Rare‐earth‐free Al‐Ni‐Co hybrid PMa‐SyRM for an air‐conditioner compressor

Abstract A hybrid ferrite‐Al‐Ni‐Co permanent magnet assisted synchronous reluctance motor (PMa‐SyRM) for an air‐conditioner compressor is proposed. Al‐Ni‐Co PMs have high residual flux density similar to rare‐earth PMs such as Nd‐Fe‐B and Sm‐Co. Therefore, the performance parameters of the PMa‐SyRM such as power factor, efficiency etc., with Al‐Ni‐Co PMs can be improved without significantly increasing the cost of the motor. However, Al‐Ni‐Co PMs have a steep II nd ‐quadrant B‐H curve, and the challenge lies in addressing their demagnetisation issues. In the proposed hybrid PMa‐SyRM, the rotor geometry is suitably optimised for placing the Al‐Ni‐Co PMs in the centre flux barriers to address the demagnetisation issues. Further, an analytical magnetic circuit is presented to design the proposed PMa‐SyRM. Later, 2‐D finite element analysis of the proposed motor including the demagnetisation analysis of PMs and stress analysis of the rotor is carried out and presented. A prototype is fabricated, experimental validation is carried out, and the results of the performance and cost are compared with that of ferrite and hybrid ferrite‐Nd‐Fe‐B PMa‐SyRM.