Structural Analysis of Single-Sided Axial-Flux Permanent Magnet Machines With Different Magnetic Materials

Structural analysis of single-sided axial-flux permanent magnet (AFPM) machines for automotive cooling applications is presented in this article. First, the machine configuration and various magnetic materials for this machine, namely, electrical steel (ES) and soft magnetic composite (SMC), are introduced. Second, analytical modeling of the axial electromagnetic force is established to identify the components having a significant influence on the machine vibration and noise. Third, the electromagnetic forces for AFPM machines with different magnetic materials and machine eigenmodes are studied based on finite-element analysis. By using 2-D fast Fourier transform (2-D-FFT), the spatial and temporal orders of the electromagnetic force are obtained to verify the analytical modeling. Finally, by coupling the results from electromagnetic analysis and modal analysis, the vibration and noise for AFPM machines with different magnetic materials are investigated. The results show that the application of different magnetic materials greatly affects the vibration and noise characteristics of single-sided AFPM machines.