Vibro-Acoustic Analysis of Radial and Tangential

Airgap Magnetic Forces in Permanent Magnet

Synchronous Machines
Jean LE BESNERAIS
EOMYS ENGINEERING
121, rue de Chanzy
59260 Lille-Hellemmes, FRANCE
Website: www.eomys.com
AbstractThis article analyzes Maxwell tensor tangential
and radial magnetic forces in permanent magnet synchronous
machines (PMSM) in the no-load case. Using matrix notation in
the complex domain, a simple expression of the Fourier harmonics
of both radial and tangential forces is derived, including all
space and time harmonics. These expressions prove that both
the frequency content of cogging torque and zero-th order radial
forces are linked to the least common multiple between the stator
slot number and the rotor poles number, and that the optimal
pole arc to pole pitch ratio to reduce cogging torque is also
optimal for the reduction of average radial magnetic forces. It
is also shown that both the smallest non-zero spatial order of
tangential and radial force harmonics are given by the greatest
common divider of the number of slots and the number of poles.
These results can be used during design stage when choosing the
pole and slot numbers combination. These analytical results are
then compared to calculations using MANATEE vibroacoustic
and electromagnetic simulation software. Finally, some variable
speed acoustic noise simulations are carried on three different
designs to analyze the efficiency of different vibroacoustic design
rules on the slot and pole numbers combination. An attempt to
formulate a new vibroacoustic design rule choice is detailed. It
is concluded that no simple analytical design rule can be used
to evaluate noise and vibrations induced by magnetic forces, and
that numerical simulation is necessary.

I. N OMENCLATURE AND ABBREVIATIONS

F
Magnetomotive force
fR
Rotor mechanical frequency
fs = s /(2) Electrical fundamental frequency
gcd
Greatest Common Divider
g
Airgap width
hm
Radial magnet height
ks
Rank of permeance harmonic
lcm
Least Common Multiplier
Mc
gcd(Zs , 2p)
Nc
lcm(Zs , 2p)
na
Number of angular steps from 0 to 2
nt
Number of time steps from 0 to TR
p
Number of pole pairs (2p poles)
qs
Number of stator phases
r
Spatial order (wave number)
t
Time
TR
Rotor rotation period
Zs
Number of stator slots
W
Fast Fourier Transform matrix
p
Pole arc to pole pitch ratio
r
Rotor angular position in stator frame
s
Angular position in stator frame
R
Rotation direction of the rotor ( 1))

Permeance
R
Rotor angular velocity

Maxwell stress
mmf
magnetomotive force
PMSM
Permanent Magnet Synchronous Machine
SPMSM
Surface PMSM
II.

I NTRODUCTION

The acoustic noise and vibration behaviour of Permanent

Magnet Synchronous Machines (PMSM) is an increasingly
important design criterion when optimizing the overall electromagnetic design of such machines. Among the forces responsible for noise and vibration, the contribution of Maxwell forces
can be significant [1]. They represent a fine band excitation
at some specific frequencies, generating high tonality noise
when resonating with the structural modes of the machine.
Some tradeoffs have sometimes to be made between the
electromagnetic and the vibro-acoustic performances. As an
example, minimizing material costs can lead to thinner stator
yoke, thus increasing radial vibration and acoustic noise levels;

III.

M AXWELL STRESS

Both rotor and stator global Maxwell forces aregiven by the

integration along the airgap of a pressure (N/m2 ) that can be
expressed as (with the external structure sign convention, i.e.
integrating over an airgap cylinder whose normal is opposite
to radial direction)

Fig. 1. Illustration of the coordinate system on a surface permanent magnet

synchronous machine

skewing technique for the reduction of radial force harmonics

responsible for magnetic noise lowers the fundamental torque
and the electromagnetic efficiency. The understanding of the
phenomenon of acoustic noise and vibration due to Maxwell
forces is therefore important to fully optimize the design of
electrical machines.
This paper aims at further understanding the nature of
the harmonics of the airgap Maxwell stress, acting on both
stator and rotor structures, by formalizing their expressions
in the radial (component r ) and tangential (component )
directions. The aim is to relate some of the machine design
parameters (more especially the number of slots Zs and the
number of poles 2p) with the force harmonics. Indeed the
change of the slot and pole numbers is a strong lever to modify
the content of Maxwell forces, as for induction machines [2].
The theoretical findings on the spectrum content (time
frequencies, simply called frequencies, and spatial frequencies, called spatial orders) are verified by running electromagnetic and vibroacoustic simulations on several machines.
A. Topologies and coordinate system
The present work deals with radial flux permanent magnet
synchronous machines, with either surface permanent magnets
or interior magnets. The coordinate system is the cylindrical
system as illustrated in 1.
B. Notations
Vectors and matrices are written in bold, and matrices are
preferably written in capital letters. The . operator on vectors
and matrices works element-wise; if matrices or vectors are
multiplied without any explicit operator it is the standard
matrix multiplication operator. The complex Fourier transform
The exponent symbol is the complex
of F is noted F.
conjugate, while the exponent T is the real conjugate. The
diagonal matrix operator D transforms a vector v of length
n in a square diagonal matrix D(v) of diagonal v. 1N is the
identity column vector of size N , and IN the square identity
matrix of size N .

