US 12,031,415 B2
Drilling fluid through-flow axial flux turbine generator
Arnold Fenocchi, London (GB); Nobuyoshi Niina, Yokohama (JP); and Libo Yang, Katy, TX (US)
Assigned to MS DIRECTIONAL, LLC, Conroe, TX (US)
Filed by MS Directional, LLC, Conroe, TX (US)
Filed on Feb. 2, 2023, as Appl. No. 18/163,745.
Claims priority of provisional application 63/306,336, filed on Feb. 3, 2022.
Prior Publication US 2023/0243241 A1, Aug. 3, 2023
Int. Cl. E21B 41/00 (2006.01)
CPC E21B 41/0085 (2013.01) 16 Claims
OG exemplary drawing
 
1. An axial flux generator having a longitudinal axis of rotation for components of the generator, comprising:
a housing forming an interior volume;
a chassis configured to support the components in the interior volume with a longitudinal shaft aligned with the longitudinal axis and disposed at least partially in the interior volume; and
an axial flux motor coupled to the longitudinal shaft of the chassis, comprising:
an axial flux stator having a stator core with metallic windings coupled to the stator core; and
an axial flux rotor coupled to the longitudinal shaft and at least partially spaced longitudinally from the axial flux stator, the axial flux rotor being configured to rotate around the longitudinal axis relative to the axial flux stator, the axial flux rotor having a magnet array comprising:
a plurality of axial magnets having alternating North and South poles that are coupled in a circumferential array around the longitudinal axis, wherein magnetic fields generated between the North and South poles of the axial magnets are in a direction parallel with the longitudinal axis; and
a plurality of circumferential magnets having North and South poles circumferentially located between the axial magnets in the circumferential array, wherein magnetic fields generated between the North and South poles of the circumferential magnets are in a direction circumferentially around the longitudinal axis,
the magnet array of the axial flux rotor being longitudinally spaced by an airgap from the metallic windings of the axial flux stator, and a resulting magnetic flux from the magnet array being focused axially towards the metallic windings, and
the interior volume between the housing and the chassis coupled with the axial flux motor forming an annulus, the annulus configured to allow fluids with debris to flow through the annulus and flow at least partially through the airgap between the axial flux stator and the axial flux rotor.