Mechanical Design Considerations of

Halbach-array Rotor for A New Ironless

Stator Axial-Flux PM Machine
Weiwei Geng, Member, IEEE, Zhuoran Zhang, Senior Member, IEEE, Chen Wang,
College of Automation Engineering, Nanjing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics, China
Email: apsc-zzr@nuaa.edu.cn

Abstract-- This paper focuses on the mechanical design

and static strength analysis of permanent magnet (PM)
Halbach array configuration for ironless stator axial-flux
PM machine. Finite element analysis of electromagnetic field
is used to verify the severity of attractive force between twin
rotors and the complexity of repulsive force among PM
segments of Halbach array. These not only cause difficulty
during assembly of PMs and rotors, but also influence
integrity design of rotor for high-speed operation. In order
to solve the problems above, two kinds of rotors with
different installation methods of PMs are comparatively
analyzed by finite element method. The strain and
deformation of each part for two kinds of rotors are
confirmed to locate the reason for the fracture of PMs with
the original rotor design. Based on FEA model, a new rotor
design and optimization are undertaken to validate the Fig. 1. Principle setup of a typical AFPM machine with ironless stator.
1-stator winding. 2-PMs. 3-shaft. 4-frame. 5-rotor assembles. 6-bearing.
mechanical construction.
Index Terms—axial flux, Halbach array, high speed, ironless
stator, rotor strength.

I. INTRODUCTION
Ironless stator axial flux permanent magnet (AFPM)
motors, which are characterized with high efficiency,
strong overload capacity, negligible torque ripple and
extremely low rotor losses, are good candidates for
various applications such as electric vehicle, turbine
power generation, aircraft equipment and flywheel energy
storage system [1]-[6]. However, the shortcomings of
lower power density, higher magnet volume and poor
ability of flux weakening become an object of public
denunciation for this type of motor. Therefore, the
ironless stator AFPM motor is favored to operate at high
speed to fully exert their advantages, which leads to
highpower density.
For ironless stator AFPM motors, a typical
configuration consists of two outer rotor disks where PMs
are surface mounted and one stator disk sandwiched in the
middle, which is shown in Fig.1. It should be noted that
mechanical stress of PMs at high speed and attractive
force between the two rotor discs result in more stringent
on the mechanical construction of rotor. There is some
paper concerning optimization design of rotor strength,
including in PM shaping, and retainment ring with carbon
fiber [7]-[9].
PM Halbach-arrary is a good implement to improve
amplitude and sinusoidal level of air-gap flux density, as
well as power density. So far, most studies of PM
Halbach-arrary rotor focus on the electromagnetic aspects
of analysis, optimization, and design [10]-[12], mainly for
978-1-5386-3246-8/17/$31.00 © 2017 IEEE
radial flux PM motors. Certainly, the PM Halbach-arrary
rotor of AFPM motors are researched in [13]-[15], but
they only deal with the electromagnetic design and FEA.
Actually, the mechanical design of PM Halbach-arrary
rotor is the most critical aspect for high speed ironless
stator AFPM motors.
In terms of ironless stator AFPM motors, the severity
of attractive force between twin rotors and the complexity
of repulsive force among PM segments of Halbach array
not only result in assembly difficulty of rotors and PMs,
but also influence integrity design of rotor for high-speed
operation. Unfortunately, there is litter literature on the
mechanical issues and strength analysis of the rotor
structure for PM Halbach-arrary rotor of ironless stator
AFPM motors.
This paper concerns the electromagnetic force analysis
and mechanical design of the rotor Halbach-arrary PMs of
a three-stack, three-phase, 50 kVA, 12000 rpm ironless
stator AFPM motor. The main emphasis is on the new
mechanical design of the PM rotor disc, which includes
the magnet retainment ring, the rotor yoke and rotor
carrier. On the basis of failure experience for the initial
design rotor, a new mechanical construction of rotor with
Halbach-arrary PMs are redesigned to protect PMs.
Three-dimensional (3-D) finite element method (FEM) is
used to calculate the complicated force. The mechanical
 general assembly of unilateral rotor disc.
axial The mechanical construction of the rotor is shown in
Fig. 3 (a). It can be seen that each PM segment is slotted
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 on both sides to insert stainless pins for fixing PMs. Forty
stainless pins are connected with inner and outer end
loops to form a whole spoke structure. The stainless pins
play two fundamental roles: one for locating the
tangential
installation of PMs, the other one for inhibitting the force
among PMs. Futhermore, the retainment ring is fitted into
the end loop of the rotor and then the carbon-fiber
（a） bandage is used to improve the mechanical strength
stainless stainless As shown in Fig. 3 (b), the Halbach-array is composed
Rotor
screw steel of eight PMs per pair-pole and the magnetization
yoke
direction of these eight PMs varies 45 degree in turn.
PM

