Performance Analysis of Conical Permanent Magnet Couplings for Underwater Propulsion

Permanent magnet couplings (PMCs) are widely used in underwater propulsion because it can solve the deep-sea sealing problem effectively. In this paper, a new type of conical permanent magnet coupling (CPMC) is proposed, which is able to match the tail shape of the underwater vehicle and make full use of the tail space to increase pull-out torque capability. Based on the three-dimensional finite element method (3D-FEM), the electromagnetic characteristics of an initial model for CPMC are analyzed. In order to facilitate the design and optimization of CPMC, an equivalent three-dimensional (3D) analytical method for the pull-out torque calculation is presented, and its accuracy is verified by comparison with the 3D finite element results. Finally, the influence of design parameters such as half-cone angle, pole pair, pole arc coefficient and permanent magnet thickness on maximum pull-out torque and torque density of CPMC is analyzed, and a preliminary optimization model is obtained.