784 IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON ENERGY CONVERSION, VOL. 27, NO. 3, SEPTEMBER 2012 A Multilayer 2-D–2-D Coupled Model for Eddy Current Calculation in the Rotor of an Axial-Flux PM Machine Hendrik Vansompel, Peter Sergeant, and Luc Dupré Abstract—On the rotors of an axial-flux PM machine, NdFeB permanent magnets (PM) are very often placed because of their high energy density. As the NdFeB-magnets are good electric conductive, electric currents are induced in the magnets when they are exposed to a varying magnetic field. This varying magnetic field has two causes: variation of the airgap reluctance due to the effect of stator slots and armature reaction due to the stator currents. As axial-flux PM machines have an inherent 3-D-geometry, full 3-D-finite-element modeling seems necessary to calculate the eddy currents in the PM and to evaluate their corresponding losses. In this paper, however, the 1-D airgap magnetic fields of multiple multilayer 2-D finite-element simulations are combined to a 2-D airgap magnetic field using static simulations. In a subsequent step, this 2-D airgap magnetic field is imposed to a 2-D finite-element model of the PM to calculate the eddy currents and eddy current losses. The main benefit of this multilayer 2-D–2-D coupled model compared to 3-D finite-element modeling is the reduction in calculation time. Accuracy of the suggested multilayer 2-D–2-D coupled model is verified by simulations using a 3-D finite-element model. Index Terms—Armature reaction, axial-flux machine, eddy currents, finite-element methods, permanent magnet (PM) generators, permanent magnets (PM). I. INTRODUCTION ECAUSE of their high energy density, NdFeB permanent magnets (PM) are very often placed on the rotors of an axial-flux PM machines in order to obtain high power-to-weight ratios and high efficiencies [1]. However, as the NdFeB-magnets are good electric conductors, electric currents are induced in the magnets when they are exposed to a varying magnetic field. This varying magnetic field has two causes: variation of the airgap reluctance due to the effect of stator slots and armature reaction due to the stator currents. The induced eddy currents result in B Manuscript received December 23, 2011; revised February 22, 2012; accepted March 25, 2012. Date of publication May 8, 2012; date of current version July 27, 2012. The research was supported by the Research Fund of the Ghent University (BOF-associatieonderzoeksproject 05V00609), by the Fund of Scientific Research Flanders (FWO) under Project G.0082.06 and Project G.0665.06, by the GOA project BOF 07/GOA/006, and the IAP project P6/21. Paper no. TEC-00668-2011. H. Vansompel and P. Sergeant are with the Department Electrical Energy, Systems and Automation, Ghent University, B-9000 Ghent, Belgium and also with the Department Electrotechnology, Faculty of Applied Engineering Sciences, University College Ghent, B-9000 Ghent, Belgium (e-mail: hendrik.vansompel@ugent.be; peter.sergeant@ugent.be). L. Dupré is with the Faculty of Engineering and Architecture, Ghent University, B-9000 Ghent, Belgium (e-mail: luc.dupre@ugent.be). Color versions of one or more of the figures in this paper are available online at http://ieeexplore.ieee.org. Digital Object Identifier 10.1109/TEC.2012.2192737 Fig. 1. Considered axial-flux PM machine topology: the YASA or segmented armature torus topology, which consists of two rotor disks with in between a stator. heating of the PM. By increasing temperature, the remanent flux density of the PM decreases and the magnets may be even demagnetized irreversibly when the temperature becomes too high. Luckily in the axial-flux PM machine, cooling of the PM is achieved by convection in the airgap and by conduction to the steel rotor. However, before considering thermal modeling of the machine [2], the local heat sources need to be known as accurately as possible. In a later step, thermal measurements on a prototype machine can be used to monitor the temperatures in the magnets [3], [4]. The axial-flux PM machine considered in this research has the yokeless and segmented armature (YASA)-topology [5], [6]. As shown in Fig. 1, the YASA-topology has two rotors on which the NdFeB PM are placed. Furthermore, the YASA-topology has a fractional-slot concentrated winding [7]–[9], which generally results in an airgap magnetic field with a high harmonic