Operation Principle and Basic Characteristics of VR Magnetic Gear

Abstract

A magnetic gear has advantages with respect to noise and maintainability, and the so-called PM (Permanent Magnet) magnetic gear has been studied, which consists of two magnet rotors and a ferromagnetic pole-piece rotor. In this study, we research a novel magnetic gear that we call a VR (Variable Reluctance) magnetic gear. It consists of a magnet rotor and two ferromagnetic pole-piece rotors to improve its performance. First, we describe the operating principle and compare the charactericstics of the VR magnetic gear with those of the PM magnetic gear by using a finite element analysis. Next, we prototype a VR magnetic gear and demonstrate its validity by experiment.