustrates the current
factory performances out of the considered cases. From results waveform of an emulated machine with a stator-to-damper
shown in Table IV, the system response time is marginally resistance ratio of 1 : 1 and a stator-to-damper leakage induc-
different with different values of damper resistance. Moreover, tance ratio of 1 : 5. It can be seen that the waveform quality is
the distortion in the current, torque ripple, as well as the significantly improved compared to the current waveform of the
overshoot of current and torque during transition do not change machine with line-start damper.
significantly with the rotor resistance. Further investigation to select the optimized damper param-
It can be inferred from Tables III and IV that the improve- eters for traction application is considered as a future scope
ment of transition time with damper is mainly determined of this research. When the range of values is selected, the
by the damper resistance. The harmonic components and the design methodology will be influenced in a way similar to

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 3240
Fig. 4. Stator current waveforms of the (a) original EV motor without
damper and (b) finalized EV motor with damper, under a sudden
increase in load angle from 30◦ to 40◦ .
Fig. 5. Developed electromagnetic torque waveforms of the (a) original
EV motor without damper and (b) finalized EV motor with damper, under
a sudden increase in load angle from 30◦ to 40◦ .
how the damper bars are designed for wound-field synchronous
machines [17]. Fine-tuning will be performed through finite-
element-based design, simulation, and analysis.
It is very interesting to note that when research papers on
electrical drives talk about reduction of torque ripples by trying
to make the armature current fed from an inverter to an IPMSM
as close as possible to pure sinusoid, the prime assumption is
the generalized theory/two-axis theory of electrical machines,
which assumes that the fields are sinusoidally distributed in
space. Fig. 3 is also a consequence of this assumption. Hence,
everyone might think that such a current as in Fig. 3 will give
rise to torque ripple, as it does not look like a pure sinusoid.
However, the authors have found that even with a current qual-
ity as presented in Fig. 3, torque ripple is below 5% because the
dampers give the flexibility of designing the field distribution
in space, as discussed in Section IV of this paper and here lies
the relevance of this section. In fact, the authors have found
that even with pure sinusoidal current injected into the PMSM
armature of a traction motor on board a commercially available
EV, the torque ripple is even more than 20% [18]. The reason
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IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON INDUSTRIAL ELECTRONICS, VOL. 62, NO. 5, MAY 2015
Fig. 6. Calculated speed waveforms of the original EV motor without
damper and the finalized EV motor with damper, under a sudden
increase in load angle from 30◦ to 40◦ .
for this is the fact that the air-gap field distribution for such
motors in practice is far from sinusoidal in space. Hence, the
distortion level of the current waveform in Fig. 3 will not
degrade system performances.
Due to the paralleled effect of the damper, the phase current
in the machine with damper shown in Fig. 4(b) rises to a
higher value in a shorter amount of time compared to the phase
current of the IPMSM without damper shown in Fig. 4(a).
As a result of the transient response of the current, the peak
electromagnetic torque developed in the machine with damper
shown in Fig. 5(b) is higher than that of the original machine
presented in Fig. 5(a). The corresponding speed responses of
the two machines are given in Fig. 6. As the torque response
of the finalized EV motor with damper is faster, the speed of
that motor also settles faster for the same load torque as evident
from Fig. 6. The torque and speed of the machine with damper
definitely shows a better dynamic response compared to the
original machine.
C. Investigation of the Dynamic Response Under
Symmetrical Short-Circuit Conditions
Generally, any machine is protected against short-circuit
conditions using high rupturing capacity fuses. The melting
ability of fuses is measured by various characteristics, which
include the ratio of threshold current to rated continuous current
(threshold ratio), peak let-through current versus prospective
short-circuit current characteristic curves, and I 2 t characteris-
tics [19].
Considering the machine to be operating with a constant
load torque of 100 N · m at a speed of 4000 r/min, a three-
phase symmetric fault is initiated at the machine terminals. The
calculated currents for the original EV motor without damper
and the finalized EV motor with damper are shown in Fig. 7. It
can be seen that the overshoot is more and rise time is less in the
machine with damper. This feature will cause the fuse to blow
off faster in the case of the machine with damper, thus saving
the machine.
III. D ESIGN AND FEA OF PMSM S W ITH AND
W ITHOUT DAMPER B ARS IN THE R OTORS
In order to investigate the effect of dampers in a traction
machine drive, three IPMSMs—two machines without damper
bars and one with damper bars—have been developed. These
three machines will henceforth be referred to as machines A, B,
and C, whose distinguishing features are given in Fig. 8.
 LU et al.: INVESTIGATION OF PERMANENT-MAGNET MOTOR DRIVES INCORPORATING DAMPER BARS FOR EVs
Fig. 7. Calculated responses under the three-phase symmetrical
short-circuit fault for the original EV motor without damper and
the finalized EV motor with damper. (a) Machine terminal voltage.