Br2 B2
20
Br B
0

(1)
(2)

where Br and B are respectively the radial and tangential

flux density in the middle of the airgap. Using complex
notations one can write in a convenient way
r

=
=

R()
I()

r + j =

Br + jB

(3)
(4)
B2
20

(5)
(6)

This complex stress form also enlights the correlation between tangential and radial stress: when the complex stress
is cancelled, both radial and tangential stress components
must be cancelled. In the linear case, the flux density can be
decomposed as the superposition of stator and rotor magnetic
fields:
Br
B

=
=

Bra + Brm
Ba + Bm

(7)
(8)

B a and B m respectively refer to the stator armature field

and the rotor magnet field in the case of a synchronous
permanent magnet machine.
IV.

M AGNET FLUX DENSITY EXPRESSIONS

Based on the the complex relative permenance method [3],

the airgap magnetic field due to permanent magnets can be
expressed using the following variable decomposition:
Brm
Bm

=
=

r Fr F
r F + Fr

(9)
(10)

where r is the radial permeance per unit area, accounting for the effect of stator slotting, and Fr is the magnet
magnetomotive force (mmf). would therefore correspond
to a tangential permeance and F to a tangential mmf.
When the airgap magnetic field lines are fully radial, the term
vanishes and the usual permeance / mmf decomposition
obtained with the Ampere law along a closed contour (see for
instance [4]) is obtained. When there is no stator slots, r is
constant and equals 0 /(g+hm ) and is null. The discussion
of the physical meaning of these quantities along radial and
tangential directions is out of this papers scope.
For inset magnet permanent machines, r, depends on t
due to reluctance variation during rotation. For surface permanent magnet machines, assuming that the magnet permeability

is close from the air and that the rotor lamination is circular, r
only depends on s . This is also the case for buried permanent
magnet machines: as shown in [5], the airgap flux density
distribution can be expressed by an equivalent surface magnet.
Using complex notations, we have
B m (t, s )

(s )F (t, s )

=
=
=

Brm + jBm
Fr + jF
r + j

e .,k1

(12)
(13)
(14)

where wk is the k-th line of W.

The rotor flux density evolution with time is given by a

simple rotation:
B m (t, s ) = (s )F 0 (s R R t)

(16)

where F is the nt na matrix of magnet complex mmf in

time and space, D() is the na na diagonal matrix with the
complex permeance values (i ) along the diagonal (i = 0 to
na 1). ) is here a line vector.
V.

M AXWELL STRESS F OURIER EXPRESSION

When synchronizing time and space discretizations (n =

nt = na , see Appendix X-B), the complex mmf can be written
with circulant matrix properties as
F = WD(f0 )W

(19)

In no-load case, the matrix of the complex Maxwell stress

is given by
1 m m
(20)
=
B .B
20
The 2D Fourier transform of the complex stress is
e

=
=

1
W (Bm .Bm ) W
20
1

D(f g
0 .f 0 )W D(.)W
20

e .,0

1 f2 g2
.f 0
20

(24)

where the square exponent corresponds here to a term by term

multiplication, and not a matrix multiplication. The multiplication of the spectra is a consequence of the convolution property
of permance and mmf.
e (spatial
Similarly, one can express the l-th column of
harmonics of the lfs frequency) as
e l,.

1
g l )(f g
(..w
0 .f 0 )l
20

(25)

Here, the left term is a column vector and the right term is a
scalar.

VI.

D ISCUSSION

(18)

The square of the complex magnet flux density is also a

circulant matrix, so one can write

Bm .Bm = WD(fg
0 .f 0 )W D(.)

