Analysis of Axial Field Flux-Switching Memory Machine Based on 3-D Magnetic Equivalent Circuit Network Considering Magnetic Hysteresis

Abstract

This paper presents a 3-D magnetic equivalent circuit (MEC) network that integrates the hysteresis model for the analysis of the axial field flux-switching (AFFS) memory (AFFSM) machine. Similar to finite element method, meshing is used to subdivide the model into smaller domains called elements, over which a set of element equations and a reluctance network equation are built. Newton-Raphson method is adopted to handle the nonlinear problems. The fixed-point technique is introduced to cope with the problem involving hysteresis. The proposed method is capable of predicting the operation of the low coercive force permanent magnet during flux regulation and the electromagnetic field distribution of the machine. Finally, the proposed 3-D MEC method is implemented for analysis of the AFFSM machine. MEC results are compared with 3-D finite element analysis and experimental results. The results show that the proposed method offers reasonable accuracy with moderate computational effort.