(b) Machine phase current.
Fig. 8. Overall, schematic of the developed machines. (a) Machine A—
PMSM without damper bars, with the magnet placed closer to the
air-gap periphery. (b) Machine B—PMSM without damper bars with
magnets buried deeper. (c) Machine C—PMSM with damper bars with
the magnets placed at the same depth as in machine B.
Machine A has been designed to replicate the existing trac-
tion motor that is on board a commercially available EV. Stator
dimensions/frame size, stator design, number of phases, rotor
outer diameter and length, air-gap length, magnet volume, and
materials in the stator, magnet, and rotor have been kept the
same as that of the commercially available EV motor. The only
difference between the commercially available EV motor and
this motor lies in the configuration of the permanent magnets
[20], and this causes the power and torque rating to be almost
the same as that of the commercially available one. Machine B
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3241
TABLE V
M ACHINE DATA C OMMON TO THE D ESIGNED M ACHINES [14]
is the one with everything the same as machine A but with the
magnets buried deeper. Hence, the torque rating of this motor
is expected to go down a little. Subsequent studies, presented
later, quantify the reduction. Machine C is similar in all respects
with machine B, with additional damper bars incorporated. As
the stator design for all these three machines is the same and in
line with the existing commercially available EV motor whose
design parameters are established [21], a detailed explanation of
various design parameters chosen is not provided. Only design
details related to the novelty of this paper are presented (see
Table V). Cross sections of each of these motors designed have
been provided in Fig. 8.
This section will mainly focus on time-stepping FEA-based
comparative performance analysis of all the machines designed,
as the objective of this paper is to compare a PMSM with
damper and without damper for EV application. Optimizing
the magnet configuration is not under the scope of this paper.
Such optimal rotor design with different magnet configurations
and placement activities have been widely published in the
literature. The authors would also like to emphasize that this
paper does not focus on designing a superior machine to the
commercially available EV motor at this stage but investigate
the effect of damper bars in PMSM in order to design a superior
machine in the future.
A. Basis of Design of the Damper Bars
The damper windings employed in machine C were designed
following the approach presented below. The ampere conduc-
tors per pole, acτ , taken into consideration in this machine can
be calculated using (5) and the MMF of the damper winding
through (6) [22]. The winding factor Kw1 is 0.9341 considering
a coil pitch of 5, an angular slot pitch of 30◦ , and a slot per pole
per phase value of 2. Tph is turns per phase equaling 72, i.e.,
6Iph Tph
acτ = (5)
√p
4 2 acτ
MMF of damper winding = Kw1 . (6)
π 6
Considering a typical design practice [17], [22], Ad , the total
area of damper bars per pole, is designed to be 40% more than
 3242 IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON INDUSTRIAL ELECTRONICS, VOL. 62, NO. 5, MAY 2015

Studies presented in Fig. 10 are for an operating condition

where γ, the angle between the stator current and back-EMF
phasors, is maintained zero, i.e., the torque under this condition
will be only the magnet-assisted torque. The interesting fact
that comes out from machine C’s back-EMF waveform is that
the placement of dampers in strategic positions has increased
the peak value, created an intermediate step in the waveform,
thereby increasing the fundamental content, as compared to
machine B. This has resulted in an increase in the magnet-
induced torque for the same armature current in machine C
compared to machine B, as evident in Fig. 10.
Fig. 9. Back-EMF (phase) waveforms of machines A, B, and C under It is true that the damper bars are carrying harmonic current
a constant speed of 3000 r/min and at zero armature current. components due to the high-frequency switching. However,
according to [23] and as shown in Fig. 9, the damper bars
are also effective in changing the air-gap magnetic flux density
distribution. As a result, the damper bars increase the harmonic
components of the current at no load but suppressing the
harmonic components at high load and therefore improving
the efficiency. Although adding of damper bars will increase
damper copper losses, a decrease in magnet losses due to im-
proved waveform of air-gap magnetic flux density and marginal
increment in torque/output power will make a contribution for
improving the efficiency. However, due to the limited scope of
this paper, initial designs and a few noteworthy results from
comparative performance analyzes between motors with and
Fig. 10. Developed magnet-induced average torque as a function of
increasing stator current for all three machines under a constant speed
without dampers are provided in this paper. The authors feel
of 3000 r/min and γ = 0. that further investigations need to be performed on an optimally
designed motor incorporating the designed damper parameters
the actual computed value, and a current density value δd is considering various factors to obtain conclusive decisions on
considered to be 5 A/mm2 , i.e., the efficiency of the machine.