(23)

(17)

where f0 is the 1D Fourier transform vector of the magnet

complex mmf F 0 (s ). Therefore:
Bm = WD(f0 )W D()

An interesting particular case is the zero-th order components, corresponding to the cogging torque and the average
radial airgap forces and given by k = 1. In that case, wk = 1n
and

(15)

where F 0 (s ) is the rotor radial and tangential mmf along

stator angle at t = 0. The middle of one north magnet is
supposed to be aligned with the middle of a slot at s = 0,
which is an even function of s if the poles are not shifted.
This can be written in a matrix form
Bm = FD()

1
g k ).(f g
(..w
0 .f 0 )
20

(11)

where
Bm
F

To further analyze the terms of this equation, one can

e (time harmonics of the (k 1)express the k-th line of
th spatial order) as

(21)
(22)

The 2D Fourier transform of the radial (resp. tangential)

stress is still given by the real (resp. imaginary) part of this
expression. Note that the norm of this complex stress matrix
is proportional to the airgap electromagnetic energy.

In the no-load case, the time spectrum of zero-th spatial

order radial and tangential force harmonics is therefore given
by the real part and the imaginary part of the multiplication
of the squared complex permeance spatial spectrum and the
squared magnet complex mmf spatial spectrum.
The magnet mmf is an even function in the chosen angular
frame, and it only contains (2kr + 1)p odd space harmonics
(due to North / South poles) where kr is a positive integer.
When squaring this function, one obtains an even function with
2kr p even harmonics. For permeance, the squaring does not
change the spatial harmonic content so the spatial harmonics
of the permeance are of type ks Zs where ks is a positive
integer. The convolution product, leading to an element-wise
multiplication of the Fourier components, shows that both
radial and tangential zero-th order force non zero frequencies
are naturally proportional to the least common multiple (noted
lcm) between the number of pole 2p and the number of slots
f2 = h

Zs , named Nc = lcm(Zs , 2p). Indeed, when noting

g
2
and f 0 = g
:

h0
0
..
.

0

h Zs

h=
.
.
.
0

h2Zs
0

..
.

g
=

g0
0
..
.
0
g2p
0
..
.
0
g4p
0
..
.
0
g6p
0
..
.

bn2p

p
= sin n2p
2p

(27)

e .,0
The first non-zero coefficient of the complex stress
is given by n2p = Nc , it is proportional to bNc . In order to
cancel this term, there must exist an integer k1 such as
p
Nc
= k1
(28)
2p
(26)

(element wise mulso the first non zero components of g

.h
tiplication) are at the multiples of the least common multiple
between Zs and 2p. A more arithmetic proof is detailed in
Appendix.
In particular, the 6 = 6pR time harmonic corresponds to
the n = 6p spatial order harmonic of the convolution product,
and the magnitude of this component is given by the product
of the 6p spatial harmonic of squared permeance, and the 6p
spatial harmonic of squared magnet mmf. Due to trigonometric
relationships the magnitude of the 6p component is linked to
the interaction of 3p/3p, 5p/1p, 7p/1p etc. space harmonics of
magnet mmf (odd harmonic orders whose sum or difference
equals to 6). Similarly the 12f harmonic is given by the
product of the 12p spatial harmonic of squared permeance,
and the 12p spatial harmonic of squared magnet mmf.
A design rule consists in maximizing the least common
multiple between Zs and 2p to reduce the cogging torque magnitude (see for instance [6], [7]). Additionally, this rule tends
to rejects the cogging torque harmonics at high frequencies.
Previous equations show that the same rule can therefore be
used to reduce the effect of 0-th order radial forces. This also
shows that for synchronous machines where the vibroacoustic
behaviour is dominated by the 0-th order circumferential mode
of the stator lamination (breathing mode), the reduction of the
cogging torque by maximizing lcm(Zs , 2p) might lead to a
reduction of the noise and vibration levels.
This formalism can also be used to prove analytically the
optimum magnet pole arc width to pole pitch ratio p with
respect to cogging torque minimization. The cogging torque
is given by the real part of the complex stress (24); due to
the term by term multiplication, cancelling the first non zero
complex element of g
theoretically cancels all the harmonics
and the overall cogging torque. Assuming that F Fr (flux
density lines mainly radial in the airgap), one has F Fr2 , and
the squared complex mmf is real. The radial squared magnet
mmf can be assimilated to a rectangular pulse wave whose
Fourier real coefficients bn2p (n positive integer) are simply
given by

which means that

p =

k1 2p
Nc

(29)

As p < 1 the possible values for k1 are therefore 1, 2, ...

