A Mechanically Coupled Magnetic Geared Machine: Semi-Analytical, Numerical and Experimental Study on Performance Characteristics

Along with the development of hybrid electric vehicles, researchers are trying to reduce existing limitations such as noise and environmental concerns and improve the efficiency and reliability of these systems. The use of magnetic gear technology is one of the solutions that have been recently proposed to remove these limitations and achieve higher benefits. In this paper, a mechanically coupled magnetic geared (MCMG) machine has been introduced. An accurate analytical model based on the subdomain method is presented to calculate the magnetic machine performance. To do this, first, a pseudo-Cartesian coordinate system is specified, and then the constitutive equations, i.e. Laplace’s and Poisson’s equations are rewritten for different regions of the machine. The separation of variables method was used to determine the general solution of the equations. Then by applying appropriate interface and boundary conditions, the Fourier coefficients of the equations were determined. To verify the analytical results, the performance of the proposed magnetic machine is numerically simulated using the finite element method in commercial software, and then a prototype is built and tested in three distinct modes. By comparing the analysis results with numerical simulation results and experimental tests, the high accuracy of the proposed analytical model can be confirmed.