Software helps develop magnetic innovations

Magnomatics' designs can feature very large numbers of magnetic poles, with no magnetic symmetry that would allow the scale of the simulation to be reduced.

The modelling capabilities of the Opera electromagnetic simulator are helping Magnomatics to bring ground-breaking magnetic power transmission innovations to market.

Magnomatics is currently working with numerous organisations on magnetic gearing and power transmission applications.

Among the advantages of its magnetic linkage technology are long maintenance-free lifecycles, very high efficiency, an intrinsic tolerance of overloads, no noise and an ability to tolerate misalignments.

The technology is used in fields as diverse as wind turbines and Formula 1 cars and Magnomatics expects the first commercial implementations of its ideas to start production in 2008.

Magnomatics needs to produce design ideas and refinements rapidly.

Magnetic gearboxes are one of the company's key technologies, using an arrangement of three concentric cylindrical shapes: two rotors with differing numbers of permanent magnet poles and an intermediate ring with stationary magnetic pole-pieces that modulate the magnetic fields to link the rotors' movement.

Other product technologies the team are involved with include magnetic couplings, eddy-current dampers and brakes and a "pseudo" direct drive.

This development integrates a permanent magnet motor/generator with magnetic gearing in a single machine that offers torque densities that are typically eight times greater than a standard naturally cooled permanent magnet machine and approximately double that of a transverse flux machine, without the usual penalty of a low power factor.

Among the qualities the development team rely on greatly is the speed of simulation, as Magnomatics' designs can feature very large numbers of magnetic poles, with no magnetic symmetry that would allow the scale of the simulation to be reduced.

The tool's ability to dynamically model any number of 'moving' air gaps in three dimensions is important here, as it provides the technical platform to simulate the products while additionally accurately accounting for the differing speeds of the rotors.

The modelling language's parameterisation and scripting capabilities have also become critical to the design team, as they allow previously developed macros for the special geometric shapes to be quickly re-used to create proof-of-principle simulations or designs for new applications.

These simulations include accurate reports on the torque coupling, which are calculated by Opera's built-in post-processor.

"At this stage in our company development, short turnaround times on design concepts and ideas are very important to us", says Richard Clark of Magnomatics.

"Opera allows us to create our own scripts, which greatly shortens the time required to prove the benefits of our magnetic power transmission technology to potential clients".

"Because our larger designs can have many poles and because we don't have the symmetry that would allow us to model a segment, simulation speed really matters".

"Opera's algorithms execute very quickly, enabling us to respond quickly".

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