Modeling of an Axial Flux PM Motor Using a 3D Magnetic Equivalent Circuit

This paper is related to the French project TRAX, whose aim is to develop a new direct drive electric motorization for "all electric" vehicles. The final objective of this project is to develop an innovative motorization industrially feasible for massive production. In this context, we have proposed to design an original axial flux permanent magnet motor with using an Analytical Model (AM) based on a Magnetic Equivalent Circuit (MEC). The development of an MEC will take into account the magnetic saturation and complex 3D shapes of the stator. A strong attention is paid on magnetic leakages between the rotor and the stator, which are modelized in 3D. The model and the obtained results are presented with details. To validate the MEC model, the results are compared with those obtained from 3D Finite Element Model (FEM). The MEC should be able to replace the 3D FEM if a compromise between computation time and the accuracy is accepted.