content. The main properties of the considered prototype axialflux PM machine, which is a result of the optimization in [10], are mentioned in Table I. As the axial-flux PM machine has an inherent 3-D-geometry, full 3-D-finite-element modeling seems to be necessary in order to calculate the machine’s properties like cogging-torque and torque at rated load, phase voltage at no-load and load, [11] and magnet eddy currents and corresponding losses using transient finite-element analysis [12]–[14]. In [15], the axial-flux PM machine was considered to be composed of several linear machines. The overall performance of the axial flux machine was then obtained by summing the performance of individual 0885-8969/$31.00 © 2012 IEEE VANSOMPEL et al.: MULTILAYER 2-D–2-D COUPLED MODEL FOR EDDY CURRENT CALCULATION IN THE ROTOR 785 TABLE I CHARACTERISTICS AND PARAMETERS OF THE AXIAL-FLUX PM MACHINE-PROTOTYPE linear machines. This quasi-3-D modeling resulted in a coggingtorque and torque at rated load, phase voltage at no-load and load that was in good correspondence with the simulations using a 3-D finite-element analysis. In this paper, the basic idea of the quasi-3-D modeling is further expanded: the 1-D airgap magnetic fields of multiple multilayer 2-D finite-element simulations are combined to construct a 2-D airgap magnetic field using static simulations. In a subsequent step, this 2-D airgap magnetic field is imposed to a time harmonic 2-D finite-element model of the PM to calculate the eddy currents and eddy current losses. The limited penetration depth of the time-varying magnetic field in the PM is hereby taken into account. In the following sections, first a short discussion about the airgap magnetic field is done. Second the multilayer 2-D–2-D coupled model is introduced and in the next section the reference 3-D finite-element model is presented, which is used to verify the accuracy of the multilayer 2-D–2-D coupled model in Section V. Fig. 2. No-load airgap magnetic flux density as a function of the rotor position in the rotor reference frame. Magnetic flux density is evaluated in the center of the magnet. the pole pitch. The x indicates that coordinates are expressed in the stator reference frame, i.e., the coordinate system fixed to the stator. As the mageto-motive-force (mmf) of the PM in the rotor reference frame is given by ∞ π Fm sin m x (2) f= Np τ p m =1 a random mmf-harmonic component with order m π x fm = Fm sin m Np τ p (3) results in the following flux density: μ0 fm δ(x) π = Bm sin m x Np τ p π + Bm sin m x Np τ p ∞ n cos nNs Ωt − nNs bm (x, t) = II. ANALYSIS OF THE AIRGAP MAGNETIC FIELD As the eddy currents in the PM are induced by a varying magnetic field, an analysis of the airgap magnetic field is done first. A. Airgap Magnetic Field During No-Load During no-load operation, a varying magnetic field is exposed to the PM due to the stator-slotting effect. As the magnet is passing by a stator slot, the flux density is decreasing locally due to the higher reluctance. As these stator slots are distributed equally over the machine’s circumference, a reluctance function with a periodicity τ , i.e., the slot pitch, can be introduced ∞ 1 1 2π = n cos n x 1+ δ(x ) δkc τ n =1 ∞ Ns π 1 n cos n x 1+ . (1) = δkc Np τ p n =1 In this equation, δ is the airgap length, kc Carter’s factor, Ns the number of stator slots, Np the number of pole pairs, and τp n =1 π x . Np τ p (4) The first term is related to the magnet mmf-harmonic itself and, thus, results in a time invariant magnetic flux density, while the second set of terms, the reluctance harmonics, only consist of harmonics of order mδ = nNs n = 1, 2, . . . (5) and are responsible for a time-varying magnetic flux density. Analysis of the magnetic field in a fixed point of the PM as a function of the rotor position is shown in Fig. 2. In Fig. 3, the amplitude of the different harmonic components is shown. As predicted by (5), only harmonics with the order 15, 30, 45, 60, . . . are found. 