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This paper reviews the progress that has been made in the analysis and design of axial-flux permanent-magnet machines over the past decade, with particular attention to aspects such as electromagnetic and thermal modeling, materials, manufacturing, pulsating torque, and extended speed range. Comparisons with other machine types and applications are also reviewed

The axial-flux permanent-magnet machine (AFPM) topology is suited for direct-drive applications and, due to their enhanced flux-weakening capability, AFPMs having slotted windings are the most promising candidates for use in wheel-motor drives. In consideration of this, this paper deals with an experimental study devoted to investigate a number of technical solutions to be used in AFPMs having slotted windings in order to achieve substantial reduction of both cogging torque and no-load power loss in the machine. To conduct such an experimental study, a laboratory machine was purposely built incorporating facilities that allow easy-to-achieve offline modifications of the overall magnetic arrangement at the machine air gaps, such as magnet skewing, angular shifting between rotor discs, and accommodation of either PVC or Somaloy wedges for closing the slot openings. The paper discusses experimental results and gives guidelines for the design of AFPMs with improved performance.

This paper presents the implementation and evaluation of a high-resolution position estimation system for sinusoidal, surface phase modulation machines based on Hall-effect sensors and a vector-tracking observer. First, the tuning of the observer is presented and a speed-dependent gain scheduling strategy is proposed. Then various harmonic decoupling strategies are investigated to improve the performance of the observer, particularly at low speeds. Stability analysis is performed leading to the definition of local stability limits, within which the actual position is tracked with bounded estimation error. Both simulation and experimental testing illustrate the performance and limitations of the proposed observer topology and of the drive when this observer is used for state feedback.

Axial flux permanent magnet (AFPM) machines are being increasingly used in a variety of industrial, direct drive applications which benefit from their extreme axial compactness. In particular, slotted AFPM machines are of great interest, since they allow to achieve high torque densities together with an adequate constant power speed range. This paper analyzes a particular aspect related to the design of such machines, i.e. the use of soft magnetic composite (SMC) wedges to close stator slots. Magnetic circuit-based analyses and 2-D and 3-D finite-element analyses are performed on a 10 kW AFPM machine; various magnetic wedge configurations are adopted; the no-load performance is compared with that of the same machine using nonmagnetic wedges in terms of flux linkage, cogging torque, and no-load losses. Finally, experimental tests and results on a full-scale prototype machine mounting magnetic wedges are reported