Design, Prototyping, and Analysis of a Low Cost Axial-Flux Coreless Permanent-Magnet Generator

This paper presents the design, prototyping, and analysis of a relatively small and cheap axial-flux three-phase coreless permanent-magnet generator. The excitation of the machine is done by rectangular flat shaped neodymium-iron-boron magnets. A two-dimensional model of the machine is analyzed with finite-element software to obtain the machine parameters. One special feature of the constructed generator is in the design and prototyping of nonferromagnetic holders to counteract centrifugal forces acting on magnets, especially at high speeds. By implementing the nonferromagnetic holders, one can expect to construct high-speed axial-flux permanent-magnet generators at low cost.