786 IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON ENERGY CONVERSION, VOL. 27, NO. 3, SEPTEMBER 2012 Fig. 3. Amplitudes of the different harmonic order present in the airgap magnetic flux density at no-load. Fig. 4. Airgap magnetic flux density with load as a function of the rotor position in the rotor reference frame. Magnetic flux density is evaluated in the center of the magnet. B. Airgap Magnetic Field With Load In case that the machine is working at load, an additional contribution to the varying magnetic flux density related to the stator armature reaction is added to (4). This contribution is found by multiplication of a random armature-reaction mmfharmonic component with order m π x (6) fm = Fm sin Np Ωt − m Np τ p with the reluctance function given by (1). After transformation to the rotor reference frame, the magnetic flux density is given by (7). π x bm (x, t) = Bm sin (Np + m) Ωt − m Np τ p ∞ 1 n [sin ((Np + m + nNs ) Ωt 2 n =1 π x − (m + nNs ) Np τ p + sin (Np + m − nNs ) Ωt − (m − nNs ) + Bm Fig. 5. Amplitudes of the different harmonic order present in the airgap magnetic flux density at load. lower than Ns , the subharmonics, and some additional harmonπ ics that are not a multiple of Ns , the interharmonics. x . At the end of this section, it should be remarked that the torque Np τ p is generated by the eighth-harmonic component. This harmonic (7) component travels in the same direction and at the same speed The first term consists of harmonic components introduced by as the rotor and thus does not induce eddy currents in the PM. the armature-reaction mmf. The remaining terms, the reluctance harmonics, represent two series of traveling waves with III. MULTILAYER 2-D–2-D COUPLED MODEL harmonic orders The multilayer 2-D–2-D coupled model consists of three (8) mδ = m ± nNs n = 1, 2, . . . steps, indicated in Fig. 6. In the first step, 1-D flux density Both terms are traveling with different speeds with respect to the data are calculated using a multilayer 2-D finite-element model rotor, and thus result in a varying magnetic field with respect to for different rotor positions using static simulations. In the secthe PM. In Figs. 4 and 5, the magnetic flux density as a function ond step, the 1-D flux density data from the different layers are of the rotor position and the amplitudes of the different harmonic used to build up a 2-D airgap flux density distribution. This rotor components are shown in a fixed point of the PM. Comparing position dependent data are transformed into the frequency doFig. 3 with Fig. 5, not only harmonic components with orders main, and are used in a third step to calculate the eddy currents in that are a multiple of Ns are present, but also harmonic orders the PM using 2-D time harmonic finite-element computations. VANSOMPEL et al.: MULTILAYER 2-D–2-D COUPLED MODEL FOR EDDY CURRENT CALCULATION IN THE ROTOR 787 Bn is calculated by Bn (x, y) = an (x, y) + jbn (x, y) (10) where 1 an (x, y) = π 1 bn (x, y) = π Fig. 6. Illustration of the multilayer 2-D–2-D coupled model: (1) multilayer 2-D finite-element model, (2) 1-D flux density data obtained by each of the multilayer 2-D finite-element models, (3) 2-D time harmonic finite-element model used for the magnet eddy current calculations. π b(x, y, θ) cos(nθ)dθ (11) b(x, y, θ) sin(nθ)dθ. (12) −π π −π The flux density data Bn can now be used in the time harmonic eddy current calculations. C. Time Harmonic Eddy Current Calculation A. Static Multilayer 2-D Finite-Element Model In the multilayer 2-D or quasi-3-D finite-element model, the axial-flux PM machine is considered to be composed of several linear machines. The overall performance of the axial-flux machine is obtained by summing the performance of the individual layer machines. Such a linear machine is obtained by defining a cylindrical surface in the axial-flux PM machine and subsequently unrolling this surface into a 2-D plane. This method is illustrated in Fig. 7. The number of 2-D computation planes influences the accuracy of the multilayer 2-D with respect to a full 3-D model and is related to the geometrical variations in the radial direction. For each layer and for each different rotor position, a static 2-D finite-element computation is done by solving the equation 1 ∇ × A = Je (9) ∇× μ0 μr where Je is the external current density and the magnetic flux density is found by B = ∇ × A. When the solution is found, the 1-D normal component of the flux density data is stored over one pole pitch. B. Reconstruction of the 2-D Airgap Magnetic Field For each rotor position, the normal components of the flux density data, calculated for the different computation planes, are brought together. The flux density data are extended by adding zeros in the zones that exceed the inner- and outer-diameter