Performance improvement of magnetic gear and efficiency comparison with

conventional mechanical gear

Kenji Nakamura, Michinari Fukuoka, and Osamu Ichinokura

Citation: Journal of Applied Physics 115, 17A314 (2014); doi: 10.1063/1.4863809

View online: http://dx.doi.org/10.1063/1.4863809
View Table of Contents: http://scitation.aip.org/content/aip/journal/jap/115/17?ver=pdfcov
Published by the AIP Publishing

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 JOURNAL OF APPLIED PHYSICS 115, 17A314 (2014)

Performance improvement of magnetic gear and efficiency comparison

with conventional mechanical gear
Kenji Nakamura,a) Michinari Fukuoka, and Osamu Ichinokura
Graduate School of Engineering, Tohoku University, Sendai 980-8579, Japan

(Presented 8 November 2013; received 18 September 2013; accepted 1 November 2013; published
online 3 February 2014)
Magnetic gears can transmit torque without any mechanical contact. Hence, they have low
vibration, no wear, and fatigue, which ensure maintenance-free operation. There are various types
of magnetic gears. Among them, a planetary type magnetic gear, which consists of coaxial inner
and outer rotors with surface-mounted permanent magnet and ferromagnetic stationary parts called
pole-pieces, has recently attracted interest since it offers higher torque than other type magnetic
gears. This paper presents a comprehensive investigation of the influence of geometry and position
of the pole-pieces on torque characteristic based on finite element analysis and experiment.
Surveyed parameters of the pole-pieces include lengths in the radial and axial directions and
position in the radial direction. Finally, it is demonstrated that the maximum torque of the
improved prototype magnetic gear is increased by 45% and the maximum efficiency achieves up
to about 99%, which is equal to or more than a conventional planetary type mechanical gear.
C 2014 AIP Publishing LLC. [http://dx.doi.org/10.1063/1.4863809]
V

Mechanical gears are indispensable components for power
plants, airplanes, automobiles, robots, etc. However, the me-
chanical gears require periodical maintenance, since they have
some problems including vibration, wear, and fatigue.
Magnetic gears can transmit torque without any mechanical
contact. Hence, they have low vibration, no wear, and fatigue,
which offer the maintenance-free operation. Various types of
magnetic gears have been introduced in the previous papers.1–3
Among them, a planetary type magnetic gear4 has recently
attracted interest, since torque density of the planetary type mag-
netic gear is higher than that of other type magnetic gears.5,6
The planetary type magnetic gear consists of coaxial inner
and outer rotors with surface-mounted permanent magnet, and
ferromagnetic stationary parts placed between both rotors,
which are called pole-pieces. The pole-pieces have an impor-
tant role, since the planetary type magnetic gear can be worked
as a gear when the pole-pieces modulate the magnet flux.
This paper presents a comprehensive investigation of the
influence of geometry and position of the pole-pieces on torque
characteristic by using finite element analysis (FEA) and experi-
ment. First, torque and efficiency characteristics of an initial pro-
totype magnetic gear are indicated. Next, several parameters of
the pole-pieces, including lengths in the radial and axial direc-
tions and position in the radial direction, are surveyed by FEA.
Finally, an improved magnetic gear is prototyped based on the
FEA results, and compared to the initial magnetic gear and a
conventional mechanical gear in terms of torque and efficiency.
Figure 1 illustrates specifications of the initial prototype
magnetic gear. The gear ratio is 10.333 given by the ratio of the
inner and outer pole-pairs. The number of pole-pieces is decided
by the sum of the numbers of the inner and outer pole-pairs.
Figure 2 shows a general view of the experimental
setup. The prototype magnetic gear is operated as a reduction
gear. The rotational speed of the inner rotor is regulated to
an arbitrary speed by the servomotor, while the load torque
is applied to the outer rotor by the hysteresis brake.
Figure 3 shows speed and torque behavior when the load
torque is gradually increased and the inner rotor is rotated at
the constant speed of 300 r/min. The figures indicate that the
prototype gear can transmit the required speed and torque of
the ratio of 1:10.333 up to the maximum torque. However, the
gear loses synchronism when the load torque exceeds the maxi-
mum torque. It is understood that the magnetic gear has essen-
tially overload protection function which mechanical gears do
not have. The measured maximum torque is 9.40 Nm. Figure 4
indicates the input, output, and efficiency of the initial proto-
type magnetic gear when a load torque is 8.0 Nm.
Figure 5 illustrates three parameters surveyed by FEA,
lengths in the radial and axial directions (a and b), and posi-
tion in the radial direction (c), respectively.
Figure 6 shows a relationship between the length in the ra-
dial direction of the pole-pieces and torque. The gear diameter
and the gap lengths are fixed, and the total amount of the mag-
nets is also fixed. The figure reveals that the optimum length is
found, and that the torque is gradually decreased when the ra-
dial length is longer than the optimum one, whereas it is
sharply decreased when the radial length is shorter.

a)
Author to whom correspondence should be addressed. Electronic mail:
nakaken@ecei.tohoku.ac.jp. FIG. 1. Specifications of the initial prototype magnetic gear.

