Design and Comparative Analysis of Consequent Pole Rotor Configurations in PM Vernier Motors for In-wheel Drive Application

In this paper, the interior consequent pole permanent magnet vernier motors (PMVM) with V-shaped PMVM (V-PMVM) and U-shaped PMVM (U-PMVM) are investigated and analyzed for in-wheel drive applications. Firstly, the torque comparison between the proposed PMVM and conventional PM motors is carried out through theoretical analysis. Then, the design parameters of V-PMVM and U-PMVM are optimized by sensitivity analysis to suppress the torque ripple and improve output torque capability. In order to fairly compare the performance, V-PMVM and U-PMVM of 20-pole-12-slot with same overall dimensions are selected for further analysis by finite-element analysis (FEA). Meanwhile, the V-PMVM of 40-pole-24-slot is also optimized for the comparisons, aiming at exploring the performance of different pole-slot combinations. Finally, the theoretical analysis results are validated by the FEA.