Electromagnetic Analysis of an Axial Flux Air-Core Compulsator Excited by Permanent Magnets

In this contribution, the performance of an axial flux air-core pulsed alternator is investigated in both uncompensated and compensated topologies. The numerical analysis of the device is carried out using a research numerical code based on an integral formulation able to consider all the principal electromechanical quantities and phenomena. As is known, integral formulations, which require the discretization of the active regions only, show very good performance in the analysis of devices with moving conductors because of the absence of sliding meshes. The considered device is an axial flux four-phase, eight-pole air-core compulsator excited by permanent magnets (PMs). The compensation is obtained with continuous aluminum shields attached to the rotors and facing the armature windings. The compensated and uncompensated devices are analyzed at two rotational speeds, obtaining the current in the load and in the compulsator’s phase windings. Moreover, the mechanical torque needed to maintain a constant rotational speed is reported in the shielded and unshielded configurations. The analysis highlighted that the presence of the shield results in an increase in the load current and torque for both the rotational speeds analyzed.