Efficiency Improvement of an Axial Flux Permanent Magnet Brushless DC Motor for LVAD Application

This paper presents the Finite Element Analysis (FEA) based design, optimization and development of an axial flux permanent magnet brushless DC motor for Left Ventricular Assist Device (LVAD). With the design objective of improving the existing motor's efficiency , different topologies of AFPM machine has been examined. Selection of optimal magnet frac-tion, Halbach arrangement of rotor magnets and the use of Soft Magnetic Composite (SMC) material for the stator core results in a novel motor with improved efficiency and torque profile. The results of the 3D Finite element analysis for the novel motor have been shown.Thermal analysis for the existing motor has also been done and the FEA results are compared with the analytical and experimental results.Finally the test results for the novel motor and the general conclusions are also discussed.