Torque analysis in coaxial magnetic gears considering nonlinear magnetic properties and spatial harmonics

A coaxial magnetic gear (CMG) consisting of an inner ring, outer ring, and flux modulator exhibits relatively large torque density at low operating cost and low noise level. To guide the selection of soft magnetic materials for the flux modulator, this paper first incorporates the Jiles-Atherton model within a finite-element (FE) framework. The influence of nonlinear magnetic properties on end-effect losses (magnetic flux leakage and fringing) is then investigated with the objective of maximizing the pullout torque. For flux modulators whose initial magnetic permeability and saturation flux density exceed certain threshold value, the pullout torque of a CMG becomes insensitive to magnetic properties and end-effect losses can be efficiently calculated from a 2-D FE model together with a constant torque reduction ratio. This paper presents a systematic torque surface method that can decouple the analysis of average torque and torque ripples. This method has been implemented to evaluate load dependence and rotation speed fluctuation of a CMG.