IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON MAGNETICS, VOL. 52, NO.

7, JULY 2016 8105604

A Study of the Influence of Quasi-Halbach

Arrays on a Torus Machine
Igor P. Wiltuschnig1 , Paulo R. Eckert1 , David G. Dorrell2 , and Aly F. Flores Filho1
1 Post-Graduate Program in Electrical Engineering, Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul, Av. Osvaldo Aranha 103,
Porto Alegre, RS 90035-190, Brazil
2 University of Kwazulu–Natal, Durban 4041, South Africa

This paper aims to analyze the influence of quasi-Halbach arrays on the performance of an axial-flux machine with slotless
toroidal core (Torus machine). The analysis was performed using a 3-D finite-element simulation of two machines, with one machine
equipped with a quasi-Halbach array and a second with a conventional design with axially magnetized permanent magnets. These
simulations were carried out in order to compare their performance. It was observed that the employment of quasi-Halbach arrays
increases the torque density and the effective no-load terminal voltage.
Index Terms— Axial-flux permanent magnet machine (AFPMM), Halbach array, parametric analysis, Torus machine.

I. I NTRODUCTION

I N-WHEEL axial-flux permanent magnet machi-

nes (AFPMMs) are a promising technology for the
propulsion of electric vehicles. This is because of its topology
that makes it amenable to fitting inside a wheel, and because
it has high power density when compared with radial flux
machines [1]. AFPMMs are also of interest for applications
in direct-drive wind-power generation [2]. The stator of the
AFPMM can be ironless [3], and also slotted or slotless [4].
The slotless machine gives low torque ripple; however,
a larger air gap leads to lower levels of torque density when Fig. 1. Sectorial Torus machine view showing the magnetization of the
compared with machines with slotted core. An increase in quasi-Halbach array. 1—stator core. 2—toroidal windings. 3—rotor core.
torque density may be achieved in slotless machines using 4—quasi-Halbach array.
quasi-Halbach magnet arrays instead of conventional axially
magnetized arrays. The applicability of quasi-Halbach arrays TABLE I
to several kinds of electrical machines has been discussed M ACHINE C HARACTERISTICS
in [5], and this includes the AFPMM. However, no analysis
of the influence of their use within a Torus machine (which
is an axially magnetized machine with a toroidal stator core
and windings) is found in the literature. This arrangement is
shown in Fig. 1.
Therefore, the main objective of this paper is to evaluate the
feasibility, and the advantages and disadvantages of the quasi-
Halbach magnet array in a slotless AFPMM. In order to per-
form the study, performance characteristics, such as the torque,
torque ripple, torque density, torque per volume of magnet,
and open-circuit voltage, are evaluated for machines with a
quasi-Halbach magnet array and a conventional magnet array.
The machines considered in this paper have a double-sided
rotor made from American Iron and Steel Institute (AISI) steel
1010 and six poles. The PMs are made from sintered NdFeB
quasi-Halbach arrays [6] and without quasi-Halbach arrays [7],
grade N35. The three-phase copper windings are formed from
those models do not consider saturation and eddy current
a set of 70-turn coils. The stator core is a spiral lamination
losses in the stator. In addition, these models consider simpli-
formed from Aperam M470-50A/E185 magnetic steel. The
fied winding shapes, without considering constant conduction
main characteristics of the machines are presented in Table I.
area [8]. For these reasons, a more accurate model, based on
II. PARAMETRIC A NALYSIS a 3-D finite-element model developed in the Ansys Maxwell
Even though the literature does report on analytical models package, was developed in order to perform parametric varia-
that are available for the analysis of Torus-type machines with tion of the geometric parameters of the machines. This allows
the evaluation of the effects of use of a quasi-Halbach array
Manuscript received November 6, 2015; accepted December 29, 2015. in this type of machine.
Date of publication January 6, 2016; date of current version June 22, 2016. The back-iron axial length (lb shown in Fig. 1) was varied
Corresponding author: P. R. Eckert (e-mail: paulo.eckert@ufrgs.br).
Color versions of one or more of the figures in this paper are available
from 0 to 16 mm, to verify if shielding effect due to quasi-
online at http://ieeexplore.ieee.org. Halbach array is present. In addition, the pole arc coefficient
Digital Object Identifier 10.1109/TMAG.2016.2514980 α p = τa /τ p was varied from 0.3 to 0.9, to analyze if there
0018-9464 © 2016 IEEE. Personal use is permitted, but republication/redistribution requires IEEE permission.
See http://www.ieee.org/publications_standards/publications/rights/index.html for more information.

