Comparison of traditional, quasi-Halbach array and interior permanent magnet configurations for outer rotor brushless AC machines

Issue title: Special Issue on the 18th International Symposium on Electromagnetic Fields in Mechatronics, Electrical and Electronic Engineering

Guest editors: Sławomir Wiak, Paolo Di Barba and Krzysztof Komeza

Article type: Research Article

Authors: Wiltuschnig, I.P.^{a; *} | Eckert, P.R.^a | Flores Filho, A.F.^a | Dorrell, D.G.^b

Affiliations: [a] Post-Graduate Programme in Electrical Engineering, Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul, Porto Alegre, Brazil | [b] Howard College Campus University of KwaZulu-Natal Durban, South Africa

Correspondence: [*] Corresponding author: I.P. Wiltuschnig, Post-Graduate Programme in Electrical Engineering, Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul, Porto Alegre, RS, Brazil. E-mail: igor.pasa@ufrgs.br.

Abstract: The study in this paper compares three permanent magnet (PM) brushless AC machine topologies with external rotor configuration, which are attractive for in-wheel electric drive applications. All machines use the same stator but have different rotor geometries: a conventional surface PM structure, a surface quasi-Halbach PM array structure, and an interior V-shaped PM structure. For these topologies, the volume of the PM material is the same. A numerical simulation based on finite element analysis was carried out for the three cases to evaluate and compare their behaviour in terms of torque density, magnetic flux density, and torque ripple.

Keywords: Brushless motor, external rotor, interior magnets, permanent magnets, quasi-Halbach array

DOI: 10.3233/JAE-182299

Journal: International Journal of Applied Electromagnetics and Mechanics, vol. 57, no. S1, pp. 217-225, 2018