limits. This is an approximation with respect to the 3-D finiteelement modeling where fringing fluxes are present at the inner and outer surfaces. Despite the approximation, the reconstructed 2-D airgap magnetic field obtained by the multilayer 2-D data in Fig. 8 is in good correspondence with the 2-D airgap magnetic field calculated using full 3-D finite-element modeling shown in Fig. 9. The flux density b, which is a function of the two spatial coordinates x and y, and the rotor angle θ, should be transformed to be suitable for the time harmonic eddy current calculation in the next step. Therefore, for each point in the (x, y)-plane the amplitude of the nth-order harmonic flux density component Time harmonic calculation of the magnet eddy current losses as presented in [16] is used, however, in this paper, the limited penetration depth of the varying magnetic field in the PM is taken into account. Starting from the time harmonic Maxwell equations ∇ × E = −jnΩBn ∇·E=0 (13) (14) and the constitutive relation 1 J σ the equation to be solved gets the following form 1 ∇× ∇ × F = −jnΩBn n = 1, 2, . . . σ E= (15) (16) where J = ∇ × F. With respect to magnetic problems, where a magnetic vector potential A is used, the term electric vector potential is used to designate F. The Ω in previous equations indicates the mechanical rotational speed, σ and μ are, respectively, the electrical conductivity and the permeability of the PM. For each harmonic component, the finite-element model (Fig. 10) is using (16) to find the electric vector potential F. Therefore, the position-dependent flux density values Bn (x, y) are imposed by spatial interpolation in the flux density data Bn . Subsequently, this electric vector potential F is used to find the eddy currents J = ∇ × F. As these in plane eddy current calculations do not take the skin effect into account, this should be done afterward. Starting from the skin depth, which is given by 2 (17) δn = nΩμσ the eddy currents in the magnets are supposed to decrease in axial direction. This decrease in axial direction is given by z Jn = Jn ,0 exp − . (18) δn where Jn ,0 is the eddy current at the surface of the PM. Therefore, the magnet eddy current loss of the nth component 788 IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON ENERGY CONVERSION, VOL. 27, NO. 3, SEPTEMBER 2012 Fig. 7. Principle of the multilayer 2-D or quasi 3-D finite-element model: (1) defining a cylindrical surface in the axial-flux PM machine and (2) subsequently unrolling this surface into a 2-D plane. Fig. 8. Airgap magnetic field reconstructed out of the data achieved by the different static 2-D finite-element computations using second-order elements. Fig. 9. Airgap magnetic field obtained directly out of the 3-D static finiteelement computations. Due to the numerical limitations, i.e., limited number of elements and linear elements, the magnetic flux density data shows some numerical noise. Therefore, the 3-D models are coupled using the vector potential that shows less numerical noice and can be filtered if necessary. becomes Ploss,n 1 = 2σ h m Jn2 dzdA A 1 = 2σ h m A magnetic vector potential [17], eddy currents are calculated using time simulations on a 3-D finite-element model that models a restricted geometry. 0 2z Jn ,0 exp − δn dzdA (19) A. Static 3-D Finite-Element Computations 0 where hm is the magnet thickness, i.e., the magnet dimension perpendicular to the 2-D finite-element computation plane. The total magnet eddy current is then obtained by summation over the different harmonic loss components Ploss = ∞ Ploss,n . (20) n =1 IV. REFERENCE 3-D FINITE-ELEMENT MODEL In order to verify the multilayer 2-D–2-D coupled model, a 3-D finite-element model is introduced in this paragraph as a reference model. Although this reference model is also a coupled model, the followed approach is fundamentally different with respect to the multilayer 2-D–2-D coupled model: static simulations are performed on a 3-D finite-element model, the coupling between the 3-D-models is done by transfer of the The static simulations are carried out on a full 3-D finiteelement model. Despite the axial-flux PM machine has the single-stator-double-rotor topology, only half of the machine needs to be modeled due to the magnetic symmetry. A overview of the finite-element model is shown in Fig. 11. The static simulations are performed for many rotor