Rotor Yoke Thickness of Coreless High-Speed Axial-Flux Permanent Magnet Generator

Recently, high-speed axial flux generator (HSAFG) has come to attention because of its some advantages such as high power density and efficiency. This paper presents a modeling and designing procedure of HSAFG with some details. The back iron of the permanent magnet is the main design subject investigated in this paper. Optimized thickness of the back-iron used in the rotor of two ends is determined for a HSAFG by carefully considerations of the terminal voltage, output power, and efficiency. These all vary by thickness of back-iron variation significantly. It is illustrated that a very small thickness of the rotor yoke reduces the terminal voltage and efficiency and a very large value of it increases the rotor inertia, mechanical problems and cost of the machine with no significant improvement of the machine performance characteristics. It is concluded that back-iron thickness of the rotor plays a singular and important role in the HSAFG and requires more carefully attention when designing the machine.