Comparison of Claw-Pole Machines With Different Rotor Structures

Due to the global winding and 3-D flux, the claw-pole machine (CPM) can exhibit higher torque ability than other types of electrical machines. Using the powder metallurgical technology, the manufacture cost of CPMs made of soft-magnetic composite (SMC) material can be much lower than that of the conventional machines, especially with the low density cores. The performance of SMC motor was improved as the material has undergone through substantial improvement in the last decades. To seek better performance, CPMs with different permanent magnet (PM) rotor structures and SMC cores, including the surface mounted PM motor, surface inset PM rotor, V-type PM rotor, and flux concentrating PM rotor, are designed and the performances compared. The magnetic parameters of these machines are obtained by the 3-D finite-element method, and the analysis method is verified by the experiment of a surface-mounted PM CPM with SMC core.