Development of a 2-D Analytical Model for the Electromagnetic Computation of Axial-Field Magnetic Gears

This paper describes a two-dimensional (2-D) analytical model to predict the magnetic field distribution in axial-field magnetic gears by using the sub-domain method. The sub-domain method consists in solving the partial differential equations linked to the Maxwell´s equations in each rectangular region (magnets, air gaps, and slots) by the separation of variables method. The proposed model is based on a two-dimensional approximation for the magnetic field distribution (mean radius model) i.e. the problem is solved in 2-D Cartesian coordinates. One of the main contributions of the paper concerns the analytic solution of the magnetic field in a slot open on the two sides (space between the ferromagnetic pole-pieces). Moreover, it is shown that the analytical model and the 3-D finite elements simulations follow the same trends in the determination of the optimum values for the geometrical parameters. As the analytical model takes less computational time than 3-D numerical model, it can be used as an effective tool for the first step of design optimization.