Surface-mounted and flux-switching PM structures trade-off for automotive smart actuators

This paper compares different surface-mounted and flux-switching PM machine structures for automotive applications. At first, both structures are designed considering as relevant the final total cost of the used materials. Axial and radial flux magnetic structures have been taken into consideration for both machines. The performance of the four machines are evaluated using 2D- and 3D-FEA. The materials costs and volumes, output torque, back-EMF are investigated in detail, and the obtained results are compared with those of axial flux PM prototype. Then, an axial-field flux-switching PM machine is built in order to experimentally investigate its performance and validate its numerical FEM analyses.