positions. After each static simulation, the x-, y-, and z-components of the vector potential are evaluated and stored in various points on boundary surfaces that correspond with the boundaries of the model with the restricted geometry. In these simulations, the boundary surfaces move with the synchronous speed with respect to the stator. The solution for the vector potential is found by solving ∇× 1 ∇×A μ0 μr = Je (21) VANSOMPEL et al.: MULTILAYER 2-D–2-D COUPLED MODEL FOR EDDY CURRENT CALCULATION IN THE ROTOR Fig. 10. Time harmonic 2-D finite-element model used to calculate the magnet eddy currents and corresponding losses. (1) Dirichlet boundary condition and (2) imposition of the processed airgap magnetic field data. 789 Fig. 12. Partial 3-D finite-element model used for the time simulations. (1) Dirichlet boundary condition and (2) imposition of the processed vector potential data. B. Vector Potential Data Handling As the vector potential components are calculated in various points on boundary surfaces in the rotating reference frame, in a first step the data are transformed to a stationary reference frame, i.e., rotor in the 0◦ position. As the coordinates in which the vector potential components are stored are not uniform distributed, a uniform grid is fitted on the data. Due to numerical approximation in the 3-D static finite-element simulations, some numerical noise is found when evaluating one of the components of the vector potential for different rotor positions at a fixed point on one of the boundary surfaces. Therefore, the vector potential data are smoothed over the different rotor positions using a 3-D smoothing spline function. The coefficients of the spline function are stored, which makes the evaluation of the vector potential in the time simulations fast. C. 3-D Finite-Element Time Simulations Fig. 11. Full 3-D finite-element model used to retrieve the vector potential data. (1) Dirichlet boundary condition, (2) Neumann boundary condition, and (3) boundaries on which the vector potential data are recorded. where B=∇×A (22) and Je is the external current density. As each static simulation is performed separately, the gauge function Ψ may be different for each solution and has an impact on the vector potential by A = Ã + ∇Ψ. (23) As the vector potential data handling includes smoothing over the different static simulations, the vector potential A should by unique. Therefore, the Helmholz’s theorem should be fulfilled, i.e., both ∇ · A and ∇ × A are defined. This is done by setting the Coulomb gauge ∇ · A = 0. The 3-D finite-element model with the restricted geometry in Fig. 12 consists only of one PM and a segment of the rotor. On the front, left, and right planes of the model, the vector potential is imposed using the data retrieved from the static full 3-D model. In the 3-D finite-element model with the restricted geometry, the PM is supposed to be isolated from the steel of the rotor. The solution for the vector potential A, is found by solving the following equation: 1 ∂A +∇× ∇ × A = Je . (24) σ ∂t μ0 μr V. MODEL COMPARISON AND VERIFICATION A. Model Calculation Time The simulations are performed on a Intel(R) Core(TM)2 Quad CPU Q96520 @3.00GHz, with 8.00 GB installed memory (RAM) running a 64-bit Windows 7 operating system. Finiteelement computations for 2-D as well as 3-D are done using Comsol 3.5a, having the Comsol with MATLAB interface installed. 790 IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON ENERGY CONVERSION, VOL. 27, NO. 3, SEPTEMBER 2012 TABLE II CALCULATION TIME REQUIRED FOR EACH PROCESS IN THE MAGNET EDDY CURRENT LOSS SIMULATIONS Fig. 14. Magnet eddy current loss at the rated speed of 2500 r/min and rated load current of 6.67 A as a function of the harmonic order, calculated using the multilayer 2-D–2-D coupled model. Fig. 13. Skin depth at the rated speed of 2500 r/min as a function of the harmonic order. For the comparison, the multilayer 2-D finite-element model has six layers with equal layer thickness. The static multilayer 2-D finite-element calculations as well as the 3-D finite-element computations are done in steps of 0.25◦ rotor position. During the data handling, both calculation methods are reconstructing the airgap magnetic field in uniform grid having a resolution of 1.0 mm. For the calculation of the losses, in the multilayer 2-D–2-D coupled model takes only the first 150 