Aluminiu
m tray

（b） （c）
Fig. 2. Initial design rotor with Halbach-arrary PMs: (a) Schematic
drawing of Halbach-arrary for twin rotors. (b) Mechanical construction.
(c) Assembled rotor disc.

TABLE I
ROTOR DESIGN SPECIFICATION
Item Initial New design
design
Number of poles 8 10
Number of PM segments per 6 4
pole
Rotor core outer diameter (mm) 350 300
Rotor core inner diameter (mm) 190 200
Magnet thickness (mm) 15 15
Rotor core thickness (mm) 5 5
Rotor angular speed (rpm) 9000 12000
Linear velocity (m/s) 164.8 188.4
PM material (NdFeB) N28UH N28UH

stress analysis is performed to ensure the durability of the

rotor strength at high speed operation.

II. TECHNICAL WORK PREPARATION HALBACH-ARRAY

PM ROTOR DESIGN AND ELECTROMAGNETIC FORCE
ANALYSIS WITH FEA
A. Initial and new design rotors
The fundamental construction of initial rotor is shown
in Fig. 1. As shown in Fig. 1 (a), the Halbach-array is
composed of twelve PMs and the magnetization direction
of these twelve PMs varies 30 degree in turn. Each PM
segment is punched on the inside and outside end. Then,
it is bounded together with the rotor yoke by stainless
screws. Due to the intricate repulsion force of PM
Halbach-arrary for the twin rotors, the installation of PM
with stainless screw, as shown in Fig. 2 (b), is particularly
important for the fixation of each PM. Fig. 2 (c) gives the
 Carbon
Rotor Retainme fiber sleeve
yoke nt ring
PM

Stainless
pin

Aluminium
tray

(a)

(a)
axial

(b) 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8

Fig. 4. Experiment. (a) Test bench. (b) Measured EMF (40 V/div, 1
ms/div)
tangential

(b)
Fig. 3. New design rotor with Halbach-arrary PMs: (a) Mechanical
construction. (b) Schematic drawing of Halbach-arrary for twin rotors.

(a) (b)
Fig. 5. Halbach-array PMs on the rotor disc: (a) Before the test. (b)
After the test.
suffers huge attraction force which complicates
assembling and affects negatively the yoke strength and
therefore the deformation.

B. Electromagnetic force analysis III. MECHANICAL ANALYSIS AND EXPERIMENT RESULT

It is necessary to obtain the accurate forces among the
PM segments for Halbach- array, which are required to
confirm the installation and fixation of each PM. Based
on 3-D FEA, the values of tangential (Ft) and the axial
force (Fa) are calculated as listed in Table II and III for
the initial and new rotor respectively. It is noted that the
axial force towards the outside of some PM segments is
large, so these PMs must be fastened tightly in the axial
direction. For this reason, the PM segments are
mandatory to process the shape for fixation and protection.
In addition, the attraction force F resulting from placing
twin rotors a distance apart is not a negligible issue for the
calculation of stress and deformation. It can be calculated
with virtual displacement method by FEA or
approximated by the following equation:
2  ∂τ rθ + 1 ∂ (σ θ − W) + 2τ rθ = − 1 ∂W
2⋅ p ⋅ B ⋅ Sp
g  ∂r r
F=
u0 ⋅ π 2
where pis the number of poles, Bg is the amplitude of air-
gapflux density, Sp is the surface area per pole.
As shown in Table IV, the analytical results agree well
with the FEA results. It is noted that the single-disc rotor
A. Theoretic analysis of the rotors for AFPM motors
In this paper, the stress and strength analysis of the
twin rotors for the ironless stator AFPM motor machine is
different from the conventional high speed radial flux PM
motor. The radial flux PM motors was based on the
theory of the thick-walled cylinder, while the axial flux
PM motors developed in a simple flywheel. For axial
geometries, the stress and strain of the rotor was
symmetrical to the axial direction which is defined as Z-
axis, as well as the constraints and external factor. In case
of polar coordinates, the equilibrium equations of rotors
are given by following equations:
 ∂(σ r − W) 1 ∂τ rθ σ r − σ θ ∂W
 + + =−
∂r r ∂θ r ∂r
 (2)
∂θ r r ∂θ
(1)
  dsr
ε r = dr

