Magnetic Force Enhancement Using Air-Gap Magnetic Field Manipulation by Optimized Coil Currents

Abstract

This paper presents an air-gap magnetic field manipulation by optimized coil currents for a magnetic force enhancement in electromechanical devices. The external coil is designed near the device air-gap for manipulating the magnetic field distribution. The distribution of external coil currents is then optimized for maximizing the magnetic force in the tangential direction to the air-gap line. For the optimization, the design domain near air-gap is divided into small areas, and design variables are assigned at each small design area. The design variables determines not only the strength of coil current density (i.e., number of coil turns) but also whether the material state is coil or iron. In a benchmark actuator example, it is shown that 11.12% force enhancement is available by manipulating the air-gap magnetic field distribution using the optimized coil current. By investigating the magnetic field distribution, it is confirmed that the optimized coil current manipulated the magnetic field, forwarding a focused and inclined distribution that is an ideal distribution for maximizing the magnetic force.