Design and analysis of a new halbach magnetized magnetic screw for artificial hearts

Due to the limited number of the donor hearts, artificial heart (AH) systems are required for the therapy of the terminal heart diseases. Existing electric-drive AHs employ the rotary blood pumps or linear motors, but suffering from blood damage and poor thrust density, respectively. Very recently, the concept of magnetic screw was proposed. The magnetic screw actuator integrated with permanent magnet (PM) brushless machine is capable of converting rotational motion into linear motion and vice versa. Since it offers high force density, wear-free, small size and light weight, magnetic screw actuator has a bright future in AH applications. The purpose of this paper is to propose and analyze a new magnetic screw with the halbach PM array, which offers improved force density.