The Demagnetization Harmonics Generation Mechanism in Permanent Magnet Machines With Concentrated Windings

Partial demagnetization is a condition that may occur in Permanent Magnet machines due to overloading or thermal stress. Whenthis happens, the magnetic field locally weakens leading to an asymmetry of the air-gap field. This asymmetry will cause harmonics, which will be expressed as extra losses and mechanical oscillations. Moreover, since the field becomes weaker, more current is required to serve the load leading to less efficiency, increased losses and consequently increase of the temperature, which will cause further progression of the demagnetization severity until a total machine breakdown. Several methods have been proposed in the literature for the online detection of the demagnetization, however they have not related the fault to the manufacturing characteristics of the machine, which play an important role on the expected harmonic index and the associated fault signatures. This paper presents for the first time a detailed analytical investigation of the expected harmonics in the stator current spectrum in case of demagnetization, as a function of the stator winding and number of poles. The analytical results are verified by extensive simulations via the finite element method and experimental testing.