harmonic components into account. In the reference 3-D finite-element model three full rotations of the rotor discs are necessary to obtain the steady-state solution. The data necessary for the calculations of each individual process are mentioned in Table II. Notice that in case of the multilayer 2-D finite-element model, six 2-D finite-element calculations are required for each rotor position. The data in Table II show a massive reduction in calculation time, which was the main target of the introduction of the multilayer 2-D– 2-D coupled model. B. Model Accuracy As the magnet eddy currents losses are calculated in two very different ways, verification of the accuracy can only be done using the final result, i.e., the time average of the magnet eddy current losses. For the multilayer 2-D–2-D coupled model, this is done by taking the sum of the average power loss of each harmonic component, which is mathematically expressed in (20). In Figs. 13 and 14, for each harmonic order the skin depth and corresponding average power loss are presented. As could be expected based on the harmonic content of the airgap magnetic field in Fig. 5, the multiples of 15 represent the highest power losses. Fig. 15. Instantaneous magnet eddy current losses as a function of the rotor position at the rated speed of 2500 r/min and rated load-current of 6.67 A, calculated using the reference 3-D finite-element model. For the reference 3-D finite-element model, the magnet eddy current loss is found by taking the time average of the instantaneous power loss. The instantaneous eddy current loss is shown in Fig. 15 as a function of the rotor position. Again, the dependence of the magnet eddy current losses and the slot number is clear. Comparing both time average values of the magnet eddy current losses, 0.2655 and 0.2679 W per magnet are found for the multilayer 2-D–2-D coupled model and reference 3-D model, respectively. So despite the very different calculation methods, less than 2% difference in the calculated magnet eddy current losses is found. Another parameter that can be easily compared is the airgap magnetic field. In Fig. 8, the airgap magnetic field obtained by the magnetic field reconstruction using the multilayer 2-D finite-element data is shown, which is in very good correspondence to the airgap magnetic field (see Fig. 9) that is directly obtained by the static 3-D finite-element computations. More VANSOMPEL et al.: MULTILAYER 2-D–2-D COUPLED MODEL FOR EDDY CURRENT CALCULATION IN THE ROTOR complex magnet shapes will require more layers in the multilayer 2-D finite-element model to obtain a sufficient accurate airgap magnetic field; however, as these 2-D simulations are very fast this will have only a minor influence on the calculation time. VI. CONCLUSION In this paper, a multilayer 2-D–2-D coupled model was introduced to calculate the magnet eddy current losses in axial-flux PM machines. In this model, the 3-D geometry of the axial-flux PM machine is considered to be composed of several linear machines. The 1-D airgap magnetic field of each individual layer is used to reconstruct the 2-D airgap magnetic field. This magnetic field is imposed to a time harmonic 2-D finite-element model to calculate the eddy currents and and its corresponding losses. As this modeling technique requires only 2-D finite-element computations, the simulation time can be strongly decreased with respect to magnet eddy current calculation based on 3-D finiteelement computations. Simulations using 3-D finite-element modeling were used to prove the accuracy of the introduced model: reconstruction of the airgap magnetic field as well as the calculation of the magnet eddy current losses show very good correspondence. [13] K. Yamazaki, Y. Fukushima, and M. Sato, “Loss analysis of permanentmagnet motors with concentrated windings-variation of magnet eddycurrent loss due to stator and rotor shapes,” IEEE Trans. Ind. Appl., vol. 45, no. 4, pp. 1334–1342, Jul./Aug. 2009. [14] J. Wang, K. Atallah, R. Chin, W. M. Arshad, and H. Lendenmann, “Rotor Eddy-current loss in permanent-magnet brushless AC machines,” IEEE Trans. Magn., vol. 46, no. 7, pp. 2701–2707, Jul. 2010. [15] A. Parviainen, M. Niemelä, and J. Pyrhönen, “Modeling of axial permanent-magnet machines,” IEEE Trans. Ind. Appl., vol. 40, no. 5, pp. 1333–1340, Sep./Oct. 2004. [16] J. D. Ede, K. Atallah, G. W. Jewell, J. B. Wang, and