Design Optimization of a Novel Axial-Radial Flux Permanent Magnet Claw Pole Machine with SMC Cores and Ferrite Magnets

Soft magnetic composite (SMC) material is an ideal soft magnetic material employed for developing 3D magnetic flux electromagnetic equipment, due to its advantages of 3D magnetic isotropy characteristic, low eddy current loss, and simple manufacturing process. The permanent magnet claw pole machine (PMCPM) with SMC cores is a good case that the SMC to be adopted for developing 3D flux electrical machines. In this paper, a novel axial-radial flux permanent magnet claw pole machine (ARPMCPM) with SMC cores and ferrite magnets is proposed. Compared with the traditional PMCPM, the proposed ARPMCPM is designed with only one spoke PM rotor and its whole structure is quite compact. For the performance prediction, the 3D finite element method (FEM) is used. Meanwhile, for the performance evaluation, a previously developed axial flux claw pole permanent magnet machine (AFCPM) is employed as the benchmark machine and all these machines are optimized by using the combined multilevel robust Taguchi method. It can be seen that the proposed ARPMCPM is with higher torque/weight density and operation efficiency.