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Electric motors play a crucial role in modern industrial and domestic applications. With the trend of more and more electric drives, such as electric vehicles (EVs), the requirements for electric motors become higher and higher, e.g., high power density with good thermal dissipation and high reliability in harsh environments. Many efforts have been made to develop high performance electric motors, such as the application of advanced novel electromagnetic materials, modern control algorithms, advanced mathematical modeling, numerical computation, and artificial intelligence based optimization design techniques. Among many advanced magnetic materials, soft magnetic composite (SMC) appears very promising for developing novel electric motors, thanks to its many unique properties, such as magnetic and thermal isotropies, very low eddy current loss, and the prospect of low-cost mass production. This paper aims to present a comprehensive review about the application of SMC for developing various electric motors for electric drives, with emphasis on those with three-dimensional (3D) magnetic flux paths. The major techniques developed for designing the 3D flux SMC motors are also summarized, such as vectorial magnetic property characterization and system-level multi-discipline robust design optimization. Major challenges and possible future work in this area are also discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The magnetic properties of magnetic cores are essential for the design of electrical machines, and consequently appropriate mathematical modeling is needed. Usually, the design and analysis of electrical machines consider only the one-dimensional (1D) magnetic properties of core materials, i.e., the relationship of magnetic flux density (B) versus magnetic field strength (H), and their associated power loss under 1D magnetization, in which the B and H are constrained in the same orientation. Some studies have also been performed with the two-dimensional (2D) magnetizations in which the B and H are vectorial, rotating on a plane, and they may not be in the same direction. It has been discovered that the 2D rotational property is very different from its 1D alternating counterpart. However, the magnetic fields in an electrical machine, in particular claw pole and transverse flux machines, are naturally three-dimensional (3D), and the B and H vectors are rotational and may not lie on the same plane. It can be expected that the 3D vectorial property might be different from its 2D or 1D counterpart, and hence it should be investigated for the interests of both academic research and engineering application. This paper targets at a general summary about the magnetic material characterization with 3D vectorial magnetization, and their application prospect in electrical machine design and analysis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]