Design and mechanical consideration of an IPM machine with concentrated windings

This paper illustrates a general design process used for implementing non-overlapping concentrated windings in an interior permanent magnet (IPM) machine for field weakening applications. This design process was verified by finite element analysis (FEA) of a 18-slot, 14-pole model. The optimization process of torque and field weakening performance resulted in a design with thin inter-pole link sections that might fracture from magnet and armature reaction force. In this paper, the authors also included a study on the mechanical aspects of the rotor under simulated worst case scenario situations.