Analysis of Electromagnetic Force Ripple in a Bearingless Synchronous Reluctance Motor

A bearingless machine should be designed to maximize the average and to minimize the ripple in the electromagnetic torque and levitating force. In a bearingless synchronous reluctance machine (BSynRM), the complex rotor design and the levitation winding create a rich spatial and temporal spectrum of the magnetic flux density in the airgap, which affects both the torque and force ripple. In this article, a novel method is introduced to compute the electromagnetic forces from the spatial harmonics of the airgap flux density. A new indexing method is introduced to classify the spatial harmonic wavenumbers and temporal harmonic frequencies of the flux density in the electromagnetic force. The proposed model enables the understanding of the spatial harmonic footprint on the temporal frequencies of the electromagnetic force ripple. The study is carried out through finite element simulations, which are verified by prototype measurements.