A Novel Cogging Torque Reduction Method for Single-Phase Brushless DC Motor

Single-phase, brushless DC (BLDC) motors have unequal air-gaps to eliminate the dead-point where the developed torque is zero. Unfortunately, these unequal air-gaps can deteriorate the motor characteristics in the cogging torque. This paper proposes a novel design for a single-phase BLDC motor with an asymmetric notch to solve this problem. In the design method, the asymmetric notches were placed on the stator pole face, which affects the change in permanent magnet shape or the residual flux density of the permanent magnet. Parametric analysis was performed to determine the optimal size and position of the asymmetric notch to reduce the cogging torque. Finite element analysis (FEA) was used to calculate the cogging torque. A more than 28% lower cogging torque compared to the initial model with no notch was achieved.