Supervisor: Dr Ignazio Viola

Area: Flexible Tidal Turbines

 

Axial Flux Permanent Magnet (AFPM) machines present a lot of advantages over their conventional counterparts. They are being developed for various applications, ranging from consumer electronics to more electric aircrafts. An AFPM machine employing Halbach array offers a number of attractive features over a standard AFPM machine. For example, the distribution of the airgap field is inherently more sinusoidal than that of a standard PM array, which leads to an essentially sinusoidal electromotive force (EMF) waveform without the need for techniques such as skewing, distributed stator windings, etc. The fundamental field is stronger compared to a standard PM array, essentially leading to an increase in the power density and efficiency. The array of PMs can be bonded to a non-ferromagnetic supporting structure, such as carbon fibre, because the field is concentrated on one side, there is no need for any backing iron, Therefore, there is no hysteresis or iron eddy current losses. The key benefits are highly efficient and lightweight which formed the basis of this undertaking.

 

I am a third year PhD student in the Institute for Energy Systems, University of Edinburgh and my supervisor is Prof Markus Mueller. I received a master’s degree in Energy Conversion Systems at University of Manchester, before which I obtained an Undergraduate degree in Electrical Electronics Engineering in the same University. My research interests are renewable energy, electrical machines and finite element analysis.