A Novel Multi-Criteria Local Latin Hypercube Refinement System for Commutation Angle Improvement in IPMSMs

The commutation angle, γ, of an interior permanent magnet synchronous motor's (IPMSM) vector diagram, plays an important role in compensating the back electromotive force (back-EMF); both under phase current variations and an extended speed range, is required by the application. This commutation angle is defined as the angle between the fundamental of the motor phase current and the fundamental of the back-EMF. It can be utilised to provide a compensating effect in IPMSMs. This is due to the reluctance torque component being dependent on the commutation angle of the phase current even before entering the extended speed range. A real-time maximum torque per current and voltage strategy is demonstrated to find the trajectory and optimum commutation angles, γ, where the level of accuracy depends on the application and available computational speed. A magnet volume reduction using a novel multi-criteria local Latin hypercube refinement (MLHR) sampling system is also presented to improve the optimisation process. The proposed new technique minimises the magnet mass to motor torque density whilst maintaining a similar phase current level. A mapping of γ allows the determination of the optimum angles, as shown in this paper. The 3 rd generation Toyota Prius IPMSM is considered as the reference motor, where the rotor configuration is altered to allow for an individual assessment.