Frog Leg Winding
Frog Leg Winding
Frog Leg Winding
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machine [3]-[5]. However, the most published papers there are several issues need to be improved, for
focus on the AC electric commutated (i.e. inverter) instance, the simplex lap winding with winding pitch
machine, which evolved into the well-known as 4 means longer end of coil resulting in more
brushless DC machine (BLDC). The transient of copper loss, the equalizer should be configured for
TBM indicates the bottlenecks in power switching the simplex lap winding to ensure stable operation,
device development at that time on one hand, and the and it takes no account of fault-tolerance either.
significant development of BLDC on the other hand, As always there is a trade-off, in order to be
therefore, it vanished from most people's sight applied to direct drive applications featuring higher
for nearly half a century. torque at low speed, wide speed range and fault-
Considering the output torque and power tolerance, passing over the copper loss and
of BLDC will be limited by the existence of internal processing difficulty, the new DC machine dealt with
inductance as it would cause worse mechanical in this paper, is such a electromechanical system
characteristics than that of a brushed DC machine formed by a PM synchronous motor having a frog-
near the breakdown torque, and it is more difficult leg armature as a stator, and a polyphase electric
to realize speed range extension [6]-[13], a new DC commutation having the same number of phases
machine whose brushes and field winding is replaced equals to the split number of phases of armature coil
by an electric commutation and PMs respectively is of the motor as 11. By properly controlling the 11-
proposed. It seems that the evolution of commutator- phase electric commutation according to the exact
less DC machine will be back to the TBM to point energizing sequence in a given revolving direction of
out a better solution, i.e., a new design and simulation the rotor, its operation principle is basically the same
method of TBM can reproduce its role in non-contact as a brushed one, whereby it not only keeps the
commutated DC machine and it still can be operated characteristics of a brushed DC machine such as wide
in the same way as a brushed one but not a BLDC operating speed range, smooth speed regulation,
nowadays. overload capacity and high holding torque, but also
Until 2009, the TBM attached people's attention improves the efficiency and power density. Both the
again, mainly in China. A simplex wave winding PM theoretical analysis and experimental results validate
brushless DC machine with a special combination the feasibility of the proposed electric commutated
number of pole and slot, i.e., 10-pole and 11-slot frog-leg winding PM DC machine.
[14]-[15], is typically designed in several aspects,
such as lower peak cogging torque thanks to the
"goodness" factor of slot number and pole number 2. Machine Structure Characteristics
combination [16] with the value of 1, less copper loss
owing to the reduced winding pitch as 1, smaller The proposed machine is not really a new
volume for higher pole number as 10 and wider speed invention as a whole for it combines an inverted
range on account of properly controlling the switch conventional DC machine and a polyphase electric
status to decrease the number of coils connected into commutation composed of 11 electric commutator
the equivalent circuit. However, because of its simple segments, i.e., 11 half-bridges, every of which
simplex wave winding, it leaves fault tolerance out of is assembled by 2 power switches, and then the
consideration, and its analytical model, which is control logic and energizing sequence of power
based on conformal mapping considering slotting electronic switches substitutes for the relative motion
effect, doesn't seem so accurate that the results from between mechanical commutator and carbon brush.
this analytical model are not compatible with that of As summarized foregoing from a perspective based
corresponding FEA at the positions of air-gap under on the operation of the proposed DC machine, it turns
slot. With the same theory, a new 4-pole and 18-slot to the topic of machine design as if it is a
simplex lap winding PM brushless DC machine has combination of a PM synchronous DC machine with
been put into practice for the application requiring a frog-leg armature and an 11-phase quasi-DC
high speed no less than 10,000 rpm, such as direct- electric commutation, from which it attributes the
driven twister [17]. According to the split number of success to the design of frog-leg armature inherited
phases of armature coil of this motor as 9, the total from the conventional brushed DC machine.