Nc /(2p) 1. This defines a family of optimum pole arc to
pole pitch ratios
p,k2 =

Nc /(2p) k2
k1
=
Nc /(2p)
Nc /(2p)

k2 = 1, 2, ...Nc /(2p)1

(30)
This expression is exactly the one obtained empirically by
[7]. Due to the term by term multiplication in equation (24),
one can see that when cancelling the tangential complex
component of the stress, the radial component is also cancelled.
We have indeed
(e
.,0 )

(e
.,0 )

f2 )(fg2 ) (
f2 )(fg2 )
(
0
0
g
g
f
f
2
2
2
( )(f ) + ( )(f 2 )
0

(31)
(32)

So when a particular design cancels a particular term of the

f2 , both its real and imaginary
complex Fourier transform of
parts are cancelled, and both the real part and the imaginary
part of the complex Fourier transform of the stress are cancelled.
In particular, this correlation between radial and tangential
force harmonics shows that when choosing the optimal pole
arc to pole pitch ratio to cancel cogging torque, it also cancels
0-th spatial order radial force waves. Therefore, both the least
common multiple rule and the optimal magnet width rules help
reducing radial and tangential 0-th order spatial harmonic at
no-load.
For strictly positive spatial orders (e.g. r = 2 which
can excite the ovalization mode of the stator structure), the
harmonics of the airgap reluctance modulated by the function
wk are no longer multiples of the number of slots, so the least
common multiple rule is no longer valid. However, one can
deduce that the lowest exciting force frequency (tangential or
radial) of spatial order r > 0 is given by Kr fs /p with
Kr =

min

(ks ,hr )/r=|2phr ks Zs |

2phr

(33)

where K0 = Nc . A new vibroacoustic design rule, given a

certain speed range, might be therefore to maximize Kr for
the radial spatial orders creating the highest yoke deflections,
for instance for r rmax = 4:
Kac =

min

r=0 to rmax

Kr

(34)

By definition, Kac K0 = Nc . A new vibroacoustic design

rule for the choice of the slot / pole combination could
therefore consist in maximizing Kac instead of Nc .

Lets now focus on expression (25). Similarly to what has

been done in the frequency domain, it is here interesting to
look at the smallest non-zero spatial order r0 with a nonzero complex stress magnitude, when sweeping all frequencies
and spatial orders. Note that only the smallest non-zero spatial
order harmonic is of interest because one already knows that
some 0-th spatial order tangential and radial force harmonics
occur at multiples of Nc fs /p. The lowest spatial orders of
radial forces lead to higher deflections of the yoke [8], [9],
resulting in higher vibration and acoustic noise. The identification of the lowest spatial order is therefore interesting in
order to maximize it during the design process. By definition
r0 = min{r/l N ,
el,r 6= 0 and r 6= 0}

(35)

el,r 6= 0 if and only if l is even (as the squared mmf

only contains non zero even harmonics) and that there exists
an integer ks such as r = |ks Zs lp|, which can be written
r = |ks Zs 2pl |, noting l = 2l . The expression of r0 becomes
r0

min{|ks Zs 2pl |/
(36)

l N , ks N , and |ks Zs 2pl | > 0} (37)

If the greatest common divider between Zs and 2p is noted

Mc , there exist two positive integers (a, b) such as Mc a = Zs
and Mc b = 2p. Their greatest common divider is 1, otherwise
Mc gcd(a, b) would be a common divider of Zs and 2p larger
than Mc , contradicting its definition. As a consequence, there
exists two relative integers (u, v)such as au + bv = 1 (Bezout
theorem).
r0

min{Mc |aks bl |/
l N , ks N , and |aks bl | > 0}

(38)
(39)

When sweeping all l ans ks values for all spatial order

r, the non-zero minimum of |aks bl | reaches 1 for l =
v and ks = u, which means that smallest non-zero spatial
order harmonic component in the complex stress spectrum is
given by Mc , the greatest common divider between the number
of stator slots and the number of poles. The identification of
the integers u and v allows to identify the permeance and
rotor mmf harmonics responsible for the lowest spatial order
of both tangential and radial force harmonics at no-load. The
maximization of Mc therefore allows to increase the lowest
non-zero spatial order of both radial and tangential force waves
during the design process. However, this single criterion does
not prevent the electrical machine to be noisy due to a radial
force harmonic of order 0 exciting the breathing mode of the
structure at a certain speed.
This criterion has been already used to minimize vibration
and noise due to magnetic forces in some previous papers (see
for instance [10], [1], [11]), but to the authors knowledge,
no rigourous proof of it has been demonstrated yet, neither
its application to tangential force harmonics. In [12], the
criterion is also used for the design of interior permanent
magnet synchronous machines. As discussed previously, the
airgap flux density of interior permanent magnet machines
can be expressed using an equivalent surface magnet [5]: all
the conclusions that are done in this paper on synchronous
machines therefore apply to both surface and interior magnet
synchronous machines.

