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IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON MAGNETICS, VOL. 49, NO. 7, JULY 2013

A Flux Focusing Axial Magnetic Gear

Vedanadam M. Acharya, Jonathan Z. Bird, and Matthew Calvin
Laboratory for Electromechanical Energy Conversion and Control, University of North Carolina at Charlotte, Charlotte, NC
28223 USA
This paper investigates a novel axial magnetic gear using ferrite magnets. In order to increase the air-gap flux density the ferrite
magnets are arranged in flux focusing configuration. The simulation results presented in this paper indicate that a relatively high torque
density can be achieved when using only ferrite magnets.
Index TermsAxial flux, finite element analysis, magnetic gear, permanent magnet.

I. INTRODUCTION

magnetic gear (MG) enables a contactless mechanism for

speed amplification to be achieved. MGs do not require
gear lubrication, they have inherent overload protection and
they have the potential for quiet operation and high conversion
efficiency [1][3]. A MG, as shown in Fig. 1, consists of
pole-pair permanent magnets (PMs) on an inner rotor rotating
at
, a middle rotor with
ferromagnetic steel poles that
can rotate at , and
pole-pair PM outer rotor rotating at
. The inner and outer rotors that contain PMs interact with
the
middle steel poles to create space harmonics [3]. If the
relationship between the poles is chosen to be
then the rotors will interact via a common space harmonic
component [3], and the angular rotational velocities for each
rotor are related by
(1)
Unlike their radial counterpart axial MGs have not been studied
to a great extent. Mezani presented an axial MG using surface
mounted (NdFeB) magnets with a gear ratio of 5.75:1 and 200
mm diameter; the torque density was calculated to be 70 Nm/L
[4]. While Hirata presented a surface mounted axial MG with a
10:1 gear ratio and a 120 mm diameter with a torque density of
19 Nm/L [5]. A novel 6.5:1 MG with radially positioned rotor
magnets and axial flux flow through ferromagnetic steel poles
was presented by Li [6]. In this design the calculated torque
density was 11 Nm/L. It is well known that axial flux motors
have the potential for higher torque densities when compared to
their radial counterparts [7], [8]. Therefore, if sized correctly an
axial MG topology should also be able to achieve higher torque
densities than the radial equivalent. However, currently this has
not been demonstrated in the literature.
Current MG designs use large quantities of rare-earth magnet
material and unfortunately the high cost of rare-earth material
makes the MG uncompetitive with alternative technology [9],
[10]. This paper investigates the torque capabilities of a novel
axial flux focusing magnetic gear (AFFMG) that uses ferrite
magnets.
Manuscript received November 05, 2012; revised December 18, 2012, January 25, 2013, and February 08, 2013; accepted February 12, 2013. Date of current version July 15, 2013. Corresponding author: J. Z. Bird (e-mail: jonathan.
bird@ieee.org).
Color versions of one or more of the figures in this paper are available online
at http://ieeexplore.ieee.org.
Digital Object Identifier 10.1109/TMAG.2013.2248703

Fig. 1. Magnetic gear using surface mounted permanent magnets.

pole-pairs,
steel poles and
pole-pairs on outer rotor.

II. AN AXIAL FLUX FOCUSING MAGNETIC GEAR

The AFFMG topology is shown in Fig. 2. In this embodiment
the magnets are magnetized along the azimuthal direction and
the flux is forced to pass through the steel poles in the axial
direction. The flux density can be increased if the area of the
magnet is chosen to be greater than the area of the steel pole
facing the air-gap. The same governing speed relationship as
given by (1) applies. The pole combination
,
and
was chosen because Gouda indicated that a lower
gear ratio has a higher torque density [11]. In this analysis rotor
3 is assumed to be stationary
. The gear ratio is then
(2)
. The geometric parameters used to study this
where
AFFMG are defined in Fig. 3 and values are given in Tables I
and II. The inner and outer radii are kept constant and the magnet
and
.
and steel pole spans are kept equal,
The flux focusing ratio for rotor 1 is defined as the ratio between
the magnet area,
, facing the steel pole
(3)
and steel pole area,

, facing the air gap

(4)

Assuming that there is no external leakage flux and since there

are two magnets facing each steel pole the flux focusing ratio,
for rotor 1, can be defined as

0018-9464/$31.00 2013 IEEE

(5)

ACHARYA et al.: A FLUX FOCUSING AXIAL MAGNETIC GEAR

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TABLE II
INITIAL AND FINAL GEOMETRIC SWEEP PARAMETERS

Fig. 2. An axial flux focusing magnetic gear with

pole pairs.

and

Fig. 3. Geometric parameters used by the axial magnetic gear.

Fig. 4. (a) The axial flux density in the air gap adjacent to the high-speed rotor
) and (b) the corresponding spatial harmonics.
(at

TABLE I
FIXED GEOMETRIC PARAMETERS AND MATERIAL PROPERTIES

Substituting (3) and (4) into (5) gives

(6)

Fig. 5. (a) The axial flux density in the air gap adjacent to low-speed rotor (at
) and (b) the corresponding spatial harmonics.

