A Comparative Study of Three Winding Configurations for Six-Phase Induction Motors

Recent studies indicate that using multi-phase motors in industrial and traction applications is strongly advised because they offer better efficacy and reliability as well as low carbon emissions compared to conventional three-phase motors. This paper presents a comparative study between three winding configurations for six-phase induction motors (6PIMs) including double three-phase induction motors (D-3PIMs), symmetrical 6PIMs (S-6PIMs), and asymmetrical 6PIMs (A-6PIMs). Firstly, these three winding configurations of the 6PIMs are simulated and designed for two-dimensional geometry with aid of the ANSYS Motor-CAD program. Then, these models are exported to ANSYS Maxwell software for validation and extract the simulation results. Simulation results demonstrate that the A-6PIMs configuration outperforms the other two counterparts in terms of low power loss, high efficiency, high reliability, and low phase current. This reveals that the utilization of the A-6PIMs configuration is promising in industrial and traction applications to enhance the performance of AC motors and reduce carbon emissions.