The minimization of Mc is often used to minimize the

magnitude of cogging torque, and some analytical models have
already proven this dependence. Cogging torque cannot generate radial vibrations of the stator yoke, and therefore cannot
radiate significant acoustic noise. However, tangential force
non-zero spatial harmonics can generate radial deflections of
the yoke, and therefore acoustic noise [13]. Minimizing Mc
reduces cogging torque magnitude, but can potentially increase
acoustic noise and vibrations due to lower non-zero spatial
orders of tangential and radial force harmonics. Besides that,
Mc is closely linked to Nc due to the following relationship
gcd(Zs , 2p)lcm(Zs , 2p) = Mc Nc = Zs 2p

(40)

Generally, minimizing Mc maximizes Nc , thus increasing the

frequencies of the 0-th spatial order radial and tangential force
harmonics, and reducing the risk of resonances at a given
speed.
VII.

VALIDATIONS

In this part, some numerical calculations are carried to

support the theoretical findings of previous sections. As the
theoretical findings are general, it is easier to run numerical
calculations in order to simulate PMSM with different slot
and pole combinations rather than manufacturing and testing
several prototypes. The numerical simulations run in this
validation part are either based on magnetostatic finite element
method, or on subdomain electromagnetic models, which have
been themselves validated with finite element method [14].
Therefore the validation calculations do not use the permeance
/ magnetomotive approach contrary to the analytical work of
the first section.
A first study aims at checking the correlation between zeroth order radial and tangential force harmonics cancellation on
a PMSM, as analyzed in previous section.The second study
runs some full electromagnetic and vibro-acoustic calculations
on 3 different PMSM designs in order to check the findings
on the LCM and GCD, and see if some simple vibroacoustic
design rules could be used to assess their respective acoustic
behaviour.
All these calculations are done in the MANATEE software
[15] (Magnetic Acoustic Noise Analysis Tool for Electrical
Engineering) simulation environment. This software is dedicated to the fast optimal electromagnetic design of electrical machines including acoustic noise and vibration due to
Maxwell forces. The evaluation of the airgap flux density can
be based on analytical models (permeance / magnetomotive
force and winding function approaches[3], [4]), semi-analytical
subdomain models (e.g. [14]) or finite element models (based
on a coupling with FEMM [16]). Some analytical models allow
to calculate the radial vibration level of the yoke, and the
resulting acoustic sound power level (SWL) at variable speed
following similar analytical models as presented in [17], [18].
A. Correlation of radial and tangential force harmonics magnitude
In this part, the electromagnetic behaviour of a 12-slot 8pole (Zs = 12, p = 4) surface permanent magnet machine
(named M0) with radial magnetization as described in [14] is
simulated.

10000

8000

rip

ripple Fr, [N/m ]

9000

7000
6000
5000
4000
3000
2000 radial
1000 tangential
0
0

0.2
0.4
0.6
0.8
pole arc to pole pitch ratio

Fig. 4.
Fig. 2.

FEM model of the 12s-8p SPMSM as per [14]

Force ripple as a function of pole arc to pole pitch ratio

2p
Zs
lcm(Zs , 2p)/p
Mc = gcd(Zs , 2p)
Nc = lcm(Zs , 2p)
Kac

TABLE I.

Fig. 5.

Fig. 3.

M0
8
12
6
4
24
8

M1
14
12
12
2
84
14

M2
10
12
12
2
60
10

M3
14
15
30
1
210
14

M ACHINE PARAMETERS

Geometry of the three studied SPSM M1, M2 and M3 [19]

close from the theory, the gap between analytical expression

and numerical results coming from the tangential field as also
noticed in [7].