0021-8979/2014/115(17)/17A314/3/$30.00 115, 17A314-1 C 2014 AIP Publishing LLC

V

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 17A314-2 Nakamura, Fukuoka, and Ichinokura
FIG. 2. Experimental setup.
FIG. 3. Speed (upper) and torque (lower) behavior when the load torque is
gradually increased at the constant speed of 300 r/min.
FIG. 4. Input, output, and efficiency of the initial prototype magnetic gear.
Figure 7 indicates harmonic spectrum of flux density
waveform of the inner gap when radial lengths of the
pole-pieces are 2 mm, 5 mm, and 10 mm, respectively. It is
understood that the fundamental wave component is
increased when the radial length of the pole-pieces is short-
ened, since the distance between the inner and outer rotors is
decreased. However, the modulated wave component in the
case of 2 mm is the minimum, since the pole-pieces cannot
modulate the magnet flux if they are too small.
Figure 8 shows a relationship between the length in the
axial direction of the pole-pieces and torque. It is understood
from the figure that the torque is maximized when an axial
length is 10 mm, that is, it is equal to the axial length of the
inner and outer rotors.
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J. Appl. Phys. 115, 17A314 (2014)
FIG. 5. Surveyed parameters of the pole-pieces.
FIG. 6. Torque characteristic corresponding to the length in the radial direc-
tion of the pole-pieces.
FIG. 7. Harmonic spectrum of flux density waveform of the inner gap.
Figure 9 indicates a relationship between the position in
the radial direction of the pole-pieces and torque. The trans-
verse axis is 0 mm when the inner and outer gaps are the
same length of 1 mm. On the other hand, it is 1 mm when
the inner gap length is 0 mm and it is 1 mm when the outer
gap length is 0 mm, respectively. The sum of both gap
lengths is constant at 2 mm. It is obvious that the closer the
pole-pieces get to the outer rotor, the larger the torque. In
fact, however, it is limited due to the machining accuracy.
Based on the above investigation, an improved magnetic
gear is prototyped as shown in Fig. 10. The axial length of
the pole-pieces changes from 16 mm to 10 mm, and the
radial position moves þ0.5 mm to the outer rotor.
Figure 11 demonstrates torque behavior when the inner
rotor is rotated at the constant speed of 300 r/min. It is under-
stood that the measured maximum torque is 13.6 Nm, which
is improved by 45% from the initial magnetic gear.
Figure 12 shows the comparison of efficiency of the
initial and improved magnetic gears. It reveals that the
 17A314-3 Nakamura, Fukuoka, and Ichinokura
FIG. 8. Torque characteristic corresponding to the length in the axial direc-
tion of the pole-pieces.
FIG. 9. Torque characteristic corresponding to the radial position of the
pole-pieces.
FIG. 10. Specifications of the improved prototype magnetic gear.
efficiency of the improved magnetic gear is higher than that
of the initial one in all the operating range. The maximum ef-
ficiency reaches to about 99%.
Figure 13 indicates the comparison of the improved
magnetic gear and a conventional planetary type mechanical
gear. This figure reveals that the efficiency of the magnetic
gear is higher than that of the mechanical gear under low-
speed region, while the mechanical gear has a higher effi-
ciency under high-speed region. The reason is that the loss
of the mechanical gear increases in proportion to the speed
as shown in the figure, namely, it is mainly caused by
Coulomb friction due to the mechanical contact. On the other
hand, the loss of the magnetic gear is approximately propor-
tional to the square of the speed, that is, it is mainly caused
by iron loss of the core and eddy current loss in the magnets.
In addition, further improvement of the torque density
of the magnetic gear is required.
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J. Appl. Phys. 115, 17A314 (2014)
FIG. 11. Torque behavior of the improved prototype magnetic gear.
FIG. 12. Comparison of efficiency of the initial and improved magnetic
gears.
FIG. 13. Comparison of the magnetic and mechanical gears (left: efficiency
and loss, right: size and torque density).
This paper presented a comprehensive investigation of the
influence of the pole-pieces on torque characteristic of the plane-
tary type magnetic gear. It was clear that geometry and position
of the pole-pieces greatly influences on torque and efficiency.
The improved magnetic gear, which is prototyped based
on the FEA results, achieved the large torque and extremely
high efficiency of about 99%, which is equal to or more than
that of the conventional planetary type mechanical gear.
The improvement of torque density and cost of the mag-
netic gear are future subjects since these are generally infe-
rior to those of conventional mechanical gears.
This work was supported by JSPS Grant-in-Aid for
Scientific Research (B) (No. 24360102) and Grant-in-Aid for
JSPS Fellows (No. 244456).
1
H. T. Faus, U.S. patent 2,243,555 (27 May 1941).
2
Y. D. Yao et al., IEEE Trans. Magn. 32, 5061 (1996).
3
S. Kikuchi and K. Tsurumoto, IEEE Trans. Magn. 29, 2923 (1993).
4
T. B. Martin, Jr., U.S. patent 3,378,710 (16 April 1968).
5
K. Atallah and D. Howe, IEEE Trans. Magn. 37, 2844 (2001).
6
M. Fukuoka et al., IEEE Trans. Magn. 47, 2414 (2011).