(a) (b) ε = 1 dsθ + sr
Fig. 5. Halbach-arrary PMs on the rotor disc: (a) Before the test. (b)  θ r dθ r
After the test.  (3)
ε = dz
TABLE V  z dr
MATERIAL ATTRIBUTES  1 dsr dsθ sθ
ε rθ = + −
Physical Carbon Fiber Stainless  r dθ dr r
PM
Attributes Steel
Radial Tangential Where εr is the radial strain, εθ is the tangential strain,
Density εz is the axial strain, εrθ is the shear strain, sr、sθ、sz are the
1600 7550 7750
/ kg/m³
Young
radial, tangential and axial displacement.
Modulus 10 182 150 193 By Hook theorem, the elemental of constitutive
/ GPa equation has been obtain under column coordinate
Poisson system.
0.015 0.28 0.24 0.3
ratio
Tensile  1
Maximum
90 ε r = E [σ r − υ (σ θ + σ z )] + αΔT
Permissible 1400
Compressive
1100 
Stress/MPa  1
1100 ε θ = [σ θ − υ (σ r + σ z )] + αΔT (4)
 E
CTE
/μm/m/℃
32 -1 9 17  1
ε z = E [σ z − υ (σ θ + σ r )] + αΔT

Where E is the Yong modulus, v is the Poisson ratio,
α is thermal expansion coefficient (CTE).
From Formula 4, it can be seen that the mechanical
Where σr is the radial stress, σθis the tangential stress,
stress in axial direction also has influence on the radial
W is the potential function,τrθ is the shear stress.
and tangential direction. Therefore, the axially
According to the basic theory of material mechanics,
mechanical stress and strain can not be neglected for
the axisymmetric geometric equation of rotor is shown as
the structural strength analysis. Furthermore, the axial
follows:
Stess/MPa
Stess/MPa Stess/MPa

(a) (b) (a) (b)

Stess /MPa Stess /MPa Fig. 7. Aluminum cover: (a) Initial design. (b) Optimized design.

Deformation/mm

(c) (d)
Stess /MPa Stess/MPa

(a)