FEM model of the SPMSM (flux lines at no load)

To confirm the correlation between radial and tangential

force 0-th order minimization, the pole arc to pole pitch ratio
is varied from 0.05 to 0.95 inside MANATEE. The ripple
magnitude of the 0-th tangential (resp. radial) force order is
calculated based on

B. Vibroacoustic study of three different designs

(44)

Three different surface permanent magnet synchronous machines are simulated using MANATEE [15] using the same slot
and pole combinations as defined in [19]. The electromagnetic
calculations are here based on subdomain models which are as
accurate as finite element methods. The three machines have
very close stator natural frequencies, as they only differ by
the number of slots. The machine parameters and geometry
are presented in Tab. I and Fig. 5, they represent different slot
and pole numbers combination for the same output power.
Following the least common multiple rule, both radial and
tangential forces of spatial order 0 should be respectively
proportional to 12fs , 12fs and 30fs on these machines names
M1, M2 and M3.

These two quantities represent the harmonic content of the

zero-th spatial order of radial and tangential force. The results
are given in Fig 4 for a surface PM machine with Zs = 12
slots and 2p = 8 poles (Nc = 24). The theoretical optimal
values of p from (30) are (12/4-1)/(12/4)=2/3=0.66 and (12/42)/(12/4)=1/3=0.33. One can see that numerical results are

The two dimensional Fourier transform of the radial and

tangential Maxwell stress, computed based on subdomain
models, are displayed at 2230 rpm for the three machines
in Fig. 7 to Fig. 10. One can see that the tangential and
radial spectra are very similar, as suggested by the correlation
between tangential and radial harmonics of equation (24). As
predicted by the least common multiple rule, the zero-th order

Frrip
Frip

=
=

max Fr0 (t) min Fr0 (t)

max F0 (t) min F0 (t)

(41)
(42)

where
Fr0 (t)

F0 (t)

Z 2
1
r (t, s )ds
2 0
Z 2
1
(t, s )ds
2 0

(43)

Airgap tangential force FFT2

10000

12f

10000

[N/mm2]

r [N/mm2]

Airgap radial force FFT2

5000

0
3000

12f

6000

4000
2000
0
3000

6
4 5
2 3
0 1
1
2
43
65
Spatial order [r]

2000
1000
Frequency [Hz]

Fig. 6.

8000

Fourier transform of the radial Maxwell stress of machine M1

2000
1000
Frequency [Hz]

Fig. 9.

Fourier transform of the tangential Maxwell stress of machine M2

Airgap radial force FFT2

4000
2000

5000

0
6000

0
3000
6
4 5
2 3
0 1
1
2
43Spatial order [r]
65

2000
1000
Frequency [Hz]

Fig. 7.

30fs

10000

12fs

r [N/mm2]

[N/mm2]

Airgap tangential force FFT2

6000

6
4 5
2 3
0 1
1
2
43
65
Spatial order [r]

Fourier transform of the tangential Maxwell stress of machine M1

4000
2000
Frequency [Hz]

6
4 5
2 3
1
0
21
43 Spatial order [r]
65

Fig. 10. Fourier transform of the radial Maxwell stress of machine M3

(30fs >6400 Hz)

Airgap radial force FFT2

Airgap tangential force FFT2

8000
[N/mm2]

r [N/mm2]

12f
15000
10000
5000
0
3000
2000
1000
Frequency [Hz]

Fig. 8.

6
4 5
2 3
0 1
1
2
43
65
Spatial order [r]

30fs
6000
4000
2000
0
6000
4000
2000
Frequency [Hz]

5 6
3 4
1 2
0
21
43
65
Spatial order [r]

Fourier transform of the radial Maxwell stress of machine M2

Fig. 11. Fourier transform of the tangential Maxwell stress of machine M3
(30fs >6400 Hz)

radial and tangential force harmonics are at 12fs , 12fs and

30fs (out of the calculated frequency range) for machines M1
to M3. As predicted by the greatest common divider rule, the
lowest non-zero order of radial and tangential force harmonics
are respectively 2, 2, and 1 for machines M1 to M3.
The no-load sound power level at variable speed from 300
to 3500 rpm is also calculated using MANATEE software
[15]. Results are illustrated in Fig. 12. One can notice that the

maximum sound power level is very similar for three motors,

although the values of Nc and Kac are very different. On
machine M1, the main resonance occurs close to fs = 120
Hz speed due to a resonance of the ovalization mode with a
radial force of order 2 at 2fs . A secondary resonance occurs
close to fs = 265 Hz speed with the structural mode of order
4 due to a force of spatial order 4 at 4fs . On machine M2, the

SWL magnitude [dBA re. 1pW]

80
M1
M2
M3

70
60
50

common divider between slot and pole numbers could make

a valid vibroacoustic design rule, or some alternative simple
rules based on these numbers. It is shown that these simple vibroacoustic design rules do not work to minimize the acoustic
noise radiation at variable speed because they do not take into
account the magnitude of the interfering force waves. Some
numerical simulations at variable speed including electromagnetic and vibroacoustic models are therefore necessary.