D. Howe, “Effect of axial segmentation of permanent magnets on rotor loss in modular permanent-magnet brushless machines,” IEEE Trans. Ind. Appl., vol. 43, no. 5, pp. 1207–1213, Sep./Oct. 2007. [17] P. Sergeant and A. Van den Bossche, “Segmentation of magnets to reduce losses in permanent-magnet synchronous machines,” IEEE Trans. Magn., vol. 44, no. 11, pp. 4409–4412, Nov. 2008. Hendrik Vansompel was born in Belgium in 1986. He received the Bachelor and Master degrees in electromechanical engineering from Ghent University, Ghent, Belgium, in 2008 and 2009, respectively, where he is currently working toward the Ph.D. degree in the Department of Electrical Energy, Systems and Automation. His current research interests include electrical machines modeling and design, particularly for sustainable energy systems. REFERENCES [1] T. F. Chan and L. L. Lai, “An axial-flux permanent-magnet synchronous generator for a direct-coupled wind-turbine system,” IEEE Trans. Energy Convers., vol. 22, no. 1, pp. 86–94, Mar. 2007. [2] F. Marignetti, V. D. Colli, and Y. Coia, “Design of axial flux pm synchronous machines through 3-D coupled electromagnetic thermal and fluid-dynamical finite-element analysis,” IEEE Trans. Ind. Electron., vol. 55, no. 10, pp. 3591–3601, Oct. 2008. [3] L. Alberti, E. Fornasiero, N. Bianchi, and S. Bolognani, “Rotor losses measurements in an axial flux permanent magnet machine,” IEEE Trans. Energy Conv., vol. 26, no. 2, pp. 639–645, Jun. 2011. [4] F. Marignetti and V. D. Colli, “Thermal analysis of an axial flux permanentmagnet synchronous machine,” IEEE Trans. Magn., vol. 45, no. 7, pp. 2970–2975, Jul. 2009. [5] T. J. Woolmer and M. D. McCulloch, “Analysis of the yokeless and segmented armature machine,” in Proc. IEEE Int. Electr. Mach. Drives Conf., May 2007, vol. 1, no. 3–5, pp. 704–708. [6] W. Fei and P. C. K. Luk, “Cogging torque reduction techniques for axialflux surface-mounted permanent-magnet segmented-armature-torus machines,” in Proc. IEEE Int. Symp. Ind. Electr., Jun./Jul. 2008, pp. 485–490. [7] J. Cros and P. Viarouge, “Synthesis of high-performance PM motors with concentrated windings,” IEEE Trans. Energy Convers., vol. 17, no. 2, pp. 248–253, Jun. 2002. [8] K. Atallah, D. Howe, P. H. Mellor, and D. A. Stone, “Rotor loss in permanent-magnet brushless AC machines,” IEEE Trans. Ind. Appl., vol. 36, no. 6, pp. 1333–1340, Nov./Dec. 2000. [9] D. Ishak, Z. Q. Zhu, and D. Howe, “Eddy-current loss in the rotor magnets of permanent-magnet brushless machines having a fractional number of slots per pole,” IEEE Trans. Magn., vol. 41, no. 9, pp. 2462–2469, Sep. 2005. [10] H. Vansompel, P. Sergeant, and L. Dupre, “Optimized design considering the mass influence of an axial flux permanent-magnet synchronous generator with concentrated pole windings,” IEEE Trans. Magn., vol. 46, no. 12, pp. 4101–4107, Dec. 2010. [11] T. F. Chan, W. Wang, and L. L. Lai, “Performance of an axial-flux permanent magnet synchronous generator from 3-D finite-element analysis,” IEEE Trans. Energy Convers., vol. 25, no. 3, pp. 669–676, Sep. 2010. [12] W.-Y. Huang, A. Bettayeb, R. Kaczmarek, and J.-C. Vannier, “Optimization of magnet segmentation for reduction of eddy-current losses in permanent magnet synchronous machine,” IEEE Trans. Energy Convers., vol. 25, no. 2, pp. 381–387, Jun. 2010. 791 Peter Sergeant received the M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in electromechanical engineering from Ghent University, Ghent, Belgium, in 2001 and 2006, respectively. He has been a Postdoctoral Researcher for the Fund of Scientific Research Flanders since 2006, and a Researcher in the University College Ghent, Ghent, since 2008. His current research interests include numerical methods in combination with optimization techniques to design nonlinear electromagnetic systems, in particular, electromagnetic actuators. Luc Dupré was born in 1966. He received the Graduate degree in electrical and mechanical engineering in 1989 and received the Doctorate degree in applied sciences in 1995, both from the University of Gent, Ghent, Belgium. He is currently a Full Professor in the Faculty of Engineering and Architecture of Ghent University. His research interests mainly include numerical methods for electromagnetics, modeling, and characterization of soft magnetic materials, micromagnetism, inverse problems, and optimization in (bio)electromagnetism.