Design of an In-Wheel Rotor Permanent Magnet Flux Switching Motor for Electric Bicycle

Electric bicycles have been catching on in the recent decade due to their lightweight and portability. Hence, different types of electric machines have been proposed to be used in this application. Flux switching machines have attracted a lot of attention as a new type of permanent magnet machines due to their inherent characteristic arise from airgap flux modulation that empowers this topology in low-speed applications. In this paper, a rotor permanent magnet flux switching machine for an electric bicycle is proposed. In this regard its design procedure and required modifications based on sensitivity analysis are described as well. Additionally, a 2D finite element method (FEM) simulation is employed to analyze the performance characteristics of the machine. Finally, it is shown that the proposed design of the machine exhibits desirable performance such as high torque density and low back EMF THD.