40

IX.
30
20
0

500

1000

1500 2000 2500

Speed [rpm]

3000

3500

4000

Fig. 12. Sound power level as a function of speed at no load for the three
machines

main resonance occurs close to fs = 180 Hz speed due to a

resonance of the ovalization mode with a radial force of order
2 at 2fs . On machine M3, the main resonance occurs close to
fs = 60 Hz speed due to a resonance of the ovalization mode
with a radial force of order 2 at 4fs . A resonance with the
ovalization mode occurs for the three machines with similar
magnitude at no-load, although the design parameters Mc , Nc
and Kac have different values. This shows that there is no
simple vibroacoustic design rule helping to choose the best slot
per pole combination. Indeed, the change of stator slot changes
the reluctance harmonics magnitude, not only the magnetic
force spatial orders and frequencies. Numerical vibroacoustic
simulation is therefore necessary in the predesign phase.
VIII.

C ONCLUSION

A special matrix formalism, based on the synchronization

of time and space discretizations of the airgap quantities,
is used to analyze the tangential and radial airgap magnetic
harmonic forces in surface permanent magnet synchronous
machines in no-load operation.

F UTURE WORK

Future work aims at deriving and validating the formulas

for the loaded case, and at further analyzing the general correlation between tangential and radial magnetic force harmonics.
A second objective consists in expressing the optimal current
injection pattern in the d-q frame to cancel or minimize a given
radial or tangential force harmonic, and see whether 0-th order
tangential forces and radial forces are minimized at the same
time, that is to say whether torque ripple minimization and
acoustic noise minimization are contradictory objectives when
using active current injection techniques.
X.
A. Discrete FFT
If f is a function of time and angle with a time periodicity
of TR and a spatial periodicity of 2, let F be the matrix of
Fij = f (ti , j ) with i [0, nt 1] and j [0, na 1] (uniform
discretization of time and spatial spaces). We have in particular
t0 = 0, tnt 1 = TR = 2/fR and 0 = 0, na 1 = 2.
The discrete 2D Fourier transform of F is:
nX
a 1
t 1 nX
1
Fkl =
Fuv ej2(uk/nt +vl/na )
nt na u=0 v=0

Finally, some numerical calculations at variable speed are

done on several design in order to check the theoretical
findings, and whether the rule of maximizing the greatest

(45)

The inverse transform is:

Fuv

nX
a 1
t 1 nX
1
=
Fkl ej2(ku/nt +lv/na )
nt na
k=0

Based on the property of convolution, it is shown that

the frequency content of both cogging torque and zero-th
order radial magnetic forces are linked to the least common
multiple between the stator slots and rotor poles number. This
close relationship between tangential and radial force harmonic
content is also demonstrated when varying the magnet angular
width based on numerical calculations. Similarly, it is shown
that the greatest common divider between the stator slots
and rotor poles numbers gives the lowest non-zero spatial
order of both radial and tangential force harmonics at no-load.
This is interesting as the higher the spatial order of radial
force, the lower the radial displacement of the yoke is [9]:
the maximization of this greatest common divider between
slot and pole numbers could therefore be the basis for a
new vibroacoustic design rule for the choice of the slot and
pole combination. Interestingly, this criterion is opposed to the
minimization of the greatest common divider between slot and
pole numbers in order to reduce cogging torque magnitude.

A PPENDICES

(46)

l=0

which gives in a matrix form

= Wt FWa
F

a
F = Wt FW

(47)

where is the real transposition operator (no conjugate

transform). Wa and Wt are square orthogonal matrices of
size na na and nt nt , given by
(Wt )kl

(Wa )kl

1
l
exp(j2k )
nt
nt
1
l
exp(j2k )
na
na

with k from 0 to na 1 and l from 0 to nt 1.

(48)
(49)

Wt F is a nt na matrices that represents the spatial

evolution of the magnitude of F time harmonics (only time
integration). Similarly, FWa represents the time evolution of
the magnitude of F spatial harmonics (only spatial integration).

When doing a 1D FFT, for instance on the function

f0 () = f (0, ), f0 Wa is the row vector f0 of size 1 na ..
Fkl are the coordinates of the function in the orthogonal
basis emn (t, s ) = exp(jmR t jns ):

Lets define the spatial convolution operator as

Z 2
1
f ( )g()d
(f g)() =
2 0

Extracting the magnitude of a wave of a given spatial order

and given frequency therefore consists in projecting F on two
successive different subspaces using (47).

