An Investigation Into the Torque Density Capabilities of Flux-Focusing Magnetic Gearboxes
Abstract
Wind and many rotary based ocean energy conversion devices rely on a mechanical gearbox to increase their speed so as to match the requirements of the electromagnetic generator. However, mechanical gearboxes have a number of disadvantages such as the need for gear lubrication, no overload protection and the creation of acoustic noise. Frequently direct-drive generators are employed to overcome these issues, wherein the gearbox is removed and the shaft of the turbine is directly connected to the synchronous generator, either with an electrically excited or permanent magnet rotor. If the input speed to the generator is very low the torque must be very high in order to generate the necessary power. However, as the electrical loading of a synchronous generator is thermally limited, the size of the generator will become excessively large at high power levels. An alternative to these technologies is to consider replacing the mechanical gearbox with a magnetic gear. A magnetic gear can create speed change without any physical contact. It has inherent overload protection, and its non-contact operation offers the potential for high reliability. Despite significant progress, existing magnetic gear designs do not achieve torque densities that are competitive with mechanical gearboxes.This research has focused on designing a coaxial magnetic gear that can operate at a volumetric torque density that is comparable to a mechanical gearbox. A flux-focusing rotor topology also called spoke-type rotor magnet arrangement was adopted to improve the air-gap magnetic flux density which in turn improves the torque transferred between the rotors. Finite element analysis was utilized to conduct a parameter sweep analysis of the different geometric parameters of the magnetic gear. A sub-scale magnetic gear with a diameter of 110 mm and a scaled-up magnetic gear with a diameter of 228 mm was designed, constructed and experimentally evaluated. The torque and torque density of sub-scale design was measured to be 115 Nm and 151.2 Nm/L respectively and that of the scaled-up model was measured to be 731 Nm and 239 Nm/L respectively. An iterative magnetomechanical analysis technique was developed to study the deflection of the magnetic gear steel rotor bars due to the magnetic forces coming from the inner and outer rotor permanent magnets. The accuracy of the technique was validated by using an experimental test-stand. It was shown that the deflection is an important issue to consider especially if the air-gaps are small.A 2-D analytical based model was derived for the flux-focusing coaxial magnetic gear by using the separation of variables method to solve the Laplace and Poisson equation in each region. After applying the applicable Dirchlet and Neumann boundary conditions a set of 16 equations with 16 unknown Fourier coefficients was obtained. The 16 unknowns were solved numerically by putting the equations in a matrix form. It was shown that the analytical based model immensely reduced the torque and field computational time when compared to using finite element analysis. However, the analytical model does not take into consideration the non-linear properties of the steel. The benefits of using the analytical model was demonstrated by conducting a radial scaling and gear-ratio analysis.