number of power electronic switching devices It is essential to concern the commutation process
adopted in the electric commutation is 18, which is in the design of a DC machine in general. To ease the
less than that of the 10-pole/11-slot machine as 22. commutation process and ensure stable operation, the
Nevertheless, most of their work focus on the branch potential and current distribution in the
operation of this new DC machine, such as sensorless winding should be balanced, which would be
control scheme and circuit analysis of armature [18]- destabilized by many unforeseen reasons leading to
[21], rather than its electromagnetic field calculation uneven magnetic reluctance or air gap, such as
and analysis for machine ontology design. Moreover, discontinuity of material, installation error and
they have made two low-level misunderstandings in deformation of shaft. Therefore, the equalizer has
the inverse of control (IOC) by just inversing current always been configured for the conventional DC
flowing through coils without any consideration of armature winding to avoid this case. As referred to
Hall arrangement, and the choice of armature the simplex lap winding without equalizer, the coils
winding for high-speed application. Consequently, from the same branch are placed under the different
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magnetic poles, if the magnetic reluctance or air gap It ought to take the electric commutation
is nonuniform, then there would be unbalanced in consideration for the armature winding design
branch potential caused by unequal magnetic flux of the proposed machine, because the torque ripple
under magnetic poles. Moreover, a surge circulation arose from the jumping magnetomotive force (MMF)
current would be generated by a little disturbance in decreases as the number of edges of the closed
potential and smaller internal resistance of armature winding, which equals to that of the phases of electric
winding. At last, when it operates on load, the commutation is increased. There is a trade-off
distribution of current between the two branches between the number of power electronic switches and
becomes seriously imbalanced, which leads to the amplitude of torque ripple, and then the mean
overheated armature with more copper loss. number of series coils per path N2a is set as 5.5 which
However, there is no need to install equalizer for the is same with [14]. Besides, the simplex frog-leg
simplex wave winding for its connection principle is armature winding with the degree of multiplicity of
just the same as a natural equalizer. the wave winding is set as m=2 in common use.
Although the configured equalizer can reduce Therefore, according to formula (1), the number of
copper loss and improve commutation, it makes the poles is 2p=4 and the total number of pairs of parallel
armature more complicated and wastes more copper. paths is a=aL+aW=4, that is, the number of pairs of
Therefore, a simplex frog-leg winding is introduced, parallel paths through the simplex lap winding aL is
for the same purpose as the equalizer to make full use equal to p as 2 and that of the duplex wave winding
of the copper, to be employed in the proposed DC aW is equal to m as 2, and then the total number of
machine because of its excellent potential for use coils is N=44 by multiplying N2a and 2a. From the
under high voltage and large current to obtain wide above, it comes to a conclusion that the number of
speed range and high torque besides fault tolerance. slots is K=22 for there are 2 complete windings on
The rules for designing a simplex frog-leg the armature to average N. Since the coils' ends
winding of DC machines are presented below [22], connected to the virtual commutators cross each other
leading to more copper waste as ykL=-1 and ykw=11,
m = p when ykL=1 and ykw=10, either y1L=5 and y1W=6, or
y + y = K / p y1L=6 and y1W=5 is obtained. In conclusion, the
1L 1W proposed machine is designed with 4 poles and 22
ykL + ykW = K / p , (1) slots, and it has a simplex frog-leg armature winding
y = 1
kL of simplex lap and duplex wave with the number of
y1L = K / 2 p winding/virtual commutator pitch as y1L=5/ykL=1 and
y1W=6/ ykw=10 respectively.
where p is the number of pairs of poles, m is the From the given parameters calculated above, the
degree of multiplicity of the wave winding, that is, developed winding diagram of a simplex frog-leg
m=1 for simplex wave, 2 for duplex, and so forth, K armature winding with 4 poles and 22 slots including
is the number of slots, which is the same as that of 22 commutator bars and 4 carbon brushes can be
commutator bars of a conventional DC machine, y1L drawn according to its drawing principle.
and y1W is the winding pitch of the lap winding and It is obvious that the 4 fixed symmetrical brushes
wave winding respectively, ykL and ykw is the virtual divide the armature winding circuit into 2 paralleling
commutator pitch of the lap winding and wave units. Inspired from this, a novel 11 split phases
winding respectively, is a correction to make y1L armature winding for the electric commutated PM
an integer. DC machine emerges, i.e. Fig. 1.
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3. Principle of Operation
The operation principle of the proposed machine
is basically as same as a brushed DC machine that in
brief the current direction of coils under N or S pole
remains unchanged by accurately controlling the
power electronic switch status [14]. However, it is
only the presentational rules concluded from the
operation of a brushed DC machine, instead of the
fundamental principle to rotate it which demonstrates
the essential difference between the proposed
machine and the well-known machine (BLDC) that
the rotational magnetic field is generated by quasi-
DC rather than AC.
Fig. 2. Commutation circuit. It is not an exclusive physical phenomenon
of a three-phase symmetry AC armature energized
by three-phase symmetry AC to generate a circular
Compared to the commutation circuits of the rotating magnetic field, which is regarded
two new DC machines, each coil of the original as an important basis in the operation analysis
commutation circuit is replaced by 4 coils connected of AC synchronous or asynchronous machines.
in parallel, which means larger armature current The quasi-DC armature, as shown in Fig.2, energized
arose from smaller resistance of armature winding by a specific form of quasi-DC, which is generated
under the same voltage and better fault-tolerance. by properly controlling the 11-phase electric
Taken away the armature winding, what it gets commutation according to the exact energizing
is just the rotor and stator of a BLDC machine with sequence in counterclockwise direction of the rotor
surface-mounted PMs as shown in Fig. 3. The as shown in Table 1, could also generate a rotating
dimensions are well-designed using an analytical magnetic field.