We can then write that

(f g)k =

B. Time and space equivalences

In case of a full cylindrical symmetry around the rotation
axis (no pole shifting, no stator or rotor geometrical asymmetries), the following relation can be used for some quantities
such as SPMSM rotor mmf:
f (t, s ) = f (t , s + R R (t t))

t, t , s

(50)

In particular,
f (t, s ) = f (0, s R R t) = f0 (s R R t)

(51)

where f0 is defined as the function f at time t = 0.

(57)

When space and time discretization are synchronized, space

and time convolution become equivalent and f g = g f .
As
Z 2
1
f0 (R s )g(s )d(58)
(f0 g)(R = R t) =
s
2 0
Z 2
1
=
F (t, s )g(s )ds (59)
2 0
We can write when discretizing in time and space domain

By synchronizing the spatial discretization with the time

discretization (j = R tj ) it means that each column of the
matrix F can be obtained by a shift of the adjacent column :
all the information can be either obtained by having a full time
data of f at a given location, or the full spatial data of f at a
given time. When synchronizing space and time discretization
(na = nt = n), the effect of time on vectors can be modelled
by the following n n matrix
R

0 1 0
0 ...
0 ...
0 0 1

.. . . .
(52)
R= 0 0 0

0 0 ... 0
1
1 0 ... 0
0
1

na 1
1 X
fkj gj
na j=0

(56)

which is a cyclic permutation operator. We have R = R

and RT R = In . Note that for a matrix A, Ri ARi 6= A.
However the following property holds

f0 g =

1
Fg = WD(f0 )W g
n

(60)

f0 g is the vector of size n 1 with the values of (f0

g)(R tj ) when j varies. As a consequence, the time Fourier
transform of the convolution product is given by
f0 g = W (f0 g) = D(f0 )
g = f0 .
g

(61)

where the . operator stands for element wise vector multiplication.

C. Arithmetic proof of the least common multiple effect
An arithmetic proof of the expression of the cogging torque
(zero-th space order tangential Maxwell forces) or zero-th
space order radial Maxwell forces is here proposed, starting
on equation (24).

Lets define Nc as lcm(Zs , 2p). Therefore there exists two

strictly positive integers u and v such as Nc = uZs = v2p
and u v = 1 (their greatest common divider is 1). The
The function f (ti = i /(R R )[TR ], n ) is represented by
squared permeance contains Fourier harmonics of order hs Zs
the vector f0 Ri where f0 is the vector of size 1n of f (0, n ).
and the squared mmf contains harmonics of order hr 2p where
This operator moves the values of f0 in the increasing s for
hs and hr are positive integer. The interaction of these groups
R = 1, so in anti-clockwise direction.
of waves can lead to a zero-th spatial order if there exist
The matrix F is then given for R = 1 by
hs and hr such as 2phr = hs Zs . This leads to hr u =

(hs Zs /(2p))u = (uZs )(hs /(2p)) = hs v, so u divides hs v
f0
f0,0
f1,0 . . . fn2,0 fn1,0
fn1,0 f0,0 . . . fn3,0 fn2,0 f0 R and as u is prime with v udivides hs (Gausss theorem) and
=
there exists n positive integer such as hs = nu with uZs = Nc
F=
..
..
..
..
..
..

.
.
.
.
.
.
and hr = hs Zs /(2p) = nNc /(2p).
n1
f1,0
f2,0 . . . fn1,0
f0,0
f0 R
Reciprocally, if there exists n positive integer such as hs =
(54)
nu and hr = nNc /(2p), then 2phr hs Zs = 0 so there exist
This is called a circulant matrix. The interesting property
a null spatial order.
of the circulant matrix is that it can be decomposed as
The electrical frequency of the squared mmf wave is 2hr fs ,
F = nWD(f0 )W
(55)
where fs is the fundamental supply frequency, so all the radial
and tangential force waves of order 0 have frequencies written
where W = Wa = Wn , and D(f0 ) is a diagonal matrix
as nNc fs /p, they are therefore given by the product of the
whose diagonal contains the values of the row vector of f0 :
rotor mechanical frequency and multiples of the least common
multiple between Zs and 2p.
f (0, ) Fourier transform, so of f0 = f0 W .
Ri D(v)Ri = D(Ri v)

(53)

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