(e) (f)
Fig. 6. Stress distribution for the new rotor. (a) Retainment ring.
(b)Ceramic pin. (c) carbon fiber sleeve. (d) aluminium tray. (e) screw
fastener. (f) PM
Table VI
STRESS COMPARISON
Maximum
Maximum Maximum PM
mechanical
deformation/mm stress/Mpa (b)
stress/MPa
Initial rotor 456.5 0.12 121.4 Fig. 7. Deformation of aluminum cover: (a) Initial design. (b)
Optimized design,
New rotor 200.07 0.09 26.8
attraction force resulting from PMs has a significant
influence on the axial stress. In terms of the rotor fixed
on the shaft, the displacement of rotors in axial
direction is zero. Hence, the axially mechanical stress
of rotors for the ironless stator AFPMs can be
calculated as the following equation:
σ z = υ (σ r + σ θ ) − α E Δ T (5)
For the ironless stator AFPM motors with PN = 50 kW,
two different rotors with 9000 rpm and 12000 rpm
respectively have been designed and built as shown
previously. This section mainly focuses on investigating
the mechanical construction and analysis of the initial and
new rotor by FEA.
B. Mechanical analysis and test results of initial rotor
In order to verify the electromagnetic performance of
the ironless stator AFPM with Halbach-array PMs, the
first prototype is manufactured and assembled, which is
then measured in the test bench, as shown in Fig. 4 (a).
The waveforms of two-phase EMF, as shown in Fig. 4 (b),
are measured at no load when the speed is 4500rpm. It is
evident that the phase-EMF waveforms are similar to a
sinusoidal waveform because of the highly sinusoidal
magnetic field distribution.
Unfortunately, when the speed was up to 6000rpm, the
friction between rotor and stator happened. It resulted in
complete crash of the entire motor because the stator
support structure is made of polymer composites. Fig. 5
gives the structural state of the rotor before and after the
test of 6000rpm. The main destruction is visible in the
form of a fracture along the position of threaded hole on
the PM. Practically, every PM is broken at the same
position. Obviously one significant reason is that the
protection of stainless steel retainment ring to permanent
magnet is invalid, which results from improper PM
manufacturing or retainment ring heat treating. The result
of the protection ring failure is the centrifugal force of
PMs is offset by the stainless screw. Consequently, the
PM is subjected to too large tensile force so that it is
broken in the position of the greatest stress. In Fig. 5 (a),
FEA calculation results show that the PM has a well
radial stress safety margin at 6000rpm under the premise
of that the protective sleeve is valid. However, if the
protective sleeve is invalid, the tensile stress of PM at the
screw hole will reach to 120MPa, as shown in Fig. 5 (b).
It far exceeds the maximum tensile stress of sintered
NdFeB.
C. Mechanical analysis and optimization of the new
rotor
In order to improve the mechanical strength, the second
rotor experienced some major design changes compared
with initial design rotor as shown in Fig 3 and Table I.
From the analysis of FEA and experiment results
above, the initial rotor needs to improve mechanical
strength to prevent the destruction of PMs. Not only the
strength of permanent magnets should be considered, but
also the other parts, such as aluminium tray, retainment
ring, should be taken into account. In order to keep rotor
safe at high speed, a high-strength retaing sleeve is
necessary. Compared to the initial rotor, the outer layer of
new rotor wraps carbon fiber sleeve, the stainless screw is
placed between two adjacent permanent magnets.
In order to calculate the mechanical stress generated in
the new rotor modal, the 3-D FEA model is established.
The materials attributes of the new ironless stator AFPM
motor are shown in Table V. In spite the maximum
permissible compressive stress of PM is 1100 MPa, the
tensile stress is only 90 MPa. The maximum permissible
stress of carbon fiber and stainless steel is up to 1000
MPa. The carbon fiber is an anisotropic material, different
from PM and stainless steel. The radial elastic modulus is
10 GPa, and tangential elastic modulus is 182 GPa.
FEA analysis results of mechanical strength for each
part are shown in Fig.6 respectively. And the maximum
stress of rotor is shown in Table VI. It can be seen from
Fig. 6 and Table VI that the maximum mechanical stress
of the new rotor is about 200MPa, which occurs on the
screw fastener of the rotor, and its material is silicon steel
sheet, which does not exceed its yield strength. Compared
to the initial rotor, the mechanical strength of the
optimized rotor is significantly improved. The first
improvement is the rotor screw fastener placed on the
PMs is moved to the rotor stainless steel collar and the
rotor yoke. The second is that a 1.5 mm thick carbon fiber
sheath is wrapped on the outer layer of the rotor. The
maximum stress of PM decreases from 121 MPa to 26.8
MPa, and the maximum position of the stress is shifted.
The maximum stress of the junction of the PM and the
stainless steel ring is 80MPa. So the safety factor is
greatly improved. The maximum stress of the carbon fiber
sheath is only 24MPa, and the maximum stress of the
stainless steel pin placed between two adjacent permanent
magnets is about 175MPa. The maximum stress of each
part of the new rotor is within reasonable range. The
maximum strain of the rotor is also reduced from 0.12mm
to 0.09mm, and occurs in the outermost aluminum ring.
In order to further reduce the stress distribution of new
rotor. The triangle stress releasing holes are processed on
the aluminium cover. The rotor structures before and after
optimization are shown in Fig.7.
By FEA, the stress of aluminium cover of the rotor and
the stress distribution diagram is shown in Fig.8. The
maximum deformation is reduced to 0.083mm from
0.094mm, and the deformation is reduced.
IV. CONCLUSION
During the design procedure of high-speed AFPM
motor, special attention needs to be paid to mechanical
design issues. A comprehensive mechanical analysis and
design of the rotor discs for a high-speed air-cored AFPM
motor with PM Halbach-array is presented. Due to
severity of attractive and centrifugal force, new
mechanical construction is developed to guarantee the
safety of PMs Halbach-array based on the design and
experiment experience of initial rotor. Based on the
results of FEA and experiment, the proposed mechanical
design is qualified for high-speed operation.
ACKNOWLEDGMENT
This work was supported by the Funding of Jiangsu
Innovation Program for Graduate Education
(KYLX15_0266), National Natural Science Foundation
of China under Award 51277096, Jiangsu Provincial
Science Funds for Distinguished Young Scientists under
Award BK20150033 and Fundamental Research Funds
for the Central Universities (No. NE2014102).
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