Minimization of cogging torque in permanent magnet motors by teeth pairing and magnet arc design using genetic algorithm

Cogging torque is often a principal source of vibration and acoustic noise in high precision spindle motor applications. In this paper, cogging torque is analytically calculated using energy method with Fourier series expansion. It shows that cogging torque is effectively minimized by controlling airgap permeance function with teeth pairing design, and by controlling flux density function with magnet arc design. For an optimization technique, genetic algorithm is applied to handle trade-off effects of design parameters. Results show that the proposed method can reduce the cogging torque effectively.