0.2acτ
Ad = . (7)
δd C. Developed Electromagnetic Torque and Cogging
Since circular bars are chosen for design simplicity, the cross Torque
section of the damper bar ad is designed according to The magnet-induced torque-developing capability of all
three machines was tested at a constant speed of 3000 r/min
(Total area of bars per pole) Ad under different stator current excitations, as shown in Fig. 10.
ad = = (8)
(number
π
of damper bars per pole) Nd All phase current excitations to the motor were purely sinu-
ad = d2d
4
where dd is the diameter of the damper bar and is considered to
be 7 mm in the machine designed. Nd is chosen to be 4 in order
to avoid magnetic locking, excessive noise, and vibration in the
machine. Aluminum was chosen to be the damper material as
used in conventional cage windings.
B. Qualitative and Quantitative Analyses of the
Back-EMF Waveforms
Fig. 9 presents the back-EMF (phase) waveforms of the three
machines. These waveforms illustrate that for machine A, the
peak of the induced EMF is highest, as the magnets are near
the air-gap periphery. The shape of this back-EMF waveform,
however, clearly depicts that in the available PMSM of the ve-
hicle, it is far away from sinusoidal, as is assumed for IPMSMs
superficially. The peak comes down for machine B as magnets
are buried deep, which reduces the magnet-induced average
torque also for the same armature current, as evident in Fig. 10.
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(9) soidal. Machine A, which has its magnets near the air gap,
delivers higher torque than the other two machines due to the
reason that the concentration of magnet flux in the air gap is
more than that of the other two machines. The point to note is
that machine C tends to produce more magnet-induced average
torque than machine B, although the magnet placements in both
machines B and C are maintained the same. The increase in
the torque in machine C can be attributed to the flux-guiding
capability of the damper bars.
In order to study the variation of the total electromagnetic
torque (comprising the reluctance and magnet assisted torque
components in an IPMSM) with increasing stator currents for
machines B and C, developed torques at two different nonzero
γ values are presented in Fig. 11. The trends seem to be almost
similar.
Cogging torque corresponds to the interaction torque due to
the shape, dimensions, and number of the stator teeth, damper
bars, and permanent magnets. This torque component is gener-
ally small compared to the full-load torque. Cogging torque is
an undesirable component for the operation of such PMSMs
 LU et al.: INVESTIGATION OF PERMANENT-MAGNET MOTOR DRIVES INCORPORATING DAMPER BARS FOR EVs
Fig. 11. Developed average torque as a function of increasing stator
current for machines A, B, and C under a constant speed of 3000 r/min
under different γ values.
Fig. 12. Cogging torques of machines B and C.
as it is very prominent in low speeds of the motor, causing
jerkiness as in the case of a direct drive EV driven under urban
conditions.
Various techniques are presented in the literature to reduce
the cogging torque in PMSMs based on optimal design of
stator tooth, slot opening, magnet configuration, and skewing
of either stator teeth or magnet poles [24], [25]. However, usage
of damper bars has not been investigated to the best knowledge
of the authors. Fig. 12 presents the cogging torque determined
for both machines B and C by moving the rotor at the speed of
1◦ /s when all the coil excitations are maintained at zero. It is
apparent that the cogging torque in machine C with damper is
lesser than that of machine B. The cogging torque arising out of
the interaction of stator teeth/slot and magnets in machine B is
present in machine C also, but its effect is found to get partially
nullified by another cogging torque component arising out of
the interaction of the stator teeth/slots with the damper slots,
and this effect is therefore extremely beneficial.
D. Harmonics
Fig. 13 shows the harmonic spectrum of back EMFs (referred
to as no-load EMF in the figure) in machines B and C. It is
seen that the third harmonics in machine C are relatively higher
than that of machine B. In case of three-phase PMSMs, the
triple-harmonic EMFs from the line EMFs get eliminated by
star connection. Hence, in the time of winding, attention was
mainly directed for the attenuation of the fifth and seventh
harmonics by adopting a chording angle of 30◦ in the EV
motor designed with and without dampers [26]. The fifth and
seventh harmonic amplitudes are comparable in both machines,
although they have higher values in machine C. The authors
feel that an optimal design of the rotor bars in terms of number
of rotor bars and electrical parameters of the damper bars can
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3243
Fig. 13. Harmonic spectrum of the back EMF for machines B and C.
improve harmonic suppression also. Additionally, this can be
further suppressed by skewing the rotor as conventionally done.
IV. C ONCLUSION
This paper has exclusively investigated an IPMSM drive with
damper bars in the rotor for improvement in performances for
an EV application. This is the novelty of this paper. Through the
dq-axis modeling approach and FEA-based designs, the perfor-
mance of an existing traction motor on board a commercially
available EV was investigated with and without incorporating
the damper bars. Incorporation of proper damper parameters
has been found to improve transient response of the drive in the
high-speed region of the IPMSM traction motor drive, main-
taining satisfactory power quality and less torque ripples. It also
causes to isolate the machine faster from the power converter
on occurrence of short-circuit faults at the machine terminals.
