Testing high-performance motors: Evaluating a compromise between quality design development and production costs of a halbach-array PM slotless motor

This article has reported on an industrial R&D project aimed at identifying a cost-effective response to the more and more challenging high-speed motor requirements that presently come from the gas industry sector. To meet the very high efficiency, dynamic performance, and reliability standards required by cutting-edge turbomachinery drive applications, a special PM synchronous motor prototype has been developed. The identified technology includes AMBs for rotor levitation, a slotless stator design, and a Halbach-array PM rotor. Motor design optimization through genetic algorithms has been presented as a tool to search for the best tradeoff between performance targets and industrial production cost reduction. Extensive prototype testing under converter supply has been reported as a successful validation of the selected technology.