In modern industry, permanent magnet synchronous motors (PMSMs) employing rare-earth permanent magnets have become the de facto core actuators in applications demanding high efficiency and high power density. However, rare-earth magnets entail high ma...
In modern industry, permanent magnet synchronous motors (PMSMs) employing rare-earth permanent magnets have become the de facto core actuators in applications demanding high efficiency and high power density. However, rare-earth magnets entail high material cost and supply instability, and under high-temperature and over-current operating conditions they suffer reversible and irreversible demagnetization, leading to output degradation. Synchronous reluctance motors (SynRMs), which actively utilize reluctance torque, can reduce dependence on permanent magnets and improve temperature robustness, but their power density, efficiency, and power factor are generally insufficient to directly replace interior PMSMs (IPMSMs) and permanent-magnet-assisted SynRMs (PMa-SynRMs). Consequently, a new structural approach is required that can simultaneously mitigate the trade-offs among permanent magnet reduction, demagnetization-robust torque capability, power density, efficiency, and power factor.
This paper proposes a dual-stage rotor synchronous motor (DSR-SM), in which a PMSM rotor section and a SynRM rotor section are stacked along the axial direction. If the reluctance torque of the SynRM section is effectively exploited, the required PMSM section length can be reduced, thereby alleviating the drawbacks associated with strong dependence on rare-earth magnets. To this end, the DSR-SM concept is introduced and systematically analyzed for industrial fan and pump motors. First, finite-element analysis (FEA) is carried out for fan and pump IPMSM, PMa-SynRM, and SynRM models to compare output torque, efficiency, power factor, demagnetization sensitivity of permanent magnets, and material cost composition. The results confirm that IPMSMs offer the highest performance but show strong dependence on magnets and high sensitivity to demagnetization, whereas SynRMs are advantageous in terms of thermal robustness and cost but cannot directly replace PMSMs of the same rating due to their low power density and power factor. Based on this, IPMSM and PMa-SynRM machines are selected as baseline models, and a DSR-SM design procedure capable of reducing permanent magnet usage by approximately 20% without modifying the original PMSM rotor geometry is proposed. In this procedure, the total torque of the baseline PMSM is decomposed into magnetic and reluctance torque components and normalized by torque per axial length, and the axial lengths of the PMSM and SynRM sections are allocated accordingly.
Using the proposed design procedure, DSR-IPMSM and DSR-PMa-SynRM prototypes are designed, and their efficiency, power factor, demagnetization sensitivity, and material cost are compared with those of the corresponding baseline IPMSM and PMa-SynRM. These results verify that the DSR structure enhances output robustness under permanent magnet demagnetization. However, the initial DSR designs exhibit noticeable degradation in efficiency and power factor, which motivates an optimization strategy based on mechanical axis adjustment of the SynRM rotor section. By shifting the mechanical center of the SynRM section, the maximum-torque current angle of the SynRM section is aligned with that of the PMSM section, improving the utilization of the combined torque and minimizing the required increase in axial stack length. At the same time, the SynRM section can be operated closer to its maximum power factor angle at the rated operating point, thereby significantly improving both efficiency and power factor of the DSR-IPMSM and DSR-PMa-SynRM.
Since the performance of DSR-IPMSM and DSR-PMa-SynRM is strongly influenced by the characteristics of the SynRM rotor section, this study further investigates a DSR-SynRM structure in which the DSR concept is applied to a SynRM baseline rather than to a PMSM. Specifically, PMSM rotor sections derived from the baseline IPMSM and PMa-SynRM are integrated with an optimized high-reluctance-torque, high-power-factor SynRM rotor. By simultaneously improving the reluctance torque and power factor per axial length of the SynRM section, the axial length required to achieve 20% permanent magnet reduction, and the associated penalties in efficiency and power factor, can be further reduced compared with DSR-IPMSM and DSR-PMa-SynRM. These results demonstrate that, for enhancing output robustness under magnet degradation while minimizing efficiency and power factor deterioration, applying the DSR structure to a SynRM baseline (DSR-SynRM) is more effective than applying it directly to IPMSM or PMa-SynRM. Finally, three-dimensional analysis of axial leakage flux and back-yoke leakage paths for different SynRM–PMSM stage combinations identifies the (SynRM–PMSM) arrangement as the optimal stage configuration, minimizing torque reduction due to leakage flux.
The analysis confirms that the proposed DSR-SynRM can reduce permanent magnet usage by about 20% compared with conventional IPMSM and PMa-SynRM, while significantly decreasing the required current rise under elevated-temperature demagnetization conditions. For example, when the operating temperature increases from 20 °C to 100 °C, the current rise of the baseline IPMSM is 4.28%, whereas that of the DSR-SynRM (IPMSM-based) is reduced to 3.50%; similarly, the current rise of the PMa-SynRM baseline decreases from 2.44% to 1.91% in the DSR-SynRM (PMa-SynRM-based) design, indicating improved torque robustness against demagnetization. The axial stack length increase associated with 20% magnet reduction is also limited to about 12.69% for the IPMSM-based model and 8.08% for the PMa-SynRM-based model, and the corresponding maximum-load efficiencies are maintained at 91.47% and 91.36%, respectively, close to those of the baseline IPMSM (92.11%) and PMa-SynRM (91.61%). In terms of power factor, the mechanically adjusted DSR-IPMSM and DSR-PMa-SynRM achieve ranges of 88–93% and 84–93%, respectively, while the mechanically adjusted DSR-SynRM further improves these to 92–96% (IPMSM-based) and 90–95% (PMa-SynRM-based), thus ensuring a practical operating range with minimal power-factor degradation due to the DSR structure. From a cost perspective, the total material cost of the DSR-SynRM is reduced by approximately 8.52% for the IPMSM-based case and 8.07% for the PMa-SynRM-based case, demonstrating that magnet reduction not only enhances demagnetization robustness but also mitigates the cost risk associated with rare-earth magnet price volatility.
By applying the proposed DSR-SM concept to IPMSM, PMa-SynRM, and SynRM drives, this study shows that a relatively simple structural modification—axially distributing SynRM and PMSM rotor sections while preserving the original rotor cross-section—can provide a practical design alternative that balances permanent magnet reduction, demagnetization-robust torque capability, efficiency, power factor, and material cost. The proposed design and optimization procedures are expected to serve as a structural option for reducing rare-earth dependence and cost volatility not only in industrial fan and pump motors but also in a broad range of future synchronous-motor applications.