Additionally, placement of damper bars strategically at proper
locations in the rotor can cause the back-EMF distribution to
become more sinusoidal and hence can increase the magnet-
assisted torque component in the IPMSMs. It is also shown that
the damper is capable of reducing cogging torques.
A PPENDIX
The equivalent circuit parameters of the IPMSM available on
board a commercial EV are as follows: Rs = 0.0065 Ω, Lls =
0.15 mH, Ld = 1.598 mH, Lq = 2.057 mH, λ = 0.1757 Wb · t.
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Xiaomin Lu (S’11–M’12) received the B.Eng.
degree in engineering from Sun Yat-sen Univer-
sity, Guangdong, China, in 2010 and the Ph.D.
degree in electrical and computer engineering
from the University of Windsor, Windsor, ON,
Canada, in 2014.
She is currently a Research Engineer with
the Department of Electrical and Computer
Engineering, University of Windsor. Her re-
search areas include modeling and analysis of
permanent-magnet synchronous machines and
drives and condition monitoring for electric vehicle drivetrain systems
and power system applications.
Authorized licensed use limited to: Indian Instt of Engg Science & Tech- SHIBPUR. Downloaded on March 08,2022 at 06:40:32 UTC from IEEE Xplore. Restrictions apply.
IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON INDUSTRIAL ELECTRONICS, VOL. 62, NO. 5, MAY 2015
K. Lakshmi Varaha Iyer (S’10) received the
B.Tech. degree in electronics and commu-
nication engineering from Shanmugha Arts,
Science, Technology and Research Academy
(SASTRA) University, Thanjavur, India, in 2009
and the M.A.Sc. degree in electrical and com-
puter engineering from the University of Wind-
sor, Windsor, ON, Canada, in 2011. He is
currently working towards the Ph.D. degree in
electrical and computer engineering, under the
Canada Research Chair Program in Electrified
Transportation Systems, at the University of Windsor.
His current research focuses on electric machines and drives and
associated sustainable energy solutions for electrified transportation
application.
Kaushik Mukherjee (M’03) was born in 1970.
He received the B.E. degree from Jadavpur Uni-
versity, Calcutta, India, in 1993, the M.E. degree
from the Indian Institute of Engineering Science
and Technology, Howrah, India, in 1998, and
the Ph.D. degree from the Indian Institute of
Technology, Kharagpur, India, in 2003.
Since 1993, he has spent almost two and a
half years in the industry. In 2002, he joined the
Department of Electrical Engineering, Jadavpur
University, as a Lecturer. Since 2006, he has
been an Assistant Professor with the Department of Electrical Engineer-
ing, Indian Institute of Engineering Science and Technology, Howrah.
He has been a Visiting Professor at the Centre for Hybrid Automotive
Research and Green Energy, University of Windsor, Windsor, ON,
Canada. His research interests include electrical machine drives and
power electronics applications in general.
Kannan Ramkumar (S’04–M’14) received the
B.Tech. degree in instrumentation and control
engineering from Madurai Kamaraj University,
Tamil Nadu, India, in 1997, the M.Tech. degree
from the Regional Engineering College, Trichy,
India, in 2000, and the Ph.D. degree in con-
trol engineering from Shanmugha Arts, Science,
Technology and Research Academy (SASTRA)
University, Thanjavur, India, in 2010.
Since June 1998, he has been with the De-
partment of Electronics and Instrumentation,
SASTRA University, where he was a Lecturer, became an Assistant
Professor in 2008, and an Associate Professor in 2011. He has been
a Visiting Professor at the Centre for Hybrid Automotive Research and
Green Energy, University of Windsor, Windsor, ON, Canada. His current
research interests include mobile robotics, estimation and control theory,
and electrical drive systems.
Narayan C. Kar (S’97–M’00–SM’07) received
the B.Sc. degree in electrical engineering
from Bangladesh University of Engineering
and Technology, Dhaka, Bangladesh, in 1992
and the M.Sc. and Ph.D. degrees in electri-
cal engineering from Kitami Institute of Tech-
nology, Hokkaido, Japan, in 1997 and 2000,
respectively.
He is currently an Associate Professor with
the Department of Electrical and Computer En-
gineering, University of Windsor, Windsor, ON,
Canada, where he holds the Canada Research Chair position in hybrid
drivetrain systems. His current research focuses on the analysis, design,
and control of permanent-magnet synchronous, induction, and switched
reluctance machines for hybrid electric vehicle and wind power applica-
tions, testing and performance analysis of batteries, and development of
optimization techniques for hybrid energy management systems.