method, which will be introduced in section 4, based From Fig. 2, the number of the two current
on the analysis of electromagnetic field which is direction paths is not the same, that is, the number
more accurate and fast, while neither magnetic circuit of coils under a pair of poles is odd as 11, which
method nor FEA method has yet met the goals of is convenient for the control of the 11-phase electric
both accuracy and rapidity. In addition, paying commutation as it only needs to change one switch
attention to the 4 layers along the height of slot for from one status to another, as shown in Table 1.
the two complete double-layer windings on the Therefore, assuming the DC bus current amplitude
armature, the wave winding should be placed on the is Id, then the phase current of every four layers after
first and forth layers from above down, while the lap commutation fluctuates between Id5/11 and Id6/11
winding should be placed on the second and third for each commutation in other phases. The wave
layers accordingly. form of phase current is roughly shown in Fig. 4.
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Table 1. Energizing sequence of power electronic switch. From Fig. 5 (b), if we want the machine to rotate
counterclockwise, coils under the same pole should
P 7 8 9 10 11 1 2 3 4 5 6 have the same current direction with the right hand
N 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 1
rule to orient the MMF keeping 90 electrical degree
with PM MMF in advance, and then it gets the same
current distribution referred in the previous
paragraph. Pay attention to slot 7 and 18, the resultant
current is zero, which means coil L1, L12, W1 and
W13 are commutating.
As Fa
Fa = As / 2 , (1)
AS = N1I aI / t (2)
= D / 2 p , (3)
Fig. 5. Current of coils (S6H and S1L on at =0).
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where AS is the line load along the armature surface, comprehensively introduced to provide an accurate
N1 is the number of coils' sides in each slot, Ia1 is the and fast scheme for well-designed dimensions
current of each path, t is the pitch of teeth, D is the compared to FEA. It aims at lower peak cogging
diameter of armature, and is the pitch of pole. torque and higher torque density for the proposed
The position of MMF peak at the interface machine.
of positive and negative current is just the space For the sake of convenience and generality of the
position of axis of MMF indicated by Fa as shown introduced exact analytical method, the detailed
in Fig. 5, from which it can be concluded that the solutions for the model are omitted. In Fig. 8, the
switch status should be renewed for certain coils' comparisons between analytical method and FEA are
commutation at every /22 mechanical position angle illustrated, and they are compatible with each others
of rotor to generate an effective MMF to keep the while the analytical method costs less time to predict
rotor rotating in a certain direction. Therefore, the performance of the new machines with different
according to the switch status sequence in Table 1, dimensions, which means an efficient and effective
the MMF generated by quasi-DC is rotating way to design a new DC machine.
counterclockwise with the aid of the 11-phase quasi-
DC electric commutation. As a result, the rotor with
Table 2. Major Parameters.
surface-mounted PMs follows. Finally, as a quasi-DC
machine, its rotation speed can be conveniently Rated Power 230 W
regulated by controlling the DC bus voltage or the Rated Voltage 48 V
switch statuses to update the number of coils Rated Speed 220 rpm
connected into the equivalent circuit [14]. Rated Load 10.5 Nm
Pole/Slot Number 4/22
4. Simulation and Experiments Stator Outer Diameter 151 mm
Stator Inner Diameter 81 mm
As referred in section 2, an exact analytical Stator Axial Length 101 mm
method, which is based on the solutions of Laplace's Thickness of Magnets 4 mm
and Possion's equations using magnetic vector Mechanical Air Gap 0.6 mm
potential for air-gap, PM and slot domains under Magnet Remanence 1.15 T
boundary and interface conditions [24], for predicting Slot Open Width 1.5 mm
the instantaneous magnetic field, EMF induced in the Pole Arc Coefficient 0.74
armature winding, cogging torque and output torque
of the proposed DC machine [25], is
(a) No-load field distribution. (b) Back-EMF (Phase W1 at 220 rpm). (c) Armature reaction field
distribution.
(d) Magnetic field distribution (e) Electromagnetic torque. (f) Cogging torque.
on load.
Fig. 8. Simulation comparisons.
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[25]. A. Bellara, Y. Amara, et al., Two-Dimensional exact [26]. L. Zhu, S. Z. Jiang, Z. Q. Zhu, et al., Analytical
analytical solution of armature reaction field in methods for minimizing cogging torque in
slotted surface mounted PM radial flux synchronous permanent-magnet machines, IEEE Transactions on
machines, IEEE Transactions on Magnetics, Vol. 45, Magnetics, Vol. 45, No. 4, 2009, pp. 2023-2031.
No. 10, 2009, pp. 45344538.
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