Permanent Magnet Motor Torsional Resonance Noise Reduction by Rotor Skew Phase Adjustment

Hybrid Vehicles (HEVs) and Electric Vehicles (EVs) improve the efficiency of a drive and reduce CO2 emissions by regenerative braking and operating the engine under optimum conditions. It is desirable to decrease the motor size and increase the maximum torque to minimize the driving units. For these purposes, motors employing permanent magnets have been commonly used recently. The motor driving systems of HEVs and EVs must operate over variable speed ranges of up to 1: 5. Over this large range, smooth, silent operations are desirable and important. The skew method is often adopted to ensure a smooth start and stop and silent operation by reducing the torque ripple. However, this method possibly causes noise and motor vibration. This paper describes the mechanism of torsional resonance noise and vibrations arising from the skew method and a countermeasure to decrease them by optimizing the skew phase distribution in the rotating axis.