Ironless axial-radial flux electric machines

This Ph.D. dissertation presents a novel family of iron-less axial-radial flux electric machines. As an example, a new brushless permanent magnet machine with concentric arrangement of rotor and stator, solenoid shape coils, and permanent magnets mounted on the surface of the rotor is introduced in detail. This machine is suitable for several applications in emerging industries, such as distributed renewable energy systems, due to its simple mechanical design and adequate performance. Magnetic circuit is unconventional because it has both radial and axial components of the magnetic flux. This dissertation also presents a detailed customized methodology for the analysis and design of the proposed electric machines utilizing a three-dimensional finite element model. The proposed electric machine concept, design methodology, and simple manufacturability are experimentally validated on a machine prototype.;Lack of a conventional laminated iron structure provides great design freedom, leading to the introduction of different machine configurations based on the proposed concept. These variations incorporate flat or U-shape permanent magnets, rectangular or circular cross sections of the coils, circumferential or radial positions of the coils, and ironless or iron assemblies. Based on inclusive performance assessment of all variations, two configurations have been chosen for further optimization and comparison to other machine technologies. These configurations have flat permanent magnets mounted on the rotor, ironless stator, and solenoid shape coils with circular and rectangular cross-sections, respectively. Optimal designs are compared to other ironless machine.