Similarly, for the stationary rotor 3 the flux focusing ratio is

III. HARMONIC ANALYSIS
(7)
Using the parameters given in the tables the initial concentration
ratios for rotor 1 and stationary rotor 3 is 4.6 and 2.9, respectively. Solid 416 steel is being used because it is assumed that
the input speed has a maximum value of 20 RPM and therefore
the induced eddy currents are low when using solid steel at this
speed [12]. The use of solid steel also helps to make the mechanical construction more robust.

The mechanism for torque production can be explained by

examining the field harmonic analysis shown in Fig. 4to Fig. 6.
In Fig. 4 and Fig. 5 the axial flux density,
, in the air-gaps is
shown along with the corresponding spatial harmonic components. Due to the magnetic poles it is seen that the 7th harmonic
and 15th harmonic are dominant. Fig. 6 shows the flux density
in the air-gap adjacent to the low speed rotor when the low speed
magnets are not present. In this case the 15th harmonic is still
present and this is due to the high speed magnet harmonics being

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IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON MAGNETICS, VOL. 49, NO. 7, JULY 2013

Fig. 9. Torque with respect to changes in axial length

Fig. 6. (a) The axial flux density in the air-gap adjacent to the low-speed rotor
when low speed magnets are not present, (b) Corresponding spatial harmonics.

Fig. 7. Torque with respect to changes in axial length

Fig. 10. Volume and mass torque density as a function of axial length

Fig. 11. Torque density with respect to changes in arc span

Fig. 12. Torque with respect to axial length

Fig. 8. Volume and mass torque density as a function of axial length,

modulated by the 22 steel pole pieces. Thus, without the central

steel poles there would not be a connection between rotors.
IV. TORQUE DENSITY
In order to maximize the torque density the axial length, ,
for the stationary rotor was varied while keeping the other parameters constant. The torque and torque density plots shown in
Fig. 7 and 8 were obtained. It can be noted that the maximum
volume and mass torque density occurs when
.
Keeping
at the optimal value and then varying
the torque
and torque density plots as shown in Fig. 9 and 10 were obtained. It can be noted that a maximum volume and mass torque
density of 60 and 14 Nm/kg, respectively, occurs when
. The resulting geometric form shows that the AFFMG
has the highest torque density when it takes a pancake topology.

Fig. 12 and Fig. 13 show the torque and torque density characteristics when the axial length, , for rotor 2 is varied. A peak
volume and mass torque density of 65 and 15.5 Nm/kg, respectively, occurs when the axial thickness is
. The
calculated torque as a function of angular position, when using
the final parameters in Table II, is shown in Fig. 14. Unlike the
radial counter-part [12] the predicted torque ripple is observed
to be relatively high.
The average axial force on the high and low speed rotors was
calculated to be 8 and 8.2 kN, respectively. Although this value
is high it is within the rated operating condition of many commercially available angle contact bearings. In order to reduce
cost the experimental design will use rectangular magnets as
shown in Fig. 15. The magnets can be retained in place using
the steel poles and end-plates.
As a comparison a sizing analysis using a surface mounted
axial MG with ferrite magnets, as shown in Fig. 16, was
also conducted. The same volumetric dimensions as used by

ACHARYA et al.: A FLUX FOCUSING AXIAL MAGNETIC GEAR

Fig. 13. Volume and mass torque density with respect to changes in axial length
.

Fig. 14. Predicted torque on both the high and low speed magnetic gear rotors
when using flux focusing ferrite magnets.

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Fig. 17. Predicted torque on both the high and low speed magnetic gear rotors
when using surface mounted ferrite magnets.

V. CONCLUSION
A new type of axial flux focusing magnetic gear topology
has been proposed. A torque performance analysis for this new
topology was conducted when utilizing ferrite magnetic material. The use of ferrite magnets makes the magnetic gear material cost relatively low. While the mechanical construction of
an axial magnetic gear will be challenging it has been shown
that a relatively high torque density can be achieved. In order
to achieve a high torque density the axial length of the MG was
reduced relative to the radial length this reduced the low-speed
rotor concentration ratio. This indicates that higher torque densities could be achieved if more poles were utilized.
ACKNOWLEDGMENT
The authors would like to thank the JMAG Corporation for
the use of their FEA software. This material is based upon work
supported by a Grant provided by the University of North Carolina Coastal Studies Institute.
REFERENCES

Fig. 15. Mechanical assembly for flux focusing magnetic rotors.

Fig. 16. Surface mounted axial magnetic gear using ferrite magnets.

AFFMG were used. After varying the magnets axial thickness

and
it was determined that a peak torque density of 41
Nm/L could be obtained. This is a significantly lower value
when compared with the AFFMG design. The torque as a
function of angular position for the surface mounted axial MG
is shown in Fig. 17. It can be observed that this surface mounted
design also unfortunately has a relatively high torque ripple.

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