There has been growing interest in electrical machines that reduce or eliminate rare-earth material content. Traction applications are among the key applications where reducing cost and hence reduction of rare-earth materials is a key requirement. This paper will assess the potential of different variants of flux-switching machines that either reduce or eliminate rare-earth materials in the context of traction applications. Two designs use different grades of Dysprosiumfree permanent magnets and the third design is a wound-field variant that does not include permanent magnets at all. Detailed analysis of all three designs in comparison to the required set of specifications will be presented. The key opportunities and challenges will be highlighted. The impact of the high pole-count/frequency of the flux-switching machines will also be evaluated. Experimental results for one of the designs with Dysprosium-free permanent magnets will also be presented.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.