Scaling Laws and Empirical Relations based Initial Sizing of Motor Integrated Electrodynamic Wheel

In this paper, two different approaches are presented for initial sizing of a magnetic levitation device with its integrated motor. This device develops lift and thrust forces on a conductive plate in a contact-less manner. The first approach relies on uniform scaling where it is guaranteed that the performance parameters of the new design can be established in terms of a base-model. This base-model is assumed to be known. The second approach considers non-uniform scaling, and empirical relations are derived using 2D-finite element analysis (FEA). This is done for several design variations such as plate thickness, plate conductivity, levitation gap, magnet remanence, radial scaling, and rotor structure. The estimates obtained from empirical relations are validated using 2D-FEA, and a close agreement is observed between the results. One example problem is also given, demonstrating the utility of empirical relation for initial sizing. The procedural details for obtaining the empirical relations would be useful for other electric machines as well, where uniform scaling is not applicable and such relations have to obtained.