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8105604
Fig. 2. Torque per magnet volume and torque density versus α p with
back-iron axial length of 10 mm and effective current density of 5 A/mm2 .
is a ratio that better complies the desired characteristics of
the machine. For both the conventional and quasi-Halbach
arrays, the pole arc τ p is constant and equals to π/3 rd.
Therefore, in order to vary α p , τa , and τθ are varied on
both rotors simultaneously. In the conventional machine, there
are no magnets with circumferential magnetization, thus in
this topology, the magnets covering τθ where replaced by
air in the model. This means that for a given τa , the quasi-
Halbach array rotor will contain more magnets and generate
more torque, though the torque per magnet volume is less, as
shown later. While lb and α p were varied, all other geometric
and electromagnetic characteristics of the machine were kept
constant.
When the torque is calculated, simulations were performed
by applying an ac effective current density of 5 A/mm2 to the
three-phase windings of the machine, considering fill factor,
as shown in Table I. The no-load induced voltage is evaluated
at rated speed, i.e., 400 r/min.
A. Torque Density and Torque per Volume
of Permanent Magnets
The first parametric analysis evaluated the effect of the
variation of the pole arc coefficient on torque density and
torque per volume of magnet for a constant lb of 10 mm.
The torque density was obtained with respect to a cylinder
comprising the total volume of the machine. Fig. 2 shows the
results for the conventional and quasi-Halbach arrays. It can be
observed that for α p of 0.9, both configurations present similar
results; on the other hand, for lower α p , there are significant
differences. For example, when α p is 0.5, the torque density
is 17.8% higher for the machine with quasi-Halbach array.
The volume of magnets is a key factor to take into con-
sideration, and it is directly related to the overall cost of
the machine. Fig. 2 also shows the torque as a function
of the volume of magnets. In all the cases, the torque per
magnet volume is better for the conventional arrangement.
With α p = 0.9, the torque by magnet volume is only
8.4% larger in the conventional array. This result indicates
that in terms of cost, the machine with quasi-Halbach array
might not be advantageous if that is solely considered.
B. Back-Iron Effect
In the ideal case, the Halbach array has self-shielding [5],
which is also called the shielding effect. This means there is
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IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON MAGNETICS, VOL. 52, NO. 7, JULY 2016
Fig. 3. Torque versus back-iron axial length comparison between the
conventional and quasi-Halbach array machines.
no magnetic flux behind the array. Since an ideal array is,
in practice, difficult to produce, the quasi-Halbach arrays
can be employed. If the shielding effect is also present in
quasi-Halbach array, the rotor back-iron, or core, can be
removed without affecting the resultant torque. Therefore, the
machine was simulated with a parametric variation of the rotor
back-iron axial length from 0 to 16 mm for both the machines,
and the results are shown in Fig. 3.
It can be observed from Fig. 3 that for α p = 0.8, the
influence of the back-iron is similar for both the conventional
and quasi-Halbach arrays with a substantial reduction on
torque when no back-iron is present, i.e., in the case of back-
iron axial length equals zero. In contrast, with α p = 0.5,
a reduction of less than 19% in torque is observed if the
back-iron is removed from the quasi-Halbach array, whereas
the conventional array presents a reduction of 51% in torque.
In the former case, even if the back-iron is not removed for
the quasi-Halbach array, its axial length can be at least 20%
shorter than the conventional one, without presenting any
effect of saturation. This characteristic can reduce the machine
weight and increases acceleration when using a quasi-Halbach
array due to reduced inertia.
It can be deduced from Fig. 3 that the shielding effect is
not fully present for the quasi-Halbach array employed within
AFPMM; however, the back-iron can be reduced and torque
increased. In order to analyze a more general situation, in
which α p and lb are varied simultaneously, Figs. 4 and 5
show the 3-D graphs of torque density for the quasi-Halbach
and conventional arrays. For the sake of comparison, it should
be pointed out that the maximum torque density obtained for
the quasi-Halbach array was 6323 Nm/m3 with α p = 0.7
and lb = 6 mm, while for the conventional array, the torque
density was 5645 Nm/m3 with α p = 0.8 and lb = 8 mm.
This indicates that the torque density is up to 12% higher for
the quasi-Halbach array machine in terms of the best case
of each configuration. It also indicates that the conventional
array requires a larger back-iron to achieve better levels of
force density when compared with the quasi-Halbach array
case.
C. No-Load Induced Voltage at Terminals
Both the format and effective values of open-circuit terminal
voltage are relevant characteristics of the machines, either for
the drive control strategy when operating as a motor, or for
WILTUSCHNIG et al.: STUDY OF THE INFLUENCE OF QUASI-HALBACH ARRAYS
Fig. 4. Torque density versus back-iron axial length and α p of the
quasi-Halbach array with an effective current density of 5 A/mm2 .
Fig. 5. Torque density versus back-iron axial length and α p of the
conventional array with an effective current density of 5 A/mm2 .
Fig. 6. Open-circuit induced voltage at 400 r/min with quasi-Halbach array
varying α p .
the prediction of terminal voltage and harmonic distortion in
the case of generator operation. Hence, a transient simulation
was performed at a constant speed of 400 r/min, in which the
back-EMF was computed. Figs. 6 and 7 show the terminal
voltage at no load for α p ranging from 0.5 to 0.9 with the steps
of 0.1. Fig. 8 shows the harmonic spectra of the waveforms.
When analyzing Figs. 6–8, it is possible to infer that
the amplitude of the induced voltage is higher for the
quasi-Halbach array machine, especially for lower values
of α p . For example, for α p = 0.5, the effective terminal
voltage is 17.6% higher for the machine with quasi-Halbach
array, while it is only 0.3% higher for α p = 0.9.
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8105604
Fig. 7. Open-circuit induced voltage at 400 r/min with conventional array
varying α p .
Fig. 8. Peak component of back-EMF for curves, as shown in Figs. 6 and 7.
The harmonic distortion, on the other hand, is lower for quasi-
Halbach or conventional rotor, depending on the pole arc coef-
ficient. For example, for α p = 0.5, the third harmonic is 5.1%
for the quasi-Halbach array and 13.9% for the conventional
rotor, whereas for α p = 0.9, the third harmonic is 16.4%
for the quasi-Halbach array and 13.3% for the conventional
rotor. In summary, to reduce harmonics, the pole arc coefficient
should be carefully chosen depending on the case.
D. Static Torque Ripple
One of the advantages of the slotless AFPMM is the low
torque ripple, since there is no cogging torque. For sinusoidal
excitation, the observed torque ripple is a result of the
non-sinusoidal distribution of flux density in the magnetic
gap region, where the windings are placed in the machine.
In order to evaluate the influence of quasi-Halbach array on the
torque ripple, a magnetostatic analysis was performed for an
electrical angle span of 360° with α p ranging from 0.5 to 0.9
and steps of 0.1. Figs. 9 and 10 show the torque curves for the
quasi-Halbach array and the conventional rotor, respectively.
As for the open-circuit terminal voltage, the ripple depends
on the pole arc coefficient. For example, for α p = 0.5, the
ripple is 5.45% for the quasi-Halbach array and 3.26% for the
conventional rotor, while for α p = 0.7, the ripple is 1.54% for
the quasi-Halbach array and 3.75% for the conventional rotor.
8105604
Fig. 9. Static torque ripple with quasi-Halbach array and back-iron axial
length of 10 mm driven with sinusoidal effective current density of 5 A/mm2 .
Fig. 10. Static torque ripple with conventional array and back-iron axial
length of 10 mm driven with sinusoidal effective current density of 5 A/mm2 .
TABLE II
S UMMARY OF R ESULTS FOR THE M ACHINE
W ITH Q UASI -H ALBACH A RRAY
A summary of the results obtained for the Torus machines
presented in this paper is given in Tables II and III.
Table II presents results for the quasi-Halbach array, and
Table III presents results for the conventional array. The results
shown are determined for a constant back-iron axial length
of 10 mm, so that no saturation effect of the rotor core is
present in any of the cases analyzed. The total harmonic
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IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON MAGNETICS, VOL. 52, NO. 7, JULY 2016
TABLE III
S UMMARY OF THE R ESULTS OF THE M ACHINE
W ITH C ONVENTIONAL A RRAY
distortion and root-mean-square values refer to no-load
induced voltage at 400 r/min. All results related to torque are
for an effective current density of 5 A/mm2 .
III. C ONCLUSION
This paper has evaluated the influence of a quasi-Halbach
array on the performance of a Torus-type machine. The results
show that when this machine is compared with a machine with
a conventional rotor, it presents higher torque density, with up
to 12% increase. This is generally a desired characteristic of
an electric motor. The torque per volume of magnet is lower
with the quasi-Halbach configuration, which leads to a more
expensive design. The effective induced voltage is higher for
the quasi-Halbach array machine, especially when the pole arc
coefficient is small, which can be interesting for an electric
generator. The harmonic distortion of the back-EMF and the
torque ripple is highly dependent on the pole arc coefficient,
although both are small when compared with slotted machines.
In this paper, it can be concluded that the shielding effect
is not present in an AFPMM equipped with quasi-Halbach
arrays, since total torque produced is reduced when the
back-iron is removed; however, its axial length can be reduced
when compared with a conventional rotor machine.
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