A design approach for an axial-flux permanent magnet motor

Research on the electric motors with high level of performance led the Energy and Materials Group of the Institute of Electronics of the South to design a disc-type machine. This motor was created from permanent magnet and multi-air gap structure. This paper presents an axial-flux motor used in an application requiring several constraints: a high torque, a low speed, a low volume, without any reduction gear. The originality of the structure consists in its modular concept and in the specific organization of single-phase elements. So as to limit the axial encumbrance, this special architecture allows the reduction of the magnetic circuits, in combination with the optimization of the specific torque. The design method, starting from elementary cells, is described here after. An optimization approach of the performance by analyzing the characteristics sensitivity to the principal functional parameters is proposed.