Design and Comparison of Axial-Flux Permanent Magnet Motors for In-Wheel Electric Vehicles by 3D-FEM

Axial-flux permanent-magnet brushless-dc (AFPM BLDC) machines with concentrated windings are very attractive choices for direct-drive applications due to their high torque-density, high efficiency, and extreme compact construction. Particularly they are suitable to be used in in-wheel electric vehicles. For this purpose two different AFPM BLDC machine topologies are designed, and cogging torque, back-electromotive force (back-EMF), winding inductance, and output torque are obtained for the two 3.4 kW motors. High precision three-dimensional (3-D) finite-element analysis is used to achieve the performance of two motor topologies accurately.

Keywords:

axial flux permanent magnet , direct drive electric vehicle